Foley, AL asked in Real Estate Law for Alabama

Q: Does the board of a HOA in Alabama have to submit a yearly budget for approval to the association membership.

Also can they install street lights that aren't on common land without a vote of the membership.

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1 Lawyer Answer

A: Like many questions of law, there is no direct answer to your question. You have to derive the answer from other things you know. There is nothing in the Alabama Code that requires an HOA board to adopt an annual budget. However, the condominium documents may well and probably do impose such a requirement. Check and see. Whenever the board DOES adopt a budget, then the Code steps in with this requirement: Code of Alabama 35-8A-303(c) requires that: "Within 30 days after adoption of any proposed budget for the condominium, the board shall provide a copy of the budget to all the unit owners, and shall set a date for a meeting of the unit owners to consider ratification of the budget not less than 14 nor more than 30 days after delivery or mailing of the budget to the unit owners" and then a vote is required. So if the board does adopt a budget, it has to submit it to the owners for approval. Moreover, most budgets are by their nature limited in time, so after any existing budget expires ordinary corporate law may require that a new budget be adopted to replace it, depending on the circumstances.

Its my guess that the board probably does have the power to install lights that are not on common ground, so long as that benefits the project. The permission of the owner of the land where the lights are installed would of course be required.

Hope this helps.

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