Working With a Homeowner’s Association: Amending a Master Deed in 7 Steps

If the home you bought is part of an association, it has a master deed. Ever since your fellow unit owners received the property from the original developer, the world has been changing. The owners’ quality of life might, from time to time, be supported through changes to the property’s governing documents.

So, the condo board should go over the governing documents regularly, making sure they do represent current best practices. Yes, this involves getting the community to vote. It involves open meetings. It involves the condo property’s attorney and accountant.

Yet the task is a positive one. It brings people together to work in everybody’s best interest. So let’s take a look at how it’s done.

Orientation: The Association’s Key Documents

When you buy a home that’s part of an association, you get a deed. This is for your individual unit. Your deed represents the interior of your home, and perhaps a garden, and a patio or balcony.

There’s another set of condo paperwork you’ll get to know: the governing documents. These, too, are  filed with the county recorder of deeds. As the governing documents bind you and your fellow unit owners, they’re relevant to your day-to-day life in your new home. 

Together with the original certificate of incorporation, the governing documents include:

• The master deed. A master deed sets forth which parts of a condo property will be individual units, and which parts are common areas of the buildings and grounds. It lays out who must maintain what, and how they may use it all. Affected unit owners and mortgage lenders must give written consent for changes. This means getting a certain number of unit owner votes – often 67% (two-thirds) or 75% (three-fourths), or even a supermajority of 80%.

• Covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs). Deed restrictions lay out the specifics of how the property can and cannot be used. They might cover landscaping rules, the type of work that can be carried out from the property, and so forth. CC&Rs run with the land, so they bind owner after owner.

• The declaration of trust (by-laws). These typically deal with board member election and removal, and how the board operates. As with the CC&Rs, by-laws are difficult to change. Amending them might take a simple majority (51%) of unit owners. State law directs changes to by-laws. For example, Pennsylvania recently passed a law covering HOA by-law changes.

• Rules and regulations. These cover what’s not in the by-laws and CC&Rs. They may need revising as the community changes. Rules ensure safe pool use, appropriate condo fees, and other provisions to guide daily life in a shared community. They are comparatively simple to change.

Once you retrieve the necessary documents, you’ll find the amendment procedure in the governing documents themselves, particularly the by-laws. Any restriction may be changed by following procedures contained in state law and the governing documents.

Buying into a co-op? The property’s master declaration is hardest to amend. State law typically requires unanimous consent of owners (called “shareholders”).

Why Your Condo Documents Could Need Updates

Why do condo boards change their governing documents? The reason(s) could be:

• The community must handle noise or chronic nuisances, updates to the infrastructure, etc.

• The community wants to modify terms of service for board members, age restrictions for residents, etc.

• The document needs correction, clarity, or updating to meet evolving community standards. Unit owners might need direction on smoking or vaping, insurance, pet rules, flyers and door-to-door solicitations, work-from-home, use of home-sharing platforms, etc.

• Zoning or other laws have changed and the governing documents need to get in compliance.

Some of these changes will be liked by some unit owners, but not by others. The board will embark on a new and sometimes rocky path when seeking the consent of the impacted unit owners.

Amending the Master Deed: Key Steps

What goes into the process? Here are the steps you can normally anticipate:

Step 1.

Your property’s attorney (or a title lawyer) retrieves and reviews your governing documents, in order to offer guidance. The attorney will be referring to your state’s condo law, too. State law sets out important rules. For example, New Jersey law says boards must notify unit owners at least 10 days in advance when a vote is called.

Step 2.

Your board meets to discuss the specific updates needed.

Step 3.

Your board selects members to form a committee to review the documents, hashes out the needed updates, and makes its recommendations to the board.

Step 4.

The attorney drafts the amendment and guides written communications from the board to the unit owners.

Step 5.

The board communicates the rationale for the changes to the unit owners and explains why the owners would want to give their approval. Make the communication well thought-out and transparent. Unit owners won’t approve a change they don’t understand or don’t believe to be beneficial.  

Step 6.

At the property owners’ annual or special meeting, owners comment on the proposed amendments. The property’s lawyer and/or accountant may attend to guide and assist the board with this discussion.

Step 7.

With the required number of unit owners and board members submitting their signatures, the amendment is notarized and filed with the county. The master deed may say how soon the community must record amendments after owner signatures are first solicited.

The property’s attorney will cover related bases, like sending paperwork to any mortgage holders that must receive notice under the governing documents.

A Few Fine Points

Need written approval or signatures from the unit owners to approve the master deed amendment? Provide the owner with the amendment text and the consent form. In your cover letter to the owners, make the following points clear:

• The due date for returning the consent form.

• The address to send it to (or provide an addressed envelope to each recipient).

When the votes come in, cross-check them all against the unit owner’s names as recorded on their deeds. Examine the returned forms for dates and ink signatures.

Of course, we provide the above road map simply to let you know what the procedure looks like. From the very start of the amendment process, you’ll want advice and guidance that fits your facts and adheres to state law. Deeds.com does not provide legal or financial advice.