2014

As a community association attorney, I attend a lot of homeowner meetings to discuss legal issues and provide education to boards and owners. I enjoy the opportunity to meet the people who live in my client’s communities. It’s always great to put faces to names and get a feel for the relationship dynamics that make themselves apparent in the meeting space. Often, I stand out as the only person in the room wearing a suit, and I quickly get introduced as the association’s attorney or “the board’s attorney” or simply “our attorney.” This introduction provides a chance for me to answer a question that many owners in the room have: Who do you represent, Suzanne? In fact, I try to answer the following questions, quickly and concisely, with any group of owners that I am meeting for the first time:

Who does the association attorney represent? My firm represents the community association entity, not its board of directors, any of the individual directors, the manager or management company, or the members of the association.Continue Reading If You’re My HOA’s Attorney, You Represent Me, Right? (No, Not Quite.)

Earlier this month the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it had reached a settlement with an apartment complex in the Denver Area for rules that discriminated against familial status under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). Readers of this blog will be aware that the FHA applies to residential community associations too, and this offending rule wouldn’t look out of place in many common interest communities:

"All children must be supervised by an adult at all times while playing outside. No sports activities, skateboarding, roller-blading, or general extracurricular activities are to take place in our community.  If we see anyone violating any of the above activities or see any unsupervised children they will be sent home immediately."

The settlement required the rules above be amended, that the apartment owner build a $10,000 playground, and that all employees of the apartment complex owner attend fair housing training within one year.Continue Reading Family Friendly Rules

 

As we contemplate the observance of Memorial Day, we need only briefly look at the news to be reminded of how lucky we are to live in the United States of America.  As we witness the repression in other countries that is unimaginable to most of us, we must remember the men and women serving in the United…

 All of us have complained about a loud and noisy neighbor or some other disturbance that we have deemed a nuisance at one point or other in our lives. However, we should all be thankful that none of us reside in the Plaza at Five Points Condominium Association in Sarasota, Florida. Apparently, the condominium association sits atop of a nightclub. As a single man I appreciate a good nightclub and having one downstairs from where I live sounds interesting. However, this is not just any nightclub but rather one which allegedly stages “drag queen pillow fighting and gelatin wrestling”. Some of the older residents did not appreciate the noise and activities downstairs from them and filed complaints with the city and police and, according to the club’s attorney, pressured the owner of the building to break the club’s lease. The efforts by the association apparently have failed and now the club’s owner has filed a lawsuit against the association claiming that it went too far.  www.heraldtribune.com/article/20140515/ARTICLE/140519808Continue Reading A Nuisance or Not?

 Sometimes during a collection of an account, we become aware that the homeowner is in the military.  When this happens, there are certain procedures and precautions we must take before proceeding with collections.  This is due to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which affords a number of significant protections to servicemen and servicewomen who are on active duty.

Continue Reading Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

Okay – so the nicest thing I can say about the snow we had on Mother’s Day is that it was really annoying. However, regardless of our quirky Colorado weather, spring really is here! That means HOA boards and residents need to anticipate and avoid common pitfalls and controversies that can arise as we spend time outdoors during the spring and summer. Here are some important tips to keep in mind:

Continue Reading Spring and Summer Tips for HOA Living

Senate Bill 14-220 (“SB 220”) is dead for the session. Sponsored by Senator Jesse Ulibarri (D-Commerce City), who represents himself as an advocate for affordable housing, this bill was a molotov cocktail created to destroy the ability of homeowners living in HOAs to recover from builders for defective construction. The plan was to significantly increase the construction of condominium projects by making it impossible for builders to be held fully responsible for their shoddy construction. 

SB 220 was double assigned to the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee (‘State Affairs Committee”) and the Senate Judiciary Committee. The State Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Senator Ulibarri, held a short hearing on the bill yesterday which did not give all of the folks who were passionately against the bill a chance to be fully heard. The bill passed the State Affairs Committee on a slim 3 to 2 margin.

 

In order for the bill to proceed through the legislative process during the final two days of the session, the Senate Judiciary Committee needed to take up the bill last night and pass it out of committee to the full Senate for consideration. In a procedural move to protect the rights of homeowners living in HOAs to recover for defects against builders, the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to meet last night on SB 220 which kills the bill for the session.Continue Reading Construction Defect Bill Dead for Session

I do not have a green thumb. Our new attorney, Doug, is an excellent gardener, so I am trying to figure out ways to convince him that beautifying my lawn is a requirement of his employment. I think he’s starting to figure me out.

I’m not the only one who wants a nicer lawn. Now that it’s Spring, many homeowners throughout Colorado are breaking out their shovels and trowels, turning their soil, and installing velociraptor lawn ornaments.

Continue Reading Jurassic Covenant Violations

 We sometimes receive questions about the owner education requirements required by the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA), and what it takes to comply. CCIOA says that the association must provide, or cause to be provided, education to owners at no cost on at least an annual basis as to the general operations of the association and the rights and responsibilities of owners, the association, and its executive board under Colorado law. The criteria for compliance with this section shall be determined by the executive board.Continue Reading Annual Education? Do You Comply?

With one week remaining in the 2014 legislative session, Senate Bill 14 – 220 (“SB 220”) was introduced yesterday evening in the Colorado Senate. While it may seem to some that this bill was introduced too late in the session to have any chance of passage, with relaxed rules in place for the end of the session, a bill can technically make it through the entire legislative process in three days. This bill has been assigned to the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Sponsored by Senator Jesse Ulibarri (D-Commerce City) and Senator Mark Scheffel (R-Parker), the bill seeks to spur the construction of condominiums in Colorado. Unfortunately, the bill is so extreme that it would guarantee that owners of homes in HOAs would have no recourse against builders for defective construction. 

 

As introduced, here’s what the bill provides:Continue Reading Bill Introduced to Strip Homeowners of Ability to Recover for Construction Defects