From Capitol Hill/Legislation

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As we’ve discussed earlier this year, Congress recently passed the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), which was signed into law by President Obama on July 29, 2016. While the act addresses many aspects of housing and federal housing assistance, of particular interest to us and some of our clients is one part of the act that addresses FHA Mortgage Insurance for Condominiums. The act requires that the Secretary of HUD streamline the project certification requirements that are applicable to insurance for condominium mortgages to that recertification is substantially less burdensome than certifications. In addition, the act requires that the Secretary of HUD also consider and modify other factors and practices in FHA project approvals for condominiums, including the amount of commercial space in a mixed-use project, transfer fees, and owner-occupancy requirements.Continue Reading FHA Condominium Owner-Occupancy Requirements

 At a time when our two major political parties can seem to agree on nothing, in an astounding turn of events, both the House and the Senate approved legislation that has been signed by President Obama, that, in part, revises how the Federal Housing Administration is required to evaluate condominium projects for FHA insurance.Continue Reading FHA Condominium Guidelines – Hope on the Horizon

HOA transfer fees are getting some attention in the news again this week. In particular, news coverage has focused on demands that HOA property management companies provide invoices for the transfer fees charged to buyers or sellers of properties within HOAs. There is good news for buyers and sellers in HOAs: access to transfer fee information is already available.

What exactly are transfer fees? Colorado statutes address transfer fees in the three following ways that are relevant to HOAs and their members:

  1. The Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act expressly authorizes nonprofit corporations to impose transfer fees upon their members unless the articles of incorporation provide otherwise. Most HOAs are formed as nonprofit corporations and have this right to impose transfer fees.
  2. The real property statutes prohibit certain transfer fee covenants, such as those intended to benefit a person or entity who does not hold an interest in the property burdened by the covenant. But transfer fee covenants for fees payable to homeowner associations are not prohibited and are recognized by statute as valid fees.
  3. Community association management companies typically contract with the HOAs they manage to charge transfer fees to the buyers or sellers of properties within those communities. The community association manager statutes and licensing rules impose explicit requirements on managers concerning these transfer fees. Those statutes and rules are the good news for buyers and sellers, and all owners, who want to know what transfer fees apply in their HOAs.

So what rights do owners, buyers, and sellers have to access transfer fee information?Continue Reading HOA Transfer Fees: Access to Information Available Now

Along with Matt Green from CAI National and Eric Turner from the Colorado Division of Real Estate, yesterday I participated in CAI’s Legislative Update Lunch & Learn in Fort Collins.  While Matt did an outstanding job, I suspect the information which Eric Turner shared relating to manager licensure was particularly interesting to the managers in attendance.  Here are highlights…

House Bill 16-1201 ("HB 1201"), which was introduced by Representative Yeulin Willett (R-Grand Junction) to address a gaping loophole used by folks to keep a dog in HOAs which ban them, was killed by the Democrats in the House Health, Insurance & Environment Committee last week on a 7 to 6 party line vote.

HB 1201 would have regulated how licensed professionals in…

Yesterday, Senate Bill 16-082 ("SB 82") was killed in the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee ("Business Committee") by the Republicans on a party line vote. As you will recall from an earlier blog posting, Senator Morgan Carroll introduced SB 82 to protect folks living in HOAs from retaliation when they report an alleged violation of their association’s governing documents…