January 2014

 We receive many calls from board members of homeowner association clients inquiring about complaints made by unhappy members of their communities and threats of lawsuits against the directors. The complaints run the full gamut from failure to enforce the governing documents, to unfair enforcement of the governing documents, to failure to abide by the governing documents or CCIOA, or any of a number of other complaints. Being a lawyer, I generally answer their question with one of my own – “You do have D & O insurance in place, don’t you?” I get a little worried when the answer is another question – “What’s that?”Continue Reading Protection for the Board – D & O Insurance

Senator Owen Hill (R-El Paso) has just introduced Senate Bill 14-140 (“SB 140”) which would impact the lien rights of those HOAs which fall within the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”) exception for small new cooperatives and small and limited expense planned communities. In order to be permitted to record liens for past due assessments, to…

House Bill 14-1165 (“HB 1165”) was introduced yesterday in the Colorado House of Representatives by Representative Randy Fischer (D-Larimer County). The bill would cap the retainage permitted in construction contracts to 5% and would render unenforceable provisions in these contracts with higher a retainage. This bill would impact construction contracts for all HOAs with more than 4 units. In other words, almost every HOA in Colorado could be impacted by this bill.

A retainage in a construction contract is the money held back from payment to the contractor until the construction project reaches substantial completion and the work is accepted by the HOA. In order to ensure the work is completed in an acceptable manner, a 10% retainage is pretty standard in construction contracts. An acceptable retainage is also motivational to contractors to complete their work in a reasonable timeframe. Continue Reading Bill Introduced to Cap Retainage on Construction Contracts

As you’re probably aware, effective January 1, 2014, recreational pot became legal in Colorado. This new law is already affecting homeowners associations. While some associations started planning for pot smoking residents last year when the law was passed, not every community association moved quickly to adopt rules and regulations or amend restrictive covenants to address anticipated issues related to recreational pot smoking. If your association has not yet considered whether the new marijuana laws will affect your community, or if you’re thinking about how to tackle problems before they occur, here are some things to consider:

Shared spaces. Most associations have the authority to create rules and regulations that control activities in outdoor and indoor common area spaces. If your association already regulates tobacco smoking in these areas, the association, through board of director action, may consider extending those smoking policies to marijuana use. Associations should also evaluate the extent to which local laws interact with association rules and regulations and seek to fill any regulatory gaps that warrant attention in specific communities. Boards will want to pay particular attention to areas of their communities where use of marijuana will impact other residents. For example, with tobacco smoke, smoking near doorways and windows of other units are areas that typically result in complaints from residents.Continue Reading Marijuana Matters: Has your association taken a shot at regulating pot?

Yesterday, House Bill 14-1143 (“HB 1143”) was introduced to address how storage condominium units are taxed. According to the legislation, residential real property is taxed at 7.96% while commercial property is tax at 29%. As a result, the bill makes it possible to classify storage condominium units which are utilized for residential purposes as “residential improvements” clearing the…

House Bill 14-1125 (“HB 1125”) was introduced today by Representative Diane Mitsch Bush (D-Steamboat Springs) to fix an inadvertent oversight in the association records law which was overhauled during the 2012 legislative session and went into effect on January 1, 2013. Currently, the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”) prohibits associations from publishing the telephone numbers and email addresses of members. Obviously, this limits the information associations may publish in membership directories. 

HB 1125 permits an association to publish email addresses and telephone numbers of members and residents of the association, if those members or residents first provide written consent to their association to publish this information. Owners and residents may withdraw this written consent, but such withdrawal of consent does not require their association to go back and “change, retrieve or destroy” previously published telephone numbers or email addresses.Continue Reading Bill Introduced to Fix Oversight in CCIOA Records Provision

As required by House Bill 1134, which passed during the 2013 legislative session and was signed into law by Governor Hickenlooper, the Colorado Division of Real Estate has just published the study mandated by the bill entitled "2013 Study of Comparable HOA Information and Resource Centers." 

As reported in CLAC’s update on the 2014 legislative session…

The 2014 legislative session kicked off today in Colorado as the Sixty-Ninth General Assembly convened this morning and is scheduled to adjourn on May 7th. Since this is an election year, there is no question that many bills will be introduced from both sides of the aisle to position legislators for re-election. However, for our purposes, these postings will focus solely upon HOA related bills during the session.

As Chair of CAI’s Colorado Legislative Action Committee (“CLAC”), my postings with important updates will be available for review on the following websites: CAI National, the Southern Colorado Chapter of CAI, the Rocky Mountain Chapter of CAI and on Colorado HOA Law. If the postings don’t show up simultaneously on these websites, please be patient since many folks will be involved in posting updates on their respective websites. Also, feel free to repost these updates or pass them along to folks who may find them of interest.

 

There has been a whole lot of speculation on what we can anticipate during the 2014 legislative session. However, CLAC is going to stick to the facts as we know them and based upon the information we currently have, here is what you need to know:Continue Reading Ready, Get Set, Go!

Happy New Year from all of us at Winzenburg, Leff, Purvis & Payne! As we begin 2014, I thought I would continue with my annual tradition of providing HOA boards with New Year resolutions for consideration. This year, please consider the following resolutions with a focus on building community and putting a halt to disputes before they…

Has your association increased, or even decreased, its annual assessment fees for 2014? If so, it is important that the association follow its governing documents when providing notice of the change to all owners.   In addition to providing owners with proper notice of any change, the association should also notify its attorney. This will help to ensure that any accounts and/or payment plans that are with the attorney for collection are properly noted, and any increase is accurately accounted for and collected.  Continue Reading 2014 Annual Assessments