COMMENT OF THE DAY: GARDEN OAKS QUESTION MARKS RAISE QUESTION MARKS CITYWIDE 
“One of the Chronicle articles also mentioned the judge’s concern that GOMO and its bylaws were not ‘properly formed.’ Does anyone know the procedure for ‘properly forming’ a homeowners association and writing bylaws? I’m wondering about the HOA where I live.” [Gisgo, commenting on A Judge’s Answer To Some of Those Tiny Garden Oaks Question Marks]
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My old neighborhood – two houses ago – should be very worried as well. Right before I got there, some people had tried to rewrite the deed restrictions. Some other people blocked the rewrite. Which basically meant that the old restrictions – from the 1950s – were still in force – or were they? Half the regulations were either moot (who has a garbage incinerator in their back yards nowadays?) or illegal today. But more importantly: the restrictions were supposed to have been renewed in the 1970s and again in the 1990s, but it’s not clear they ever were.
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I wound up basically following the practical rule that whatever the County Clerk has on record, is in force whether it makes sense or not, so long as it is no rendered illegal by some other law. But I am not a lawyer and I know that approach probably would not hold up in court.