Community association managers and Board members are invited to join attorneys Carey Smith and Wendy Weigler at noon on October 7, 2025, by Zoom as they discuss collection of assessments under new law, Colorado House Bill 25-1043, that goes into effect at the beginning of October. As the legislature imposes increasingly strict obligations on Colorado community associations, it’s more important than ever to make sure your processes align with the law. Please email covenants@wlpplaw.com to sign up for the class!

Community association managers and Board members are invited to join Rich Johnston as he discusses covenant enforcement in the new world created after 2022 at noon on July 1, 2025, by Zoom. As the legislature imposes increasingly strict obligations on Colorado community associations, it’s more important than ever to make sure your processes align with the law. Please email covenants@wlpplaw.com to sign up for the class!

Clients and community association managers are invited to join me at noon on June 4 for my 2024-2025 Legal Update, hosted on Zoom. I’ll go over the 2025 legislative session, what passed, what didn’t pass, thoughts about the future, and delve into cases that you may have heard about or that will impact your decision-making for, well, maybe the next year? We’ll see what the Supreme Court does. This class is approved for one hour of CAM-ICB credit. Please reach out to covenants@wlpplaw.com for details, and see you there!

While you were busy watching the Oscars, the Treasury Department announced that it will take no enforcement action for failure to file CTA beneficial ownership reports. Moreover, the Department announced that its upcoming rules will apply to foreign entities only. This means that, unless your HOA is incorporated outside of the United States, the CTA is dead. Thanks for sticking with us during this roller coaster! Now, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast… Who will win Best Picture??? I haven’t watched anything…been too busy watching the CTA!

FinCEN is as sick of the CTA as you all are. Yesterday, they announced that no fines, penalties, or other enforcement action will occur for the failure to file a BOI report while they figure out what the heck they’re doing with the CTA and new rulemaking. We should have more information on what those rules will look like – maybe a common interest community exemption? – by March 21. Until then, go ahead. Break the law. Don’t file. Or do. I won’t tell.

Tl;dr*: File your CTA beneficial owner registration by March 21, 2025. Probably.

The CTA has been the subject of various federal lawsuits and as a result, various conflicting rulings. We have focused primarily on the Texas Top Cop Shop cases, but other cases have also resulted in local and nationwide injunctions against the CTA. The United States Supreme Court had stayed the injunction in Texas Top Cop Shop, but a nationwide injunction remained in place due to a January ruling in Samantha Smith and Robert Means v. U.S. Department of the Treasury, No. 6:24-CV-336 (E.D. Texas 1/7/25).

That injunction has now also been lifted, which means that – as of right now, BOI reporting requirements are legal, and FinCEN has issued a 30-day filing delay making your filing due date March 21. FinCEN has also stated that it “will assess its options to modify further deadlines or reporting requirements for lower-risk entities, including many U.S. small businesses, while prioritizing reporting for those entities that pose the most significant national security risks.”

We believe that our community association clients are lower-risk entities, as they are typically non-profit corporations with simple governance structures and transparent financial recordkeeping obligations. (I’m sure some people believe HOAs are among the country’s most significant national security risks, but I digress.)

In addition, on February 10, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously in favor of pushing the BOI reporting deadline out to 2026. See, the country can come together!!!

Reach out to any WLPP attorney for the latest news on CTA obligations, and come back here for more tired jokes about state and federal legislation!

*tl:dr means “too long, didn’t read!”

Many years ago, even before Suzanne Leff and I were young, bright-eyed, idealistic baby lawyers, Rich Johnston worked at WLPP. By the time we started practicing, Rich had moved on to his own illustrious firm, Tobey and Johnston, but Suzanne and I have seen his name and work in the firm’s client files for years. Rich has been instrumental in reviving and coordinating our monthly attorney breakfast roundtables, and his diligence has helped to make the Colorado HOA bar the professional, collegial, and creative group that it is today.

Rich recently decided to come back to WLPP, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome him as our colleague, instead of just our predecessor. Rich’s official start date is February 1, 2025, and you’ll be able to reach him at rjohnston@wlpplaw.com.

Welcome home, Rich!

Are you sick of “As the CTA Turns” yet? Yesterday, “to preserve the constitutional status quo,” the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the order that stayed the trial court’s preliminary injunction against the CTA and its mandatory BOIR reporting. So, yesterday, when we told you that you have until January 13 to file your reports, yeah – ignore that. For today, anyway.

The order is here.

This afternoon, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government’s emergency motion to stay the trial court’s nationwide injunction against the CTA and its reporting requirements, pending a final determination of the appeal of that order. Finding that the government made a strong showing as to the CTA’s constitutionality, and that the lower court had misapplied precedent, the Court of Appeals reinstated the reporting requirements and ordered that the appeal itself be expedited in an unpublished opinion.

The dispute over the CTA is likely to reach the Supreme Court, as different federal courts have found for and against its constitutionality. The Trump administration will have its own position on the CTA, but in the meantime, everyone who paused reporting needs to go back to the FinCEN website, fill in their FinCEN IDs, and make their happy little beneficial ownership reports.

Merry Christmas.