Law Requires Association Boards Have Access to Copy of Building Plans
QUESTION: The developer of our condominium complex did not give us any blueprints or building plans. When we have attempted to talk with the developer about this, he has been uncooperative or rude. Some problems have come up in several of the units and we would like to have the plans so that they vcould be examined.
Should the developer have given us the building plans? If he continues to refuse to help us, can we obtain copies from another source?
ANSWER: Yes, the developer should have provided the building plans to the board of directors when the association control transferred from the developer to the association members. However, you should be able to obtain copies from your local building department.
A few years ago, the California Health and Safety Code was amended so that it now requires local building departments to keep copies of the plans of common interest developments (condominiums, cooperatives and planned unit developments and community apartment projects) for the entire life of the building.
The plans must be available for inspection at the building department, though they may be on microfilm. You will be able to obtain a copy of the plans if you have the written permission of the professional who signed the original plans and the written permission of the board of directors of the condominium. The person whose signature appears on the plans, usually the architect, cannot unreasonably withhold permission to copy the plans.
You must sign an affidavit that the plans are needed for the maintenance, operation and use of the building and you will probably be required to pay a copying charge.
State Law Supersedes Board on For Sale Sign
Q: The board of directors at my condominium association has decided to prohibit all real estate signs advertising a unit for sale or lease. Our CC&Rs; allow real estate signs that are reasonable and proper.
Though a recent newsletter says a vote of the membership was taken, the CC&Rs; have not been amended to prohibit the signs.
Can the board make this decision based on a vote taken at an annual meeting?
A: No, the board cannot enforce this restriction against signs that are placed for advertising the sale or lease of the property. Even if the CC&Rs; had been amended based upon the vote of the membership, the restriction is still not enforceable because it is superseded by a California law.
Civil Code 713 gives the property owner the right to display a sign of reasonable dimensions, as determined by the city or county where the property is located. The sign may be placed on the owner’s property or on the property of another owner, with that owner’s permission, in plain view of the public.
The sign may include the location or direction to the property and the owner’s or the agent’s name, address and telephone number.
Since you own a percentage of the common area, your association should allow you to place a sign on the common area in public view, though some associations only allow a sign to be placed in the window of the unit.
Hickenbottom is past president of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Community Associations Institute (CAI), a national nonprofit research and educational organization. She welcomes readers’ questions, but cannot answer them individually. Readers with questions or comments can write to her in care of “Condo Q&A;,” Box 5068, Thousand Oaks, Calif. 91360.
