I believe there should be a factual answer, but if not mods please move this over to IMHO.
I live in Montana, and I bought my house in 2019. At the time I purchased it it was a part of a group of houses that weren’t part of a Mandatory HOA. (I realized there wasn’t a Mandatory HOA when I wasn’t required to sign the CC&Rs at closing, which is usually when you would sign them.)
There was a group in the process of establishing a new Mandatory HOA to replace the old one, but they hadn’t gotten sign-off by all of the current property owners. In order to establish a Mandatory HOA, you must have 100% of the homeowners sign the CC&Rs. If you can’t get 100% sign-off you end up with a Voluntary HOA, which is what was there when I bought the house. If you’ve never heard of a Voluntary HOA join the club. I had to research it to understand what it was and how it worked.
For reasons I don’t understand, I was never sent a copy of the CC&Rs to sign, and it wasn’t until 2 years later that someone noticed I hadn’t. I received an email out of the blue from the President of the HOA with a number of issues and I replied that I wasn’t a member of the HOA.
Because I had been benefiting from the services being provided by the HOA I felt obligated to pay the HOA dues even though I wasn’t technically a member, and they were happy to cash my checks. Those services include snow plowing the street in front of my house. The HOA’s lawyer then sent me a harassing letter about not signing the CC&Rs. At around the same time I heard from a real estate friend that my paying dues over time can legally be construed as being a de facto member of the HOA whether I signed the CC&Rs or not, so I stopped paying the dues, which caused a number of issues.
So my question is this, can paying dues over a period of time to an organization that you don’t belong to be legally considered membership in that organization? And if so, is there a legal technical term for this happening? I don’t see how it could as I never signed the CC&Rs, but IANAL.
The last time you brought this up, you correctly surmised this is a complex legal issue that you should probably get legal advice for and not rely on the message board.
However the legal theory you are probably searching for is called an “implied contract.” Sometimes, certain behaviors, in certain contexts, can create an implied contract, which could be enforced by a court later. The wrinkles, caveats, local statutes, and complexities around that are simply too vast to delve into for your personal situation IMO, you need a local attorney. Which I believe you understood the last time you posted about this.
Consult an attorney. A “real estate friend” (I assume you mean an agent) is likely only casually versed in the legal obligations of HOA agreements and in general I’ve found that real estate agents are often great founts of misinformation about everything from construction codes and permitting to property finance and taxes. Consult an attorney before signing any CC&R.
We ask that you post real-world legal questions in IMHO, just to emphasize that any responses that you receive are just the opinions of some folks on the internet and are not the equivalent of professional legal advice. As always, contacting a real-world professional is recommended.