Associations often implement Rules & Regulations limiting Official Records Inspection Requests by any one Association Member, to one every thirty (30) days, to avoid excessive requests.  If your Association’s Rules & Regulations do not already have such language, you may want to amend them to do so.

C&M would also recommend you make it a part of the Association’s regular business practice throughout the year to:

1. save all the Association’s financial documents, including invoices and billing (but only redacted attorney billing);
2. take thorough Minutes for every Annual Meeting, and save these Minutes where you can find them quickly;
3. Keep separate files in your system, or your management’s system:
   1. one for the Official Association Records that must be produced at any Records Inspection, and
   2. one segregated folder for all privileged documents that are not to be produced (this is where you would keep your unredacted attorney billing); and finally,
4. maintain these folders properly throughout the year (not just when a Records Inspection Request comes in)!

You may have noticed we did not specifically address e-mails in the above list.  That is because, while recent decisions indicate that e-mails from Board Members may, possibly, be considered part of the Official Records, in the context of a Condominium, the law regarding such e-mails from HOA Board Members continues to evolve.  The “Top Ten Documents” is not a complete list of an Association’s “official records,” which is as stated in the above-listed Statutes.

As always, if you have any questions, or wish C&M to host an Official Records Inspection for your Association, please contact us at dbatan@clayton-mcculloh.com (existing clients) or aring@clayton-mcculloh.com (non clients).

Nothing in this article is intended as legal advice and should not be taken as such.  If you need legal advice, please make an appointment to speak with one of our attorneys.  You can contact dbatan@clayton-mcculloh.com (existing clients) or aring@clayton-mcculloh.com (new clients) to set up a consultation.