contract-law real-estate homeownership hoa
HOAs and Personal Assistant
<p>What can my personal assistant do when the HOA sends me a violation or other such letter? Can they research the CC&amp;Rs, Bylaws or other such states, federal statues to help me better understand the letter? Can they write up a response letter that I would look at and approve or if minor enough they could just respond?</p>

<p>At what point does the personal assistant need to stop handling such things from specifically an HOA?</p>

<h2>When they start giving <a href="https://hirealawyer.findlaw.com/do-you-need-a-lawyer/what-is-legal-advice.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">legal advice</a></h2>
<p>... unless your PA is a lawyer.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a nutshell, legal advice has the following characteristics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Requires legal knowledge, skill, education and judgment</p>
</li>
<li><p>Applies specific law to a particular set of circumstances</p>
</li>
<li><p>Affects someone's legal rights or responsibilities</p>
</li>
<li><p>Creates rights and responsibilities in the advice-giver</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Unlike legal information - such as information posted on a street sign - legal advice proposes a specific course of action a client should take. For instance, it's the difference between telling someone what to do (legal advice) as opposed to how to do it (legal information).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>For your specific questions</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>Can they research the CC&amp;Rs, Bylaws or other such states, federal statues to help me better understand the letter?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Researching and even summarising is not legal advice. If they give opinions on what you should do as a result of that research it is legal advice.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can they write up a response letter that I would look at and approve ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes</p>
<blockquote>
<p>... or if minor enough they could just respond?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It depends on what's involved. If it is a purely factual response (&quot;Is this your car?&quot;) then this is ok. If it is legal advocacy, it isn't.</p>
<p>Putting aside the legalities; how does your PA feel about you suing them if they stuff any of this up? If I was your PA, I wouldn't be acting as your agent without an indemnity.</p>
