The following is the response to the above letter which was written by the associate (Mr. Dean Pody) of the Attorney for the Association:
Hi. This is in response to your e-mail from this morning. I'm not aware of pre-formatted forms for Declarations and By-laws. I suppose you could try to revise documents from another Association to fit Kenthill's specific circumstances. However, I would strongly advise against doing this.
Each Association is different. Each Association has unique common areas, limited common areas, units and parking spaces. When we draft a new declaration we make recommendations to the Association based on our past experience, what the Association requests, the legality of its requests and how all of the Declaration sections relate to each other.
Because Kenthill is an old act condominium it can draft its new declaration to take advantage of specific provisions of both the new and the old act. As you indicate in your e-mail, owners have already made several suggestions regarding Kenthill's particular situation. I'm not sure how the Association could address these issues in a standardized format. In addition, we wouldn't be able to vouch for the legality of the new documents if the Association drafted them on its own.
Our standard fee for a single Declaration amendment is $1,850.00 plus costs. Our standard fee for re-writing an Association's Declaration is $10,000 plus costs. We would charge on an hourly basis for rewriting the By-laws and the House Rules.
Based on our firms long relationship with the Association and the previous legal issues that have arisen during the course of our representation I think rewriting the Declaration is a good idea and would be the most economical way to proceed.
Let me know if you have any additional questions.
Thanks, Dean.
