As I mentioned this morning in an earlier blog posting, data on complaints received by the HOA Information Office during 2011 was published in the Colorado Real Estate News. Again, to be clear, the information published was a synopsis of complaint information and is not the actual report which the HOA Information Officer is soon expected to deliver to the Director of the Division of Real Estate.  However, the information is published by the Department of Regulatory Agencies ("DORA") and here are some items I found particularly interesting:

1.  As of December 1, 2011, 8,091 HOAs registered with the HOA Information Office which represents 837,622 units.  DORA believes that many HOAs in Colorado have not registered and "we imagine that over two million people in Colorado live in HOAs. . ."

2.  During the first year the HOA Information Office has been in existence, staff has "spoken to more than 2,000 people who have had questions pertaining to their HOA, HOA registration, or who have lodged complaints against HOAs and/or management companies."

3.  "As of December 9, 2011 the Division of Real Estate has received 477 complaints." 

4.  The major categories of complaints the HOA Information Office received were:  records and transparency issues (17% of complaints); boards and/or management companies failing to follow governing documents (14% of complaints); boards and/or management companies not addressing or listening to homeowner concerns (13% of complaints); boards and/or management companies not performing maintenance/upkeep of common areas (12% of complaints); harassment and/or discrimination of homeowners (11% of complaints).

4.  "The majority of the complaints came from the Front Range, but Colorado Springs and Aurora had the most complaints."

5.  "We also noticed a trend that most of the complaints came from low income mid-rise condominium associations and was surprised to see that large single-family home communities did not have many complaints." 

To review all of the data provided by DORA, check out the summary in the Colorado Real Estate News.