Syndicate Legal Advisory Services prepares the complete set of documents required to form the nonprofit corporation that serves as the owners’ association of a common interest development — a condominium project, planned development, stock cooperative, or community apartment project — in California under the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law and the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act, and in other states under their common-interest-ownership statutes, to organize it, and to establish its governance, assessment, and compliance framework from the date the development’s governing documents take effect. Working from the client’s answers to a structured intake and from the project’s recorded or proposed documents, we draft, assemble, and organize the incorporation documents, custom bylaws conforming to the statute and the declaration, the organizational resolutions, the operating rules and assessment framework, and the post-incorporation compliance calendar, so the association is formed correctly, governed by documents that are consistent with one another and with the statute, and positioned to meet the recurring obligations the law imposes on associations. State filing fees, recording fees, registered-agent fees, and other third-party charges are not included in the flat fee and are the sole responsibility of the client.
Scope of work includes:
Formation and governing-document planning — a structured intake and written summary confirming the type of common interest development and its state; whether the association is being formed by a developer at project creation, by owners of an existing development without an association, or to replace an unincorporated association; the recorded declaration (CC&Rs) and condominium plan or subdivision map and their provisions on the association’s powers, membership, voting, and assessments, with which the corporate documents must conform; the membership structure (one membership per separately owned lot or unit, with any developer or class voting during the control period); the board size, election method, and the transition from developer control; the assessment structure and reserve funding; the corporate name and registered agent; and the federal tax treatment (the Section 528 homeowners’ association election or Section 501(c)(4) exemption).
Name availability — the name-availability search and reservation filing, confirmation that the name conforms to the declaration and the project name, and the assumed-name filing where applicable.
Articles of incorporation — preparation of the articles in the form the nonprofit statute requires, including the statement that the corporation is a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation (or the state’s equivalent) formed to manage a common interest development, the identification of the development and its location, the specific purpose statement conforming to the declaration, the registered agent and incorporator, the managing agent’s identification where the state requires it, the provisions on membership tied to ownership, and the optional provisions on director liability limitation, indemnification, and dissolution consistent with the declaration and the statute.
Custom bylaws — bylaws written for the specific development and conforming to the declaration and the statute, addressing: membership arising from ownership and its transfer with the lot or unit; member meetings, notice, quorum, voting by secret ballot under the statutory election procedures, proxies and ballots, and action by written consent where permitted; the board of directors — its size, qualifications (including the owner-director and good-standing requirements), nomination and election under the statute’s inspector-of-elections procedures, terms, vacancies, removal, meetings and the open-meeting and notice requirements, executive sessions, and committees; the officers and their duties; the association’s powers and the assessment, lien, and collection authority consistent with the declaration and the statute; the fiscal year, budget, reserve study, and financial reporting obligations; records, inspection rights, and member access; conflict-of-interest procedures; indemnification and insurance; and the amendment procedures with the member approval the declaration and statute require.
Operating rules and assessment framework — the initial operating rules and the rule-adoption procedure with the member notice and comment period the statute requires; the assessment schedule and the collection policy with the statutory pre-lien notice, payment plan, and dispute-resolution disclosures; the architectural review procedures where the declaration provides for them; the enforcement and fine schedule with the notice-and-hearing requirements; and the internal dispute resolution and alternative dispute resolution procedures the statute requires before litigation.
Organizational resolutions and initial records — the incorporator’s action and the board’s organizational consent adopting the bylaws and operating rules, electing officers, adopting the initial budget and assessment schedule, authorizing the operating and reserve accounts, engaging the managing agent where used, authorizing the tax identification and elections, and ratifying the incorporation; the membership roll keyed to the lots or units; and the corporate record book index.
Tax identification and elections — the federal employer identification number application, the documentation for the annual Section 528 election on Form 1120-H or the Form 1024-A application for Section 501(c)(4) exemption, and the state tax and exemption filings.
Compliance filings and post-incorporation toolkit — the initial statement of information where required, the statutory association-information filing (such as the California Secretary of State’s common interest development statement), the beneficial ownership information report where the association is subject to it under the rules in effect at formation, and a compliance calendar and template set for the annual budget report and annual policy statement with their statutory distribution deadlines, the reserve study cycle, the annual financial review or audit, the annual election and inspector-of-elections process, the statement-of-information renewal, the annual tax return and association-information filing, the insurance disclosures, and the rule-change and assessment-increase notice procedures, with a one-page summary of the board’s recurring statutory duties.
Deliverable: a complete, indexed association record book (electronic and hard copy) containing the filed or file-ready articles, the executed bylaws, the operating rules and policies, the organizational consents, the membership roll, the tax identification and election documents, the compliance filings, and the compliance calendar, with a filing checklist and signature-ready versions of each document for execution by the incorporator, directors, and officers.