Quote:

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. I don't think I would use the term breach though in changing back the fees. When you changed the fees without changing the bylaws, that might be breach. You're better off fixing the improper change immediately and giving an explanation to the owners. You can't be held liable for fixing something done improperly. However, the board is liable for making the change in the first place.

You say it's a small 5-unit building. I would hope that you could all get along and let this be water under the bridge.

Again, I'll emphasize that I'm not an attorney and my statements are opinions.

Thanks for the replies so far.

My main question is: by changing the monthly maintenance fees without notification to all owners (as specified in the bylaws), wouldn't we be breaching our own bylaws???

I mean - are we trying to fix one breach (the inaccurate monthly fees) by breaking another rule in the bylaws (by not having proper notifications to everyone)?

PS @JadedJC - yes, we do have meeting minutes from that meeting, and it was distributed to all owners afterwards. But sounds like that wouldn't matter anyway, as we need to adhere strictly to the bylaws anyway?

Quote:

+1000. The bylaws are the legal, governing document for the building. The management company has to act according to the bylaws, otherwise it would be opening itself up to liability and negligence claims. If you're going to change the fee structure for maintenance, you can't simply discuss and vote. (Did you even have minutes of that discussion?) You have to properly amend the bylaws.

I am not a lawyer. However, I think I can safely answer the question based on my experience on a board for a number of years. Something somewhat similar happened.

I think the management company did you a service by changing the fees to adhere to the bylaws. The fee change by the owners was improper. Perhaps the management company should have given notice and explanation, but I doubt they did anything legally wrong. It is the Board/owners that screwed up by changing the fee structure without changing the bylaws. That is a major big deal. It is irrelevant that the change was voted on and agreed. Changing bylaws is not a simple matter. What about a new owner that moves in? He/she might be basing part of the purchase decision on what he/she believes the fees are as stated in the bylaws.

In any event, I would let it go since you all agreed to abide by the management company's decision anyway. In my opinion, the management company did a smart thing.

I have a question about management company and if they can "adjust" monthly maintenance fees without condo assoc/board approval:

We live in a small condo building (5 units) and our management company recently discovered that our monthly maintenance fees are not split by percentage square footage (as stated in our bylaws). They immediately "adjusted" all our monthly fees according to % sqr footage, even though our condo board/assoc did NOT approve the adjustment. Actually, none of the owners were aware that the manage co was going to do it immediately. We did eventually held a condo owner's meeting and approved it about 2 months later.

So my question is - does the management company has a right to increase our maintenance fees WITHOUT our knowledge and approval, even though they're trying to comply to our condo bylaws?

Note: the previous maintenance fees was based on a calculation that was thoroughly discussed with all owners at the time, and all owners voted and approved the calculation and the final numbers - we have documentation and meeting minutes to prove this. Does it make it *legal* (even tho it's not according to bylaws)? The management company says that such arrangements are not legal, and makes the condo assoc liable for potential law suits where the owners who may have been over-paying can sue to get the over-payments back - and hence, the urgency to correct this asap!!!

But my concern is - doesn't all maintenance fee changes require notification to all owners, according to the bylaws? Doing it *immediately* without such notification - doesn't it break the rules in the bylaws???