HOAs

The Rule of Law

Every person in the U.S. lives under a collective "rule of law",
U.S. Constitution with the Bill of Rights, U.S. Title Codes,
Texas Constitution, Texas Statutes, local laws, etc.

Non-profit corporations, created under the laws of Texas, follow this same theme, and there is a hierarchy for HOAs and that generally follow the laws that we, the people, are tasked with to obey and respect as citizens, and governing documents are the rules and policies used by the corporation (read: Association).

Governing Documents
Dedicatory Instruments

Charter

This document represents the first instrument that establishes the entity (entity equals "person"). The document defines the legal status of existence and details the terms and conditions of the entity's existence such as the legal name, address, and purpose of the association.

Bylaws

The Bylaws define how the association (HOA) is to function, setting the number of directors who would "set the course" of the HOA responsibilities, frequency of elections and terms of those elected, and any number of procedures and rules specifically pertaining to the operation of the business.

Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions

This instrument is the primary governing document and usually noted as the "Restrictions", "Declarations", and "CC&Rs". This document is the primary operating instrument governing the HOA.

Hierarchy

There is a "flow" of how the law is applied to us.

Government Laws

Constitution, the amendments, title codes, and the statutes, local laws......
The government attempts to control our existence so, that you can find conflicting laws at each level, but the politicians figured out how to determine which law is the controlling law.

Hence, we have lawyers who are tasked with finding the right law to apply to a given issue or situation and charge obscene fees to convince others that "this law is the right solution to this issue".

HOA Governing Documents

As in 1, the three main documents have a priority, same or substantially the same rules termed in each document have a priority above or below in the hierarchy.

Legal terms here - unless specifically addressed within the governing documents, Declarations are the controlling document, unless the declaration specifically states one of the other documents are controlling. The kicker is that the laws in 1 can override the rules in 2.

Most judges have an affinity to prefer the governing documents when conflicts arise, and the lawmakers are finally catching up by encoding POA/HOA laws into our state constitution.

For instance, if you read the statutes, some entries begin with "Notwithstanding a provision in ...." which means the line you are reading is subservient to the provision of whatever is listed which is used to determine the provision or statute resolving the conflict between the two provisions or statutes.

There is another one that really makes a lawyer earn his fees, "Except as provided....." elsewhere within the same statute or provision in one document the conflicting provision is either controlling or subservient to the other document.

For instance, a provision in the governing documents indicates "a member who has an outstanding balance in their dues are ineligible to vote ...." will be illegal because the state statutes declare such provision as "void".

This obtuse methodology allows lawyers to answer your legal questions with "it depends" and charge you $200.00

Operating Rules and Regulations

These are the "Executive Orders" that " The rules for thee, but not for me" are made and applied to all of us by all the lawyers who wrote the documents and used by the Board of Directors to rule the association.

If any provisions here conflict with any provisions above this level, these rules can be overridden by provisions in 1 or 2.

What is a Homeowner Association?