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Recently introduced House Bill 13-1249 has been promoted as an attempt to ‘reform’ the public trustee foreclosure process by requiring lenders to prove that they hold the Deeds of Trust being foreclosed and further requiring them to negotiate and work with borrowers requesting a loan modification or other foreclosure prevention alternatives. If the Bill is passed into law, it will undoubtedly provide greater protections to homeowners which may enable them to retain their home and stimulate them to payoff their association delinquencies. A closer reading of the Bill, however, suggests that an association may be negatively impacted from the additional requirements imposed on lenders. Continue Reading Foreclosure ‘Reform’ or Headache for Associations?

For those of you who follow our blog, you know that I recently concluded a series of blog entries on the new HOA records bill (“HB 1237”) which has been signed into law by Governor Hickenlooper and will go into effect on January 1, 2013. This is just a first step the Colorado legislature has taken to address “homeowner bill of rights” provisions in the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”). 

As I have shared in recent blog entries and in articles I have written for the Rocky Mountain and Southern Colorado Chapters of Community Associations Institute, in 2013 legislators in Colorado have pledged to introduce legislation to provide an enforcement mechanism that homeowners can utilize to ensure their HOA boards are complying with CCIOA. This legislation could even institute penalties for failing to comply.

 

While some boards may purposefully not comply with provisions of CCIOA, I believe the vast majority of boards are acting in good faith and strive to do the right thing. Instead, they may not know about or fully understand important provisions of CCIOA that provide rights to homeowners/members of their associations. As a result, over the next several weeks, I am going to be posting a series of blog entries entitled CCIOA 101 for HOA Boards aimed at getting HOA board’s up-to-speed on important provisions of CCIOA. The first few blog entries in this series will focus upon the rights of members relating to HOA meetings. Continue Reading CCIOA 101 for HOA Boards: Open Meetings

The first day of Spring and the recent sunshine and warm temperatures may have prompted you to start thinking about your Association’s Summer event calendar. If your Association’s list of events includes outdoor movie nights, concerts, or other performances, the Association may need to pay licensing fees. United States copyright laws protect composers, lyricists, music publishers, and movie producers and distributors, among others. Community associations that play music in recreational facilities, at festivals or at other events likely need to obtain the appropriate licenses to use the music. With few exceptions, showing movies also requires licensing. Continue Reading Community Association Summer Events: Licensing Your Music and Movie Use