I like the variety of sources you reference in the proposed by-laws. I believe much of the information gathered will be useful to your road association. The following comments are not meant to be definitive and are offered to help consolidate your proposal. I also would like to make some specific recommendations based upon my experience writing and revising the by-laws of my own road association.

CONSOLIDATION: Some of your Articles have headings or titles (IX - XIII) while others do not. I suggest choosing titles for all Articles. Articles V and VII could be consolidated under the Title, "Elections". Article III could be consolidated under Article XI, Members; and Article VI under Article X, Meetings. Titles for all Articles may invite more consolidation. 

SPECIFICS:

1. Article XII, Membership Fees - Change "Membership" to "Maintenance" - Maintenance Fees

2. Also in Article XII, Section 1.

"as long as ownership remains with a single owner."  What if spouses own one or more lots jointly?  How about, "as long as lots have an owner in common."

3. In Article XII, Section 2.

a. Since Notice of Claim (NOC) is used in the Private Ways Statute (PWS), I suggest using NOC rather than "lien". Suggest using the wording of the PWS, §3104, where possible. Don't forget to include prior notice to cure, the "20-Day Collection Notice", available on our Resources Page. See our "Collection Timeline" for details.

b. Are you sure you want to wait 3 years before placing a NOC? The PWS, §3104, permits a NOC after 90 days delinquency, i. e., 90 days after your DUE DATE, July 15th. 

c.  Sections 4 and 7 both detail "costs of collection...". Suggest deleting mention in Section 4 as you are talking here about responsibility, not collection. 

3. In Article IX, Section 4, Treasurer.

See SAMPLE RA BYLAWS 2.rev.docx on our Resources Page. I have recently revised the duties of the Treasurer to include another member on the association Bank Account for added flexibility and accountability. 

NOTES AT END:

"..., according to the (PWS), each member lot has one vote...." 

Not so. According to §3101, 4. Voting, "Each parcel  of land ...represents one vote... (italics mine)

Cliff Goodall, legendary attorney now retired, has said, in a fascinating recording on our website, that a road association may define a parcel as it sees fit as long as the definition is fair and equitable. Therefore, a parcel may be defined as having more than one lot. We have had to do this in our by-laws as follows:

Section 2. A parcel as defined herein will include property (lot or lots) that meets at least one of the following criteria: 1. A single property representing sole ownership interest in the Association. 2. Multiple properties with an owner in common. 3. Any property that contains a dwelling unit comprised of a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Property meeting two of the above will be defined by criterion 3.

Place the word, "parcel" in our search engine for more information on "definition of a parcel".

Others may have more to offer. I hope you find the above comments and suggestions helpful. Good luck!

Good work!  I can see you've put a lot of research and thought into this, but you're also wise to ask advice from those who have had more experience.  I like Sandy's suggestions as well - he's been at this long enough to be aware of many of the problems that can crop up.  I think what you have would probably work fine, but the more potential bugs you can work out of them in advance, the less you will have to amend later.

I would suggest that any proposed change in the bylaws be sent to the membership along with the notice of annual meeting, at least 30 days before the meeting.  Otherwise, from the way you have it written, it sounds like anyone could propose a change in the bylaws at the meeting, and no one who was not at the meeting would have a chance to object before it was voted in.

I agree with Sandy that you should use "Notice of Claim" rather than lien, as that's what the statutes specify.  You want to read that part of the law carefully and make sure your bylaws are consistent with it.  Under the law, if you have not filed an NOC before a property sells, the debt does not run with the land, and you would not be able to pursue it.  That's one good reason for not waiting three years to file - unless your dues are low enough that you figure you're willing to risk losing three years worth of dues if a non-payer sells his land just before the three year mark.  

A lien is a more complicated process that involves a specific time schedule and culminates in taking the person's property.  Then you are expected to sell it and take from the sale price enough to cover the debt, and the rest of the proceeds should go back to the owner of the property.  Then there are questions of fairness and Constitutionality if you sell it for less than it should be worth.  Is that really something you want to get into?  If it appears that someone has no intention of paying off the Notice of Claim, there is the option of going to small claims court.

Robert's Rules take up an entire book!  I like that you are attaching your version to the bylaws, but I wouldn't say you are using Robert's Rules themselves.  You could maybe say "Simplified Robert's Rules"?

After hearing what the attorneys had to say at our conference last fall, I think it's wise to make specific reference to the "formula" you are using to determine each member's share.  If that means each lot pays at the same rate, that's fine, or if you have different rates for seasonal use and year-round use, or for developed lots and undeveloped lots, that's fine too - but I think you want to make it clear what your "formula" is.

I don't see anything in your bylaws about allowing member dues to be spent on insurance.  Or do you figure that comes under operating expenses?  Again, you might want to borrow the language used in the statute.

Hope this doesn't sound too critical!  They're mostly minor tweaks in the language.

Quote: 

"Regarding liability insurance, I did get a quote from an insurance company and it came back in excess of $1000."

"Regarding our assessment formula, it is my intention to suggest to my Bylaws Committee that we incorporate Sandy’s recommendations on defining ‘parcel’."

Regarding liability insurance, I suggest using our search engine to find more information. Attached is our policy which is $534 annually. 

To be clear, the "definition of a parcel" I quoted above from our by-laws was meant to be an example only. The definition works well for our particular set of circumstances but may not apply to the lot configuration and ownership along your private road. I trust you will apply Cliff Goodall's principles in arriving at a fair and equitable definition to suite your needs.

Our "assessment formula" is something quite different from our "definition of a parcel". In our by-laws, it is true that one parcel has one vote and is responsible for one full share of road maintenance fees. In our assessment formula, however, we list 10 parcels, including the Town Tax Map lot numbers (some have more than one lot). Also, we state that the 2 parcels within 100 feet of the beginning of the road are responsible for 1/5th share only. One parcel without a dwelling unit is responsible for 1/2 share until the annual meeting after a dwelling unit is added.

We decided not to factor in those at the middle and end of the road for more fees; seasonal properties chose not to be discounted from snow plowing since emergency vehicles needed to have access to their properties in the winter.   

Andrew and Roberta, I have attached hereto my revised proposed bylaws for your suggestions.  I have incorporated most of your suggestions and would appreciate your suggestions of my revised version.  Also, I will be incorporating the language regarding the other collection timeline items.  Thanks again to you both for your valued recommendations.  Chuck Miller, Pres. LPOHA

Sandy and Roberta , Again, thank you both for your sage advice.  I misspoke when I referred to my proposed bylaws as my 'final proposed bylaws'.  A better term would have been 'work in progress'.  I have every intention to submit each revision to the membership for their review.  Hopefully, I will have a document ready for approval at our annual meeting in August.  I now would like to respond to both your and Roberta's concerns and comments:

Regarding my use of the word 'however' at the beginning of a sentence.  It is simply my style of writing, but, I fully agree that it would be better to  omit it in a set of bylaws. Regarding your advice that we send the final revision to our attorney, I would agree that in a perfect world it would be in our best interest. However (here I go again), the Association just spent $1141 last year for legal fees and as you no doubt know, every dollar spent for legal fees, is dollars not spent on the road. I think that my fellow Association members would start to have doubts regarding our decision to upgrade to a statutory form of association after operating for 30+ years as an informal type of association and not having spent a bunch of money on legal fees. 

The assessment formula used by your association is certainly more specific than no doubt, better meets the 'fair and equitable ' criteria of WPS.  Our 'one fee/per parcel as billed by the Town for real estate tax purposes'.  We simply wanted to keep it simple and uncomplicated.  We also provided members the option to co-join their contiguous parcels into one parcel for road fee assessment purposes.

Roberta, regarding your concern that we may not know whether or not a parcel has been privately transferred to a new owner, I have already amended my original language from 3-years to 1-year when a NOC would be filed.  With this in mind, the most we would be risking is one road maintenance fee of $200. Of course, this represents our risk for just one member, but, at some point,  we have to ask ourselves, 'Is it worth establishing a bylaw for something that could happen?' that has not happened in the past 30+ years. I am trying to make our bylaws not too burdensome for the folks that have to enforce them.

Regarding liability insurance, I do intend to shop around for a cheaper price.  For the record, our road is a 'Y' configuration and approximately 3-miles long.  I do intend to take your advise to include a statement providing for the possibility of adding liability coverage in the future. Again, it speaks to what amount of risk our association is willing to accept versus the expense to mitigate that risk. With such a meager road maintenance budget to begin with, every dollar spent on legal fees and insurance, is less money spent on maintaining the road.

Again, Thank you both for your valuable comments and advice. 

Chuck Miller, Pres. LPOHA