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HIERARCHY OF DOCUMENTS

Common interest developments have a number of documents controlling the development. Sometimes there are conflicts between documents. As provided for in Civil Code § 4205 (effective January 1, 2014) such conflicts are resolved as follows:

  1.  Law (unless the particular statute defers to governing documents)
  2.  CC&Rs
  3.  Articles of Incorporation
  4.  Bylaws
  5.  Operating Rules. The exception to Rules being in last place is that Election Rules, a form of Operating Rules, (Civ. Code § 5105(a)) adopted pursuant to Senate Bill 323 (effective January 1, 2020) may contain provisions that supersede Bylaws and CC&Rs. (See Election Timeline and Candidate Qualifications.)

Internal Conflicts. Conflicts between provisions in the same document can often be resolved by applying general rules of interpretation.

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