When you move into a home, you hope to move into a community. You want your feeling of comfort and well being to extend beyond the bounds of your property. You want to be certain that should something go wrong or another member of the community act against the interests and/or rules created by that community, legal action can and will be taken. The Texas Property Code addresses these issues in various acts, including amongst others, the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act and the Uniform Condominium Act.
The Code details, in part, how property owners’ associations can operate, as well as the actions such associations can use to self-regulate. Amongst other things, the Code outlines the sorts of fees and/or assessments associations may collect, how voting may be conducted, how foreclosures may be handled, and what records need to be kept by an association. Having an advocate that understands the ins and outs of the Code, and the common law aspects of property owners’ associations’ issues, is imperative to assist an association to function properly and/or to assist an individual property owner in determining how to address disputes, should they arise.
It is important that; (a) members of an existing property owners’ association; (b) individuals desiring to form a property owners’ association; and/or, (c) individuals considering buying property that is subject to governance from an existing property owners’ association, be aware that the rules governing property owners’ associations exist both to regulate behavior within those associations and to protect the interests of the individual property owners within those associations.
The Cronfel Firm has experience dealing with property owners’ associations’ issues both from the perspective of the association and from the perspective of the individual property owner. We are always willing and able to provide support and propose solutions when property owners’ associations’ issues appear.