During the 2010 session of the Indiana General Assembly, a new law was passed limiting HOA regulation of political signs. While most covenants prohibit signs, the new law balances that control with the constitutional freedom of speech.

Beginning July 1, 2010, the law will allow an Owner to display political signs on their own lot or in the window of their home 30 days before an election until 5 days after the election.  The law allows an Association to adopt rules to restrict the number and size of such political signs so long as those rules are distributed to each of the owners.  The law also permits an HOA to remove any signs left out beyond 5 days after an election without notice to the owner.

This law does not authorize the display of political signs on an Association’s common area.  The law also authorizes an HOA to remove a sign that violates the rules provided in the statute or reasonably adopted by the Board. In a condominium community, this law will allow Owners to display signs in their windows and in common area lawns subject to Board approval, which are common area.

If you have questions about this new law or need advice on how to draft sign rules for your community, please contact Jeff Bellamy, The Practical HOA Lawyer, at bellamy@indiana-attorneys.com or through Neighborino at hello@neighborino.com.

Question: "Our manager advised us to avoid uploading documents such as the master deed, by-laws, etc. since they say that these can be altered by a homeowner to his own advantage. Is this a legitimate concern, and are there legal ramifications to posting our documents online?"

Answer: While I think your manager has your best interests at heart, I do not agree with the advice you were given.  In this age of Photoshop and other digital imaging software, it is unfortunately more common to see people making the mistake of altering documents and photographs to suit their personal interests.  However, being both a real estate attorney representing HOA’s and their managers and a Board Member myself, I think the slight risk of an owner potentially fabricating evidence is outweighed by the good done when access to documents and information is increased by publishing an Association’s Declarations and By-Laws on-line.

There are no legal ramifications to publishing your governing documents on-line.  Altering documents for an illegal purpose is forgery in Indiana, a felony.  If an owner is brazen (or dumb) enough to commit forgery, publication of your Association’s documents on-line is not going to deter him or her.  What matters most of all is what is recorded in the Office of your County Recorder.  By law, your community’s Declarations should be recorded with your Recorder.  These recorded documents are the definitive documents governing your Association.  By recording them, notice is presumed to be given to all parties regarding the existence of your Declarations.  Therefore, if someone produces an ‘alternate’ version that cannot be reconciled with the recorded originals, that alternate will be disregarded.  For documents that are not normally recorded, such as meeting minutes and corporate by-laws (which are not required to be recorded) there is a presumption that those ‘corporate documents’ that the version that is in the hands of the corporate officers, the HOA’s Board of Directors in this case, is presumed to be valid unless evidence is produced to show that they were altered.  For this reason, diligent record-keeping is a must for an HOA Board.

Using a website can be a great tool for increasing communication between an HOA Board, its management and the Owners in a neighborhood.  A website can accomplish several different functions, such as, notify Owners of annual or special meetings, send payment reminders on assessments, and act as a bulletin board for community activities and news.  It can also serve as a reference resource for important documents, meeting agendas or contact information.   As a word of warning, your manager’s cautious instinct is not misplaced – make sure any documents you publish online are in a format that cannot be downloaded and easily altered, such as a word processing document.  A document that has been ‘scanned’ and creates a static image of the document, rather than a working document that can be easily edited should be used on your website.  Further, working with a trusted service provider such as Neighborino on your web publishing can go a long way on making sure your web based resources are as safe as they can be. For these reasons, I believe the good done by having better communication and access by Owners outweighs the risk that on-line publication might cause.

Thanks for your question and I hope this information helps.

Sincerely Yours,
Jeffrey M. Bellamy
Attorney At Law