As you undoubtedly know by now, the first significant time sensitive obligation imposed by S.B. 100 has now passed. (You can review a copy of S.B. 100 by clicking on S.B. 100 under the “Other Resources and Lawyer Blogs” in the left margin of this page.) By January 1, 2006, virtually every common interest community was to have adopted seven mandatory responsible governance policies dealing with how it goes about adopting and amending policies, handling collections, dealing with board member conflicts of interest, conducting meetings, providing for members to inspect and copy association records, enforcing covenants and rules and imposing fines, and investing association reserve funds. If your association has not yet adopted these policies, it should do so right away. While there is no explicit remedy or penalty for an association’s failure to adopt these policies, to carry out its fiduciary responsibilities, your board must adopt these policies to comply with Colorado law and avoid any liability to your members for failure to do so.
Now is also the time to consider the remainder of S.B. 100 and its impact on your association. Remember, S.B. 100 did not replace the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA). It supplements it, and in certain respects, implements new law outside of CCIOA’s stated scope. Some of the things to keep in mind in running your association are whether or how you are going to deal with flag and flagpole restrictions, political signs within the scope of your other sign restrictions, emergency vehicle parking within the scope of your other parking restrictions, and xeriscaping/landscaping requirements and restrictions. You may want to adopt policies addressing these matters. You will also want to make sure your architectural or design review and approval process sets out standards and procedures in writing and is made available to all members. You will want to plan for educating the members of your community about the community’s operations. You will need to put a procedure in place that provides the notices and disclosures required on an annual basis by S.B. 100, and you’ll want to make sure all of your operations meet the requirements of your recently adopted responsible governance policies.
We know that changes to S.B. 100 will be forthcoming in this year’s legislative session. However, it is unlikely that those changes will significantly reduce the requirements of S.B. 100. You should make sure you understand S.B. 100 and its various requirements to assure that your association does not run astray of the law.