HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 2, 2025
Published: Fri, 05/02/25
Updated: Wed, 05/07/25
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 2, 2025
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In this week's tip, we answer an HOAleader.com reader's question about whether they have to, at the request of the association attorney, delete their association board email account. They also want to know who owns the email address and whether they're legally obligated to stop using it.
The email they created was the initials of the association, the writer's first name, and the word board, all at @yahoo.com. So it might look something like this: SPjohnboard@yahoo.com.
This reader may technically be correct that they have some level of ownership over that Yahoo email account.
“I've seen board members create their own email address because they don't want to comingle those two parts of their lives, for good reason,” states Andrea L. O'Toole, a community association lawyer for 15 years and the founder and shareholder at Andrea L. O'Toole PC in Lafayette, Calif. “In litigation, they don't want people in their business seeing emails they sent to others unrelated to association business. So they'll set up a separate email account on these free platforms like Yahoo.
“In those cases, I believe those platforms own the email address,” says O'Toole. “It's their domain. But the content of the email would be owned by the actual user.
“Let's say someone was elected to the board and created presidentmainstreetHOA@gmail.com,” she explains. “Let's also say that after that person was no longer on the board, the board or association's lawyer directed that person to delete that email or turn the content of those emails over to the association. I'm not an intellectual property lawyer, so I'm not 100 percent sure, but absent some written agreement or CC&R or bylaw provision, I don't think they can do that.
“I also don't think it's a good idea to tell a former board member to delete their emails after they leave the board,” says O'Toole. “There may be good reasons to keep that information. There may be information you need access to, especially if there's litigation.”
That said, one of our experts has a basic question in response to this reader. Find out that big-picture question—plus get tips on how to best handle email accounts after a volunteer's term has ended—in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5091.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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