Today House Bill 12-1237 (“HB 1237”) was introduced in the Colorado General Assembly to address the issue of the retention and production of community association records. CAI’s Colorado Legislative Action Committee (“CLAC”) worked with Representative Angela Williams to draft this bill which seeks to provide clarity to management, executive boards and owners on exactly what records must be retained by an association and produced to owners upon request. 

Given the fact that the current records provision of the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”), C.R.S. 38-33.3-317, is the provision that received the most complaints by the HOA Information Officer – introduction of this bill is very timely.

 

HB 1237 is substantially based upon revisions made to a similar provision of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (“UCIOA”) by the National Council of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. UCIOA is the model act which our CCIOA is based upon. In addition to substantially adopting the revisions made to UCIOA, the bill also inserts key provisions of the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act into CCIOA. 

 

Here are some highlights of HB 1237:

 

● The requirement that an owner provide the association with a “proper purpose” before being permitted to inspect or obtain copies of records was discarded. What exactly constitutes a “proper purpose” has been a mystery for many associations and is sometimes inappropriately used as grounds for refusing to produce records. 

 

● The bill makes it clear exactly what records must be retained and produced for inspection by owners. The current provision in CCIOA is unclear about what constitutes a record, sometimes making it difficult for management and boards to determine what should be retained and produced.

 

● The bill provides that written deliberations and votes associated with an action taken outside of a meeting are records of the association that must be retained and produced. 

 

● The bill clearly states what records may be excluded from production to owners. The exclusions, among other things, protect records relating to: potential contracts that are under bid or negotiation, communications that are attorney/client privileged and records which would impact the privacy of unit owners. 

 

● The bill provides that associations may impose a reasonable charge that covers the costs of labor and material related to producing copies of association records. The actual language of this provision is identical to that currently found in the Revised Colorado Nonprofit Corporation Act. 

 

CLAC will be actively advocating for passage of HB 1237 and will provide you with significant updates as they become available.