Covenants and Bylaws

The Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) is the legal document that lays out the guidelines for the planned community. The CC&Rs are recorded in the county records in the county where the property is located and are legally binding. This means that when you purchase a lot or a home in a planned community, for example, you automatically become a member of the HOA.

Basically, the CC&Rs are the rules of your neighborhood. They govern what you can, can’t, or must do with respect to your home. For example, the CC&Rs might require you to keep your garage door closed or prohibit certain types of landscaping. It’s also typical for the CC&Rs to regulate things like:

• basketball hoops
• clotheslines
• fences
• TV antennas/satellite dishes, and
• garbage cans

A Home Owner’s Association (HOA), which is typically set up as a nonprofit corporation, is an organization established to manage a private, planned community. Like other corporations, the HOA is governed by a board of directors who are elected by the members and a set of rules called bylaws.

The bylaws govern how the HOA operates and contain the information needed to run the HOA as a business. For example, the bylaws cover matters such as:

• how often the HOA holds meetings
• how the meetings are conducted
• the duties of the various offices of the board of directors
• how many people are on the board, and
• membership voting rights