The governing documents are private contracts restricted only by Federal, State, and Lee County statutes.  As long as the documents do not violate a law of a higher authority, they are binding on all members and are to be enforced by the Board of Directors, but may be enforced by any member if the Board of Directors fails to do so.  Because these documents are publically recorded, the law recognizes that all members have constructive notice of them and therefore ignorance of what they contain is not an acceptable excuse for not obeying them.

The top tier and most important document is the Declaration of Protective Covenants.  Should the Declaration conflict with other governing documents, the Declaration rules.  Please take a minute to acquaint yourself with their contents.

The second tier are the articles of incorporation.  The articles make Gateway Greens a non-profit corporation and therefore subject to Florida's non-profit corporation statute as well as the Home Owner Association statue.  The articles are relative short and it will only take a minute to read them.

The third tier are the bylaws.  The bylaws describe the specific rules that must be followed by the association to govern the community.

In addition, the Board of Directors may pass Rules and Regulations from time to time.  These regulations cannot violate the governing documents but like the governing documents they are private laws recognized by the government as binding.  The regulations also have a hierarchy with those recorded have precedence over those not recorded.  Rules and Regulations also have a greater standard than just not conflicting with the laws of higher authority.  They must also be reasonable.