Thanks so much for the weigh in, Dennis. Yeah, as soon as I found out that the law varies depending on what type of real estate you have, I went looking for clarification on what we are. Lots of the association documents filed with the county include the word Condominium in the filing name. Beyond that Title 33 Chapter 16 defines a Planned Community as including responsibilities for maintaining roadways. We don’t have roadways really. We have parking lots you can drive through on the back side of the rows of connected units. While roads near the fronts of the units are maintained by the city. So we don’t really fit that category, and we do fit the definition of Condominium posted in Title 33 Chapter 9.

I’m intrigued by your mention that condos generally have the members vote on the annual budget. There is nothing in our governing document that specifies a budget. And the budget has always just been presented to us in mailings. But, yeah, I see in 33-1243, Section D that unless the board is specifically authorized in the declarations to set and amend a budget, budget ratification is the domain of the members. Holy Crack. Our Declaration of the CC&R does not have the word budget in it.

It is however super clear that no increase of the anual assessment is automatic, but requires a vote of the board for an increase upto the CPI rate, and a vote of the members for an increase above the CPI. So, the Declarants did a good job of keeping any increase part of an active vote.

Wow. So what I’m gathering here now is that the public meeting was did not conform to the notice requirement, and thus any business conducted therein was in compliance. That the addenda did not include discussion of, or a vote on, a rate increase, so it should not have been motioned on, that the one item on the agenda that was discussed, the 2024 budget, was not something the board gets to vote on. And finally, as Title 33 Chapter 9 gives no specific guidance to the Board on raising assessments, and does specify in 33-1243, Section A that the Board may be limited in its functions by the Declarations (which in our case limits the Board regarding annual assessment increases), that the Board has no right to raise the rate.

So what now? Some folks are beginning to organize to gather signatures to call a meeting on the subject. The management company is advising one of the members that its up to the Board to decide whether to hold such a meeting. And I see in Chapter 9 that its the Treasurer that publicizes the meetings…so, yeah,, it kind of is up to the board to play ball. (Don’t ask me who the officers are though, I don’t know…and I go to the meetingd) I’m expecting, if the board doesn’t reverse themselves soon, that I’ll be filing a complaint with the Real Estate office, to get the ball rolling to get someone qualified to arbitrate this.

I’m amazed that I’m either totally wrong about this, or the Board and the Management company are just playing cowboy with this whole thing.

What do you think my next steps should be?

Thanks Dennis. So it sounds as though the HOA is liable and not the landscapers. Thank you for the clarification.

Justin,

Do not attempt what you suggested or you risk law suits. If you want a special meeting for the members to take any actions that they are allowed to take then you can request that special meeting of the members with a petition signed by 25% of the community to call that special meeting and the purpose of that meeting. The association then has the obligation to call that meeting and notify every member of that fact at their address of record. Unless you know that official address of record there is no way that you can officially call a meeting of the members. You can call informal meeting of the members to talk about anything related to the community but you can take no action in those informal meeting.

Dennis

Tim,

The condominium statutes do not an equivalent statute to the one contained in the planned community statutes relative to increases in the annual assessment. Obviously if you are a condominium the condominium statutes apply to your community but if you are an HOA the planned community statutes apply to you. The reason for this is in a condominium the unit owners get to ratify the budget prior to the application of the assessment. Unfortunately the statute relative to ratification of condominium budgets was totally written by the HOA industry and is totally useless. I’ll be correcting that statute this year.

Dennis

Sunny
Board members are free to resign at any time in their term, but their resignation is permanent for the remaining portion of their original term. They are free to run again after that original term expires and be elected back to the board, but they cannot be re-appointed during the time of their resigned term. Meetings of the members to elect board members is required by law to be held annual. The law does not say “called” it says “held”. If the association does not hold a meeting of the members annually, they violate the law.

The association is free to appoint board members to fill vacancies in their membership as long as a quorum of the board is still available. With your current situation of 4 vacancies in a 7-member board they no longer have a quorum and cannot take any action or hold any meeting of the board. Your association is totally leaderless and in total disfunction. You now need a special meeting of the members to fill the existing vacancies in the board for the remainder of the terms for the respective vacancies.

Dennis

Steve,

I hear this kind of crap every day from homeowners like you. Your association attorney is FOS and talks out of his butt.
The law is clear unless the association governing documents specify an audit the association is allowed to use either an audit, review or compilation as a financial review tool at their discretion. But your community documents specifically require an audit so the association loses all discretion and must do an audit every year. The total BS about CPA is absolute crap. You are required to do an audit until such time that your governing documents are modified to eliminate that requirement.

From any request to view records the association has 10 business days to provide you access to those records. What your association is doing does not violate the law unless because of his limited availability you are not provided access within 10 days. You are free to request copies of any record, but the association is allowed to charge you $0.15 per page for the copying of those records. Obviously the more specific you are in your records request the less money you need to pay to get those copies that you can then review at your leisure.

While I don’t know what exactly your governing documents say about special assessments I know of no association governing document that allows special assessment to be implemented without a vote of the community. If your governing documents say that special assessments needs to be approved by the members what that assessment will be used for has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the members get to vote for the approval of that assessment. I don’t care if the assessment is for capital improvements of foreign travel vacations for all the board members, the assessment needs the approval required by the documents for that assessment. Send me a copy of your CC&R’s and bylaws and I’ll tell you what they actually say. I would not ever trust Clint Goodman to tell the truth at any time to any community. Your actual documents dictate the process not his imagination.

Finally, no matter what any attorney says, Arizona Law is clear, a home cannot be foreclosed on for fines and penalties. The association has the right to ask a court to apply a lien on your home for those fines and penalties but even if they do that lien is not foreclosable.

Dennis

LuAnn,

Contact the HOA and ask that they replace the plants that their landscaper removed from your property. They can either replace those planting in kind with equally mature planting of be sued in small claims court for or that cost and your cost for litigation and punitive damages for trespassing on your property. See what the associations do but if they do not respond hire an attorney.

Dennis

The law is clear and a meeting of the members must be held annually. No if or buts. Hold the meeting or violate the law and be sued for that violation.

Dennis

Lisa
There were many amicus briefs filed in that case write me at my e-mail listed at the top of this page and I’ll get you a copy of all of them. We also filed a brief in that case supporting the unconstitutionality of that law.

Dennis

Kyle,

Could you please send me a copy of your specific CC&R’s to the azhoatruth@gmail.com address.

Thanks Dennis