Greetings Timberton Neighbors.
Timberton’s Board has great news to share about a major cost-saving opportunity for our Village. As those who have attended a board or annual meeting this past year are aware, one of the big challenges facing all “older” Washington HOAs, including Timberton, is updating governing documents to comply with a very lengthy and complex statute that will apply to us, in full, on January 1, 2028. This is a time consuming and costly process, in part because it requires hiring an attorney to redraft the documents before circulating and voting on them. Our best estimate for getting this work done for our Village (acting alone) is $12-14,000 based on pricing from a law firm with expertise in the subject area. Some Villages have been told it might cost $30,000.
The South Bay Presidents Group has been working together to save all our Villages thousands of dollars on the first step in the process: updating our Supplemental Declarations of CC&Rs. The core of this plan is to share the cost of hiring a law firm to prepare a template that covers the vast majority of this document. Each Village would then be individually responsible for customizing the template to fit its distinct needs and for updating its Bylaws. With strong participation from other Villages, we now have an agreement in principle that should reduce Timberton’s projected cost to below $7,500 (for work previously estimated to cost $12-14,000). This would cover updating both the Supplemental Declarations and Bylaws.
There are multiple challenges in this process but we have met the biggest three: (1) finding a law firm with appropriate expertise that is willing to do the work (template at a flat rate and customizing on an hourly basis); (2) creating a mechanism for Villages to share the cost of creating the template (both cost sharing and a joint solution are unprecedented); and (3) gaining preliminary agreement to participate from ten South Bay Villages (many, like us, still need formal board approval).
Timberton’s Board will be voting on whether to approve participation and funding of the project at our August 31, 2026, Board Meeting. Funding would come from our contingency fund, so it will not impact dues or require a special assessment. In the meantime, if you are interested in learning more about the statute and why we need to update our documents for compliance, please read the attached article. It is written by the attorneys who have agreed to prepare the template and do customization work for the South Bay Villages.