May 2013

As everyone who has been within fifty feet of me during the college football season is well aware, I am a proud alumna of the University of Oklahoma.  I arrived in Norman two years after the bombing of the Murrah building; two years after my arrival, I witnessed the May 3, 1999 F5 tornado that destroyed Moore.  Today, I watch the news and worry about my friends and loved ones who have been impacted by the most recent storms.  While I was born and raised in Colorado, I will always be a Sooner.

Of course, as a community association attorney, I also see this destruction as a crucial lesson for my clients.  It’s important that association boards understand and recognize the impact that natural disasters can have on their communities, and prepare accordingly.Continue Reading Breaking Through These Times of Trouble

 We’ve written many times about the Fair Housing Act and assistance animals, most recently on April 29, 2013. Little did I know then that, just four days previously the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had issued Notice FHEO-2013-01 addressing service animals and assistance animals for people with disabilities in housing and HUD-funded programs, a copy of which can be found here.

We’ve discussed in the past that the Fair Housing Act differs from the Americans With Disabilities Act (“ADA”), in that the ADA, with certain exceptions, typically does not apply to homeowners associations, which the Fair Housing Act often does. We’ve also discussed that the U.S. Department of Justice has published a fact sheet describing changes to the ADA rules relating to service animals. Those rules essentially said that a service animal was a dog that had been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, and excluded emotional support animals.Continue Reading The Fair Housing Act – The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

The Colorado General Assembly concluded its 2013 session on Wednesday after approving several pieces of legislation that impact community associations. We have covered the legislation from start to finish and will continue to provide updates on key legislation, such as the new manager licensure law, as it moves through rule-making and implementation. For now…

 We all know that the Colorado legislature last year revised the records definitions and disclosure requirements under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA") (we do all know that, right?).

Well, here is an example of what could happen if your community doesn’t take seriously the responsibility to provide records to its members when they request them.Continue Reading Withholding Records – We Can Do That, Right?

Members of Community Associations Institute in Colorado have received the following update from CAI’s Colorado Legislative Action Committee on the HOA Reform Package of bills: 

HOA Reform Bills Cross the Legislative Finish Line With Little Time to Spare

 

It is an understatement to say that the 2013 legislative session has been a busy one for CAI’s Colorado Legislative Action Committee (CLAC)! As you know, key legislators introduced a package of bills they called the HOA Reform Package which was aimed at providing consumer protections for owners and residents in HOAs. While CLAC did not author the bills, we were extremely involved in working the legislation in an effort to seek a balance between the rights of individual homeowners with their associations as a whole. While some folks have said that we just should have killed some of the bills, given the make-up of the legislature, we knew this was an impossible task and ultimately wouldn’t serve anyone well. As a result, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We are pleased with the results of our work with key legislators and ultimately ended up coming out in support of the following four pieces of legislation. 

Continue Reading Update from CAI’s Legislative Action Committee on HOA Reform Bills

Governor Hickenlooper signed SB13-126 into law today, requiring community associations to permit owners to install Type 1 and Type 2 electric vehicle charging stations on their lots and on limited common elements designated for an individual owner’s use. SB13-126 adds Section 106.8 to the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act and states the following reason for the legislation:

The primary purpose of this section is to ensure that common interest communities provide their residents with at least a meaningful opportunity to take advantage of the availability of plug-in electric vehicles rather than create artificial restrictions on the adoption of this promising technology

By M.O. Stevens (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsContinue Reading Get Charged Up! Electric Vehicles Coming to a Neighborhood Near You