By now, your association should have a new collection policy in place that complies with the new HOA collection law that went into effect on January 1, 2014. When adopting a new policy, the association should not only ensure its compliance with the new law, it should also make sure it is consistent with its other…

During a bill signing ceremony today, Governor Hickenlooper signed House Bill 14-1125 (“HB 1125”) into law. HB 1125 will go into effect on August 6th and fixes an inadvertent oversight in the HOA records law which has made it impossible for HOAs to include in membership directories the telephone numbers and email addresses of owners and residents. Continue Reading HOA Records Bill Signed Into Law

Every so often we hear of something that makes us want to shake our heads and murmur to ourselves “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?” (Okay – maybe more of a shout than a murmur, but we ask ourselves nevertheless). This happened to me recently when I read about a Texas Court of Appeals decision in which the homeowners association (Happy Hide-A –Way Civic Club) became upset with how some owners were (really, were not) maintaining their home. The association, relying on the language in its governing documents, decided that it was entitled to demolish the owners’ home, and proceeded to do just that.Continue Reading Self-Help; Maybe Not the Best Remedy

If there is one thing people hate almost as much as an assessment increase, it is properly funding reserves.  Some owners look at those lonely accounts, chock full of unused cash just sitting there, and think, "Hey, let’s use that money now! That way, we don’t have to raise assessments this year!"  Other owners look at the reserves and wonder if perhaps it’s okay to defer reserve contributions until a time when finances loosen up.

Hogwash. Continue Reading Who needs reserves?

This morning, House Bill 14-1254 (“HB 1254”) was passed by the Senate on 3rd reading on a 32 to 3 vote. The bill, which was amended in the Senate to require that fees and charges be included in a management contract to be enforceable, is now headed to the House for concurrence with the Senate amendment. We don’t expect there to be any problems in the House with concurrence and the bill should be headed to Governor Hickenlooper to be signed into law sometime around mid-April. Continue Reading Management Company Transparency Bill Easily Clears the Senate!

House Bill 14-1254 (“HB 1254”), sponsored by Senator David Balmer (R-Centennial) in the Senate, was taken up this afternoon by the Senate Local Government Committee. With a slight amendment, the bill was passed with a favorable recommendation to the full Senate on a 6 to 1 vote. Senator Vicki Marble (R-Fort Collins) was the only Senator to vote against the bill in Committee.

HB 1254 requires managers and management companies to disclose during negotiations on management contracts, and thereafter on a yearly basis, the fees and charges imposed as part of their management of associations and any other remuneration received as a result of the relationship which managers and management companies have with their associations. In other words, managers and management companies would be required to disclose any funds they receive from third parties that are in any way related to the associations they manage. Managers and management companies who fail to make these disclosures would be subject to investigation and discipline by the Division of Real Estate. Continue Reading Management Company Disclosure Bill Clears Senate Local Government Committee!

House Bill 14-1125 (“HB 1125”), which was sponsored by Senator David Balmer (R-Centennial) in the Senate, has just passed the Senate unanimously and without amendment on the consent calendar. In a legislative session marked by partisan politics, the fact that HB 1125 unanimously passed both the House and Senate is quite an accomplishment! HB 1125 will be…

Many times when enforcement action is started against an owner in a community, the first response is “Why are you picking on me? Everybody else is/has [fill in the blank – painted their house without ARC approval; installed new windows without ARC approval; modified their landscaping; left their trash cans out, etc.]” Then the formal response is accompanied by a dozen pictures of other homes in the community that have the same, or similar, violations. Face it, everybody who receives the enforcement letter from their association feels like they are being singled out, because they know at least one other person who has done exactly what they are accused of doing, and that other person hasn’t been reprimanded. Or have they?Continue Reading Selective Enforcement – Why’s Everybody Always Picking On Me?

Two bills that would have negatively impacted HOAs in Colorado are dead for the session. Here is what you need to know:

House Bill 1165

 

House Bill 14-1165 (“HB 1165”) was taken up last week by the House Business, Labor, Economic & Workforce Development Committee and was defeated by a vote of 1 Representative in favor of the bill to 9 against. 

 

HB 1165 would have capped the retainage permitted in construction contracts to 5% and rendered unenforceable provisions in these contracts with higher a retainage. This bill would have impacted construction contracts for all HOAs with more than 4 units. In other words, almost every HOA in Colorado could have been affected by this bill.Continue Reading Two HOA-Related Bills Dead For the Session

House Bill 14-1254 (“HB 1254”) has just cleared the Colorado House of Representatives and will soon be introduced in the Senate. HB 1254 was heard last Thursday in the House Business, Labor, Economic & Workforce Development Committee. After extensive testimony on the bill by CAI members and illuminating questioning led by Representative Chris Holbert (R-Douglas County), the bill was unanimously reported out of the House Business Committee with no amendments and with a favorable recommendation to the full House of Representatives. The House passed the bill on 2nd reading yesterday.  The full House passed HB 1254 on 3rd reading this morning with no amendments and a vote of 58 to 8 in favor of the bill, with 3 Representatives excused from the morning session and not voting. 

The original draft of the bill, that was not introduced, would have capped transfer fees charged by management companies at $50.00. Obviously, management companies have every right to be compensated for the services they perform that are related to the sale of a home in an HOA and the costs attributed to the sale of an individual home should not be charged to all of the homeowners in an HOA. Instead, these are closing costs related to the sale of a particular home. Had the original draft version of this bill been introduced and passed, it would have led to an increase in assessments for all HOAs in Colorado since management companies would have been forced to increase their management fees to recover the costs of work performed on the sale of individual homes. Continue Reading Rewritten Transfer Fee Bill Sails Through the House!