|
I live in a neighborhood in Texas with a Home Owners Association Board that
seems to be out of control. I am considering starting my own web page with
information that I don't think the current board would like to be available
to homeowners. This would include facts from the assoc. legal documents,
recitation of board meeting events (that I get from attending the homeowner
(public) part of the meetings and maybe some facts that I know from being
married to one of the board members), my opinions (identified as such) and
maybe even a copy of the management company contract with our assoc. (each
homeowner has a right to a copy per the deed restrictions). I am planning
to use a photo that I took of the subdivision monument as a header for the
web page (this is not what the official web page looks like) and I am
planning to use "www.subdivisionname.info" as a domain while the official
subdivision name is "www.subdivisionname.org". I will also state in big
letters at the top of the web page that it is NOT the official web site of
the community.
How many ways, if any, am I infringing on the assoc. legal rights? I want
to inform other homeowners of what's going on in the subdivision so they
will get involved, but I don't want to incur a court battle to do it. Since
I am a homeowner in the subdivision, I am a member of the HOA (but not a
member of the board) and as such, I have a right to inspect the legal
documents of the assoc., so it seems to me that my idea is ok, but I'm not a
lawyer, so I may be wrong in my opinion. The legal form of the association
is a Not For Profit Texas Corporation.
I would appreciate all the feedback I can get on this.
Thank you very much in advance.
|
| |
| |
How many ways, if any, am I infringing on the assoc. legal rights?
Once again, it's clear that someone has not been reading this newsgroup on a
regular basis. This question arises here a couple of times a month, with
only minor variations.
The real-world answer is, you've asked the wrong question. The correct
question is, do you have the resources to litigate the issue? Right or
wrong, are you prepared to spend money out of your own pocket, which you
won't be able to recoup even if you win, defending your website?
In short, can you afford to be right?
|
| |
| |
I live in a neighborhood in Texas with a Home Owners Association Board
that
seems to be out of control. I am considering starting my own web page
with
information that I don't think the current board would like to be
available
to homeowners.
I am not a lawyer and realize from time to time members of the group drop in
when the need arrises. I have a similar situation. If moderator will permit
a link http://BellairCondominium.no-ip.org. For a similar purpose. Not an
Official Website. and a barrier page for anything that smacks of legal. Our
state was considering a bill of rights but in its absence I extracted from
our docs our statutes what I could intreprete as rights. Legal resources are
always an issue to bring actions against the board. However, the small
claims court is always a open venue for addressing issues if one can limit
their claim to < the statutor limit (in my state FL $5000.00). In my state,
$175.00 and ANY INDIVIDUAL can act on their own. On my soon to be published
site I include a forum into which questions or whatever can be introduced.
As for rights, seems to me that the first right is "Free Speech" We are a
nation of diverse opinions by design. We are not all going to agree on
everything all the time.
|
| |
| |
I live in a neighborhood in Texas with a Home Owners Association Board that
seems to be out of control. I am considering starting my own web page with
information that I don't think the current board would like to be available
to homeowners. This would include facts from the assoc. legal documents,
recitation of board meeting events (that I get from attending the homeowner
(public) part of the meetings and maybe some facts that I know from being
married to one of the board members), my opinions (identified as such) and
maybe even a copy of the management company contract with our assoc. (each
homeowner has a right to a copy per the deed restrictions).
The HOA might take offense to this, even if you use a top-level suffix
other than .org or .com :-)
You are a member of the organization, and even if you don't like the
way it is run, you don't necessarily have the right to set up yourself
up as the quote-unquote "true" voice of the homeowners without making
it clear that you are NOT speaking for anyone but yourself (and any
allies who jon you.) And in fact there probably are provisions in
your deed/contract (possibly enforceable, possibly not) which seek to
restrict you from doing what you propose to do. I would think you
oughta use a web site address which does NOT imply that this could
possibly be anyone's web site other your your own. Aside from
simplifying your legal complications, a more generally-named web site
could be used as a platform to promote yourself and all your
activities (aside from hassling the HOA board.)
I doubt that you're going to get very many hits anyway....
|
| |
| |
|
