QUESTION
Distirbution of Private Financial Information
Asked on Aug 08th, 2013 on Business Law - New Jersey
More details to this question:
I am aggregating information from four homeowners associations' financial statements (four separate entities) that operate in the same community and have been told by the master association that I am not entitled to financial information of the three entities of which I am not a member. 1. Would I (or a member of another association) be violating any law by sharing a copy of their association's financial statements with me? 2. Am I violating any law by consolidating the information in the four separate financial statements and presenting on a combined basis to all community members? I'm hoping to prove to the homeowners that having so many HOA structures is inefficient, but I don't want the Boards of these organizations to come after me and be in violation of some privacy law. I believe that since we're all in the same community, the information should be consolidated, since all organizations are operating by the same property manager. No specific party is listed on the F/S.
1 ANSWER
If you have friends who are willing to share the HOA financial information from their HOA, you are not violating any law. Is there any provision in the bylaws or the Master Deed for the Associations that prohibits such sharing? If so, there may be a violation of those documents and the remedy for violation may be contained within them. Beyond that, I am unaware of any prohibiition. That said, the associations are correct, non-members have no right to see the statements, only members possess that right.
Answered on Aug 12th, 2013 at 4:10 PM