HOA Home Owners to Continue to Pay Fees with no Justification or Receipt

HB 16-1133 was defeated in Committee, February 22, 2016.  This Bill was simple, no burden on businesses or taxpayers, and only required HOA property managers (PM), also known as Community Association Managers, to provide a detailed receipt to home owners when fees are paid.  The Bill did not preclude any fees from being charged or limit amounts:  just provide a detailed receipt of work completed.  The Bill was intended to mitigate the practice of HOA PM's duplicate and triplicate billing for services already paid for via HOA dues or HOA Transfer Fees and/or Title Companies: happens all the time.  It also was intended to reveal the practice of excessive billing whereby PM fees for the same services ranged from $50 to $1000 and home owners were required to pay without a receipt or a lien could be placed on their property or stop their home sale.  Finally, a receipt was to be required to justify that the HOA PM Transfer Fee only represented expenses unique and incurred in the sale of a home which otherwise would make them illegally assessed as defined under State and Federal law.  This all proved to much help for home owners in the eyes of the legislators.

The Community Association Institute (CAI) and property managers testified before Committee hearing this Bill.  If you weren't in attendance their objections to this Bill will be difficult for you to believe but our legislators absorbed the misinformation to reinforce they NO vote.  Testimony contended that providing a receipt would impose an excessive cost and that it was impossible to detail the work done to earn the home sale Transfer Fee.  If they can't identify what they did to earn the fee what evidence is there that they did anything and why are they charging it?  CAI folks also argued that a one line statement in a PM's contract with the HOA (that home owners never see) and a one liner with amount on a home sales contract was enough disclosure and no need to justify the fee based on work performed or provide a detailed receipt to any home owner.  Do you think COMCAST, Xcel Energy, or Master Card can get away with billing you without providing a detailed invoice of work completed?  There is no legal basis except with HOA PM fees to demand payment without proving services rendered!

HOA home owners will continue to pay PM fees in an environment of "pay it, shut up, or else".  No other business would endorse such a practice but our legislature must be thanked for enabling, protecting, and approving this deceptive and abusive situation with their veto of Colorado HB 16-1133.

Join us for our Colorado Springs HOA Town Hall Meeting, Feb 13, free admission-open to the public

The Colorado HOA Forum will be holding another of its’ HOA Town Hall Meetings, this time in Colorado Springs, CO. The Meeting is open and free to the public and is the only HOA presentation from the home owner’s perspective. The Meeting includes an HOA home buyer’s seminar (9-10 am) followed by an array of HOA topics ending with an extended question and answer session for attendees. Find out about HOA legislation, HOA property manager licensing and responsibilities, HOA Transfer Fees on the sale of homes, and other issues affecting the home owner’s living environment, quality of life, and finances. BROCHURE ON OUR WEB SITE

The Colorado HOA Forum is Colorado’s largest and most effective HOA home owner’s advocacy organization working to improve HOA governance through legislative reform. The Forum is a pro-HOA organization and the only Colorado home owner centric organization with nearly 1,000 members located in 80+ cities/towns throughout the State. It strives to ensure a balance in HOA governance that promotes openness and inclusion in HOA governance, protection of home owner’s rights, and address abusive and costly practices that are costly to HOAs and their home owners.

Questions: contact us at www.coloradohoaforum.com or email coloradohoaforum@gmail.com

Pikes Peak Public Library, Library 21C
1175 Chapel Hills Drive
Room: Venue 21C
Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Saturday, February 13, 2016
9 am—12:45 pm
Plenty of free parking
Free to the public

Proposed Colorado HOA Legislation to have Immediate Benefits to Home Owners and Small Business

The Colorado legislature will consider three home owner's association (HOA) Bills this session.  Two will be mostly administrative and one could serve to be the most impacting HOA legislation of the past 20 years improving upon responsibilities and accountability in the HOA property manager industry and the potential to save HOA home owners millions of dollars annually.

SB 16-082, HOA Whistleblower (intimidation) Protection, and HB 16-1149, Remove Budget Reporting Exemption HOAs Predate Act (CCIOA), have admirable goals and provide great expectations but will accomplish neither (for now).  These Bills have the same ole' problem that characterizes HOA legislation over the past decades: they lack enforcement from the home owner's perspective except through our costly, litigious, time consuming court system matching HOA funds and lawyers against the very limited resources of the home owner.  Lacking an accessible and affordable venue to enforce these Bills home owners will more feel good about the Bills than experience any change.

HB 16-1133, HOA Manager Professional Responsibility and Disclosure, can positively affect home owner's rights and their wallets and provide financial relief to small businesses serving HOAs. This Bill modifies the HOA property manager (PM) licensing law.  The Bill addresses the abusive and costly property manager HOA Transfer Fee that involves duplicate and triplicate billing of home owners for services already paid for with HOA dues, requires home owners to be provided a detailed receipt of charges for Transfer Fees, and requires that all Transfer Fees be in compliance with authority to charge as stated in State and Federal laws.  This fee costs home owners upwards of $10 million a year.  The Bill provides the smallest of HOA property managers financial relief from requirements to obtain a license that can cost them more than a year's income.  Also, the Bill improves upon requirements for property managers to comply with State laws and HOA governing documents.  The reason this Bill will immediately impact home owners is that when non-compliance with this Bill occurs  a home owner can file a complaint with DORA (Dept of Regulatory Agencies) free of charge, have the complaint investigated, violators (HOA property managers in this case) can be fined and/or have their license revoked. and it will directly affect abusive PM Transfer Fee practices by requiring justification and documentation of to payees.