House Bill 12-1237 passed out of the House Local Government Committee on a 9-0 vote this afternoon. The Committee adopted an amendment to the original bill language that does the following:

• Excludes architect plans from documents that an association must disclose
• Changes the tax return retention period from 10 years to 7 years to conform to federal guidelines
• Includes non-confidential construction defect settlement information as part of association records
• Mandates the non-disclosure of certain documents, such as personnel and medical records, rather than leaving this decision to the discretion of associations
• Reintroduces existing statutory language that prohibits the use of membership lists for commercial purposes

The Committee heard testimony from homeowners, homebuilders, and community association professionals, including attorney Molly Foley-Healy. Those testifying spoke favorably about the bill and highlighted benefits of this piece of legislation.

As the Committee members voted on the amendments and the bill, Rep. David Balmer (R-Centennial) expressed his strong support for the HOA records bill as an initial step toward regulating those community associations that make association business “intentionally opaque.” He invited the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Angela Williams (D-Denver), to work with him on additional legislation that puts “teeth” into the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act ("CCIOA").These comments, coupled with Sen. Morgan Carroll’s recent comments in The Denver Post signal more legislation on the way for Colorado HOAs – and send a clear message to HOAs about the importance of complying with CCIOA.