Memphis attorney Vincent Perryman discusses Home Owner's Associations with Wayne Mink

Memphis attorney Vincent Perryman discusses what a Home Owner's Associations is and where it gets its authority from with Wayne Mink. In Memphis, TN a property was sold without an encumbrances that controlled what you could and couldn't do with your Memphis properties. Home Owner's Associations originally were a volunteer organization that assisted Memphis residents in an area with locating trustworthy plumbers, repair people and baby sitters. Home owner's associations now are corporate entities that are chartered with the state of Tennessee. The Home owner's associations is responsible for taking care of common amenities of a neighborhood such as entrance signs, pools, club house or private roads. There are a subset of Home owner's associations in Memphis as well called condominium associations. Condominiums have been in Memphis for a while, but are different than a normal Memphis residence. You don't own the structure, you own a three dimensional space defined by a piece of paper. The condominium association defines the rules you must abide by and your rights as a resident of the condominium. Condominiums are governed by master deeds or by a declaration of condominium. Home owner's associations are governed by a declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions. This declares what you can and can't do in relation to your neighbors. When Memphis residents buys a property the closing attorney should walk them through all legal documents pertaining to their property. These documents are created when the property, neighborhood or condominium are initially created and recorded with the Memphis register's office. The current register is Tom Weatherwood and the register's office website can be found at http://register.shelby.tn.us. You can obtain any of the legal documents pertaining to a property free of charge from this website. Documents that are created with a piece of land are linked to that property. The owner of the property are subject to the rules of that property whether they formally agreed to the provisions or not. By accepting a deed for that property the owner of the Memphis property accept those rules along with it. A Home Owner's Association is a non-profit organization. This means there is no stock in this corporation not that your home owner's association dues are tax deductible. By purchasing a property that is governed by a home owner's association the owner of the Memphis property automatically becomes a member of the home owner's association. The Home owner's association has a governing body that meets once a year to elect new officials and discuss issues of the organization. The board members are all voluntary. Sometimes the Home owner's association will hire a third party management company to handle the day to day operations of the Home owner's association. By being a member of the Home owners Association you get one vote per lot ownership. A condominium has different guidelines for representation. It is one vote per unit generally, but is sometimes divided by the square footage of the unit by the total square footage of the entire condominium complex.

Home owner's associations exist to properly take care of the amenities in a development as well as enforce covenants. A covenant is a restriction on the use of a Memphis property. These covenants range from rules such as not allowing Memphis home owners from having a dog kennel on their property to parking restrictions in their driveway. A neighborhood association is more informal than a home owners association. It doesn't have the charter and can't enforce the covenants or have fee assessments. The fee assessments are established to take care of the amenities and are calculated by the square footage of a condominium or lot size. Emergency assessments can be gathered in the event that something drastic needs to be handled that is above the regular cost of the membership dues. In the event a home owner receives a bill for home owner association membership and they don't want to pay the fee they are legally responsible for these fees and can be sued by the home owners association. In some instances the home owner's association can even take the property away. The Home owner's association can also leverage attorney's fees on the home owner as well. The home owner's association document can be addended. This generally requires at least 75% of the home owner's approval. Amending a document is a very involved process.

Memphis attorney Vincent Perryman discusses the restrictive covenants Home Owner's Associations have over residents with Wayne Mink. Restrictive covenants are where Home owners associations came from. The covenants are established to prevent problems in the neighborhood. The first step would be to confront the neighbor if they are violating a covenant. Ask them to remove their cars that are on blocks from their front yard. If this doesn't work have the home owner's association write the neighbor a letter asking them to remove the vehicle. If this doesn't work then contact an attorney to enforce the covenant. Some examples of covenants are yard maintenance, fence mending, parking, dog control, etc... Leasing prohibitions are a large part. Some home owners want to restrict the rental of properties in a neighborhood. Generally the best way to approach this is by restricting all new home owners from leasing instead of trying to restrict existing owners from leasing. In order to amend a document it is better to consult a Memphis attorney. In order to enforce a covenant it will take place in chancery or circuit court. A home owner can sue a home owner's association if they are not accomplishing their duties, like upkeeping a club house, pool or roof. The association can sue the home owner for not following the covenants. When buying a home read all documents that are associated with the property before paying for the property.