I read this article in the Denver Post about a pet owner not picking up the poop of his Teacup Chihuahua in his HOA. This association has a rule requiring all owners to pick up after their pets and is utilizing doggie DNA to figure out which dog in the community left behind the droppings.
When enforcing this rule, does it matter whether your
It was just over a year ago that Mayor Murphy led the charge for Metro Mayors by pushing through an ordinance that destroys the right of homeowners living in Lakewood to adequately pursue remedies for construction defects to their homes. Mayor Murphy argued that the right of HOAs, working on behalf of their homeowners, to hold builders responsible for their defective construction was hampering the development
As the leader in providing educational opportunities for affordable housing and free market HOAs in Aspen and Pitkin County, the Aspen Pitkin County Housing Authority ("APCHA") will be hosting another free seminar on September 15th entitled: Covenant and Rule Enforcement in HOAs: What Boards and Homeowners Need to Know. Here’s a description for the seminar:
Winzenburg, Leff, Purvis & Payne is pleased to announce that our good friends and colleagues Kim Porter, Wendy Weigler and Myra Lansky have joined our firm. Kim, Wendy and Myra are accomplished attorneys specializing in the practice of community association law and are outstanding additions to our law practice.
Kim Porter focuses on the transactional side
In my first installment of this blog series entitled HOA Board Meeting Basics, I discussed whether the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA") or the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act ("Nonprofit Act") require that members of an HOA be provided with notices of board meetings and agendas. In this installment of the series, I will discuss open board meetings in HOAs.
For most folks living in Colorado, our home is the biggest investment we will ever make in our lives. For those of us with a home in an HOA, we know that in addition to our normal obligations as homeowners, we must pay assessments for our share of the common expenses of the community and comply with the governing documents of our association.
Our HOAs are governed by boards of directors which have a great deal of authority over our how our communities are maintained, the fiscal health of our communities, how the governing documents are enforced and the overall culture of our communities. Since boards of directors have a great deal of power, it only makes sense that CCIOA requires that Board meetings be open to the members of the HOA or their designated representatives. Having open meetings provides members with an opportunity to see their boards in action and to observe the due diligence they engage in before making important decisions. Continue Reading HOA Board Meeting Basics: Exceptions to Open Meetings Limited
Just last week, I had the privilege of teaching a class for the Aspen Pitkin County Housing Authority on HOA meetings. Since my friends in Aspen and Pitkin County had numerous and excellent questions relating to meetings, I thought it would be helpful to post a series of blog entries on HOA board and membership meetings. In order to avoid confusion, I will start this series of blog entries by addressing issues relating to HOA board meetings.
For those of you who follow our blog, you know that the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA") is the primary body of statutory law in Colorado that regulates HOAs. Since most HOAs are nonprofit corporations, when we are dealing with issues relating to governance, we must also look to the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act ("Nonprofit Act") for guidance.
The first question I will address is whether HOA boards must provide notice of their board meetings to the members of their associations. Interestingly, CCIOA and the Nonprofit Act do not require that members of an HOA be provided with notice of board meetings. However, it is important to check out the bylaws for your association to determine whether the bylaws require that notice of board meetings be given to the members. If your bylaws require that notice be given to members, make sure to carefully follow the notice requirements outlined in your bylaws. Continue Reading HOA Board Meeting Basics: Notice to Members and Agendas
As attorneys who specialize in the practice of community association law, we often hear folks talk about service animals and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"). What most folks don’t understand is the ADA doesn’t apply to private residential HOAs. Instead, the ADA requirements relating to service animals apply to HOAs that provide a place of public
I was recently told a story about a condominium association that is carrying property insurance coverage on their condominium units which includes a $50,000 per unit deductible on water related losses! Evidently, this association has also adopted a policy which passes along the responsibility for the deductible to the owners of the units which were damaged. In addition, if a unit owner is found responsible for causing a water related loss, I was told the at-fault owner is responsible for paying the $50,000 deductible for all of the units damaged by the water event.
Let’s say you live in this association and negligently caused a water related loss which damaged your unit and three others. That would mean you could be held responsible to pay $200,000 in insurance deductibles. Needless to say, most people are not prepared to write a check for $200,000!
Once I thought through this scenario and picked my jaw up off my desk, my initial thought was this association has basically decided not to cover water related losses. However, much more importantly, I thought about how absolutely essential it is for homeowners in this community to carry sufficient insurance coverage on their standard unit owners policy (commonly referred to as the "HO-6 policy") to cover payment of these deductibles.
While the story I recounted is certainly unusual, every owner of a condominium unit should find out what deductibles their association is carrying on their property and liability insurance coverage and to what extent the owners are responsible for paying those deductibles. Once you have that information, you should contact your insurance agent and ask the following questions about your HO-6 policy:Continue Reading Are You Carrying Enough Loss Assessment Coverage?
The Colorado Division of Real Estate has hit the ball out of the park! Within an hour after informing them that Section 5 of the Community Association Manager License Application needed to be updated to include a category for managers who are directly employed by a common interest community, the application is finished and here
As I mentioned in a blog posting last week, the Division of Real Estate has determined that common interest communities who directly employ a community association manager are not required to hold an "entity" license as a community association management company, are not required to carry E&O insurance or name an individual as a "designated