Hello all, 

I purchased a home that includes a private road. In all of our deeds, it refers to the 'Alexander Way Homeowner's Association, a non-profit corporation'. No incorporation was ever filed by the previous owner, which was an affordable housing trust that developed 7 homes on the road. There was one existing home prior to their development, but her deed also makes her a member of this association. We do have covenants filed for each home as well, set by the association and running with the property, recorded in the registry of deeds for all 8 lots. There are no by-laws filed, and the Housing Trust told us all that it was up to us to manage the HOA now that all homes on the road sold. We have had one initial meeting with every lot owner and selected officers (President, Secretary, and 2 treasurers - of which I am one - re: co-treasurers, long story). I understand this forum doesn't provide legal advice, but I could still use some guidance. Based on a lot of reading, it seems that if our deeds mentioned a member organization (i.e. HOA), that even thought the HOA exists primarily to ensure road maintenance/dues, we may not be able to use the statute route for legal structure. I cannot find any language in Maine titles/chapters that says explicitly that we have to be a non-profit corporation, but it seems like we may have to be? Also, it specifies we are that structure in our deeds? I'd really welcome any advice; when I mentioned at the first meeting that we could become a non-profit corporation there was a lot of pushback from other members that it was "too complicated". We've identified someone for snow clearing, but I'm getting anxious as other officers are dragging their feet about getting things done and we don't have banking, insurance, or due collections set up. I am worried we won't have the funds liquid to pay our plow contractor, and he was the only person we found in the area willing to take us on. Please, if you have any advice or resources, please let me know!

Thanks!

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it! I do want to reiterate, we are listed in our deeds as a homeowners association non-profit, not a road association. It is my understanding that statutory is only for a road association? We do have covenants that do have restrictions/guidance beyond just the need to maintain the road, including that all lots must equally pay for the road and that the HOA is allowed as much as legal to get fees from every lot (as well as we cannot rent our homes, some aesetics stuff etc). Given that our covenants also place resale requiremts in place for affordability to future buyers, I'm not sure we could dissolve them even if we wanted to. Does that change your perspective or answer at all? It also snowed today, making finding a solution feel increasingly dire, but I'm having a hard time getter other officers to move forward with anything. I want us to be able to at least start collecting dues, but I'm unsure of the best route. Can we be an HOA/non-profit as well statutory road association? Thank you

I agree with the answer above.  You can be both a statutory and a non-profit, and at our annual conference this year, Attorney Mary Denison said she recommends doing so, in order to have the powers and advantages each affords.  She said that forming a non-profit is not difficult, and the cost is minimal - I think something like $35 per year?  And as long as you pay the modest fee each year, you won't run into the problem our association had of having nothing in the treasury and owing for several years plus late fees!  I would suggest going ahead with forming the statutory association as soon as possible so you can use it to get a plow contractor, and then take your time getting a non-profit going so you can take care of any homeowners' association duties which do not qualify as road maintenance and which therefore cannot be handled by a statutory road association.