The most important concept to grasp is your fiduciary responsibility. It sounds intimidating, but the idea is simple: you must act in the best interest of the association as a whole, not your personal interests or the interests of a single neighbor.

In plain terms, estoppel stops a party from going back on a statement others have relied on. Once an association certifies certain facts in writing, it generally cannot later claim something different to the detriment of the person who trusted that certification.