This past Colorado Legislative session was a loss for home owners with proposed legislation to save HOA home owners millions of dollars in unjustified fees reduced to a meaningless disclosure Bill. Another proposal to preclude HOA Boards from using HOA funds on law suits without home owner approval died. Then there was just a lack of interest by legislators when asked to sponsor Bills to limit the amount of special assessments a Board can levy without home owner approval, limiting fees and administrative charges on HOA debt (not pocketed by the HOA), and follow-up on a State mandated study that would provide for an out of court binding dispute resolution process for most HOA home owner complaints. The big winners with HOA home owner legislative efforts were the Community Association Institute (CAI), lawyers, and property managers who lobbied to ensure HOA Bills and issues were not addressed and/or when introduced as legislative Bills were killed or watered down to retain the status quo.
Our group, Colorado HOA Forum, www.coloradohoaforum.com , will again begin our efforts to gain legislative sponsors to reform HOA governance. This should be a somewhat easy task with over two thirds of Coloradans living under HOA governance, with thousands of complaints received by the State HOA Office, and equal amounts of emails and telephone calls received by legislators about HOA concerns. However, opposition groups are well funded and influential in our State legislature.
This is an election year and HOA home owners need to ask their legislators questions about who they represent in HOA issues. HOA issues for this voting group affect their lives financially, legally, and socially as much if not more than any issue.
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