Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maine
Setting up a home owners association
I have a camp on a lake in Maine. There are seven camps in our cove. Four of these camps are interested in setting up a home owners association to set rules and regulations. Is it legal to set up a HOA in a preexisting neighborhood? And if so can we force the other three to join too? The three camps that are in question are the ones that are the problem and the whole reason we want to form the association.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Setting up a home owners association
The short answer to your question is - no- you cannot force the 3 other camps to join. A neighborhood association is essentially a non-profit corporation that oversees a common area, road, etc., collects dues, maintains a common area, and rules may also be set up that will impose restrictive easements over the individual parcels as to future buildings and such. If someone buys a property that is already in such an association, they are deemed to have consented to participate.