The final legislative bill count is in at 1164 Bills 85 more bills than last year. While we did get our HOA foreclosure reform bill introduced last night as HB 2609 we only have 2 weeks left to get that bill thru committees, caucus and the house floor. This will be a real challenge and I’ll need all your help to make all our respective Bills a priority for Senate and House leadership and committee chairs to include those bills into consideration. This means write in campaigns to encourage the chamber and committee leadership to get our bills on agendas and processed. This process is not automatic and every year there are bills that simply do not fit into the available considerations time slots and are lost without ever being voted on. Bills introduced on the last day to drop a bill, are the most vulnerable to die on the vine. We cannot lose HB 2609 because of lack of support. It was much too hard to get it introduced in the first place. This is a quick overview of each of the HOA related bills and our support required for each bill.

HB 2609 Assessments; Foreclosures

This bill will for all intent and purposes end foreclosure of homes for assessment liens in HOA’s. It requires that judicial action on  assessment liens seek first a writ of garnishment of money or property and only if insufficient proceeds are obtained can foreclosure be pursued. It also specifies that foreclosure can only be applied to delinquent assessments and not to any collection or legal fees. It mandates that partial payment be accepted and any partial payment be applied first to delinquent assessments. If assessments are paid foreclosure is off the table for any other lien the association may have. Associations will soon realize that allowing attorneys and collections agencies to build up huge amount of collection cost and fees that may take years to get back is not in their best interest and they will start working with homeowners directly to find ways to get their assessment without excessive collection cost. I cannot tell you how much this one bill will affect the entire HOA industry, and may put many of these predatory attorney firms out of business. This bill needs to be brought to the floor for first read by speaker Mesnard, assigned to committees most likely Government and rules, passed thru both house caucuses and then voted on the floor by COW (committee of the whole) in two weeks. Write the following Representatives early and often urging them to drive this bill through the House in the remaining time allowed.

mesnard@azleg.gov; jallen@azleg.gov; tshope@azleg.gov; ktownsend@azleg.gov; rrios@azleg.gov; rfriese@@azleg.gov; cfernandez@azleg.gov; pboyer@azleg.gov; dcoleman@azleg.gov; bthorpe@azleg.gov

SB 1495 Open Meetings

This will define meetings and committees in HOA;s and Condo’s. It will specify minimum actions for the annual meeting and will require that all votes of the members be conducted or initiated at a meeting where members have an opportunity to speak before the vote. It will require that agendas and background information on items on those agendas be made available to any homeowner requesting so prior to the meeting, and will provide a process to allow a petition to supplement direct and absentee ballots to get the necessary percent of votes to take actions. Finally it will provide for civil penalties for violation of these laws. This bill has already had first and second read but needs to be added to the Senate Government committee chaired by Senator Borrelli  sborrelli@azleg.gov , we need to write him directly to make sure that this bill get heard in his committee.  The Senate leadership key to driving this thru the senate is:

syarbrough@azleg.gov; John Kavanagh <JKavanagh@azleg.gov>; Gail Griffin <GGriffin@azleg.gov>; kyee@azleg.gov; khobbs@azleg.gov; sfarley@azleg.gov; lcontreras@azleg.gov; MQUEZADA@azleg.gov; sborrelli@azleg.gov

 HB 2308 Improvement districts ; Zoning

This bill will allow a developer an option to either build an HOA or an Improvement District in any new housing development that includes common property. The improvement district will have the common areas and facilities transferred to the municipality for maintenance and upgrade and will allow the municipality to add a local tax to the affected homeowners to pay for those services. There will be no association and no boards. This bill also has had first and second read and must get included on the House Government committee agenda. We need to write Chairman Coleman dcoleman@azleg.gov to respectfully ask that he include this bill in his committee agenda. The House leadership necessary to drive this bill is the same as for HB2609.

SB 1084 & HB 2262 Condominium Termination :appraisals

Both these bill have been made identical based on my recommendation to maximize the compensation a homeowner will receive if he is forced out of his home against his will, based on termination of the condominium association. Both bills have passed their respective Government committees unanimously along with the respective rules committees and will be heard in caucus today. They should go to respective floor votes later this week. We should write the entire chamber for each bill urging it passage. As long as both bill stay identical they could be sent to the Governor as one bill next week, if they are different in any way they will go to a conference committee to resolve the differences and then that bill will be sent to both floors for an additional vote.

HB 2540 HOA radar gun certification

This bill while not sponsored by us will require any HOA who uses a radar gun to cite speeding violation in their communities to have the gun calibrated and the user certified and trained on the use of the gun. It also requires that violation must be 10 mph over the posted speed limit. Where this bill came from I don’t know but I whole heartedly support the bill. It was sponsored by Rep Townsend.

HB 2530 HOA declarant control Conflicts

I wrote all of you last week about this bill and how I oppose this bill based on the fact that it includes a large group of homeowners from serving on the board who would otherwise be eligible to serve based on the potential for a conflict of interest. I see this as a very real possibility to get this bill amended to remove the offending provisions and add our recommendations for duties and standards (attached) applied, and made applicable to both HOAs and Condos. The sponsor for this bill is Representative Campbell ncampbell@azleg.gov. We need to write him often requesting that he amend his bill with our proposed language. The House leadership e-mail are the same as HB 2609.

If any of you have any question about any of these bills please feel free to contact me. And please do not sit on your hands without doing something to get these bills addressed. We need RTS positions from all of you that are registered on the AZLEG.gov web site. If you are not yet registered please create an account and send me your log in and temporary password and I’ll validate you at the capital terminals.