Comments or Questions

Richard;
Once again unfortunately your situation is all too common in these communities. Despite provisions in the governing documents as citizens of this country we have an unalienable right to freedom of speech. But as with everything all speech is not free, you are not free to make or post false statements about anyone, if you knowing post or even speak falsehoods about anyone you could be held accountable to slander and defamation. But the truth can never be considered slander or defamation if it is a true and accurate statement of facts. There are many communities where homeowners are prevented from communicating with other homeowners relative to community business or issues to protect the power of the board. The board and only the board has the ability to communicate their perspective or position on any issue to the entire community. Opposition to those positions are suppressed in any way possible, and the people casting those opposing positions are demeaned, and belittled and labeled as trouble makers and worse yet targeted for retaliation by the association.

To this end I’ve presented two pieces of legislation and have obtained sponsors for that legislation to make all of this illegal. One piece of legislation will require associations to distribute to the entire community arguments for or against any issue to be decided by the community. With this the community will be given both sides on anything and then be allowed to make informed decisions for themselves as to how they will vote on the issue. This is what happens with every ballot issue for local municipality and state elections. It should not be different for these communities. The second bill will prevent the association from restricting the posting of signs for or against any issue facing the community or in the door to door soliciting of support or opposition on those issues. It will also prevent the association from disallowing the use of the common or private property for the peaceful assembly of community members for the purpose of discussing or communicating the need for community action on any community related business. The freedom of speech and to assemble is fundamental under our constitution and the principles of Property Servitudes Law clearly states that any provision in the CC&R’s that would unreasonably burden those fundamental constitutional rights are invalid and void. These bills will codify those principles into Arizona Law.

Proposing legislation is the first step, getting a sponsor to introduce that legislation is the next but the real work comes in getting 16 Senators and 31 Representative and the Governor to vote for that legislation. This is where all of you come in. If you want these protections to come about and stop the abuse and attack of your fundamental rights then you must join us in our fight to get these bills passed. I will be there for all of you talking to every legislator that will listen of the significance and importance of these pieces of legislation and fighting for their passage, but will you stand with me and join that fight or simply watch from a distance and hope that I’m successful.

Together we can get the legislators to listen to these please for justice, but alone I am simply one voice in the nearly 8 Million People living in this state, that can be easily ignored.

Thanks
Dennis

Kathie;
Unfortunately the management company works for the board and not the community. While what you describe happens all too frequently in many communities across the state with so called professional community managers and unmanaged communities as well. Your course of action could be to simply get a large contingent of homeowners to show up at a board meeting and demand that the board do something to get their management company under control. They have the power to both ask the management company to rep[lace the community manager or to fire the management company altogether. If they refuse to act you can circulate a petition to remove and replace the entire board. You will need the signature of 25% of the eligible voters and once you have the association is required by law to call a special meeting of the community to vote to remove the board members individually. If a majority is removed the association will be required to hold an election to fill the unexpired terms of the removed board. You want to make sure that you have viable candidate set up that will listen to the concerns of the community and act accordingly.

Dennis

Can I request HOA documents via email? Thought the law changed.

Dennis,

I sent you an email to Help@AZHOC.org

Thank you

Agreed, doesn’t make sense. However, it occurs and numerous out of state hoa management franchisees require funds to be deposited in a national bank in AZ. The FDIC only tracks the summary of deposits in AZ ,not from where these funds originated. I understand the HOA reporting requirements to be minimal in AZ, and suspect is why AZ is the state of choice. I also see this as a way for an out of state franchisor to avoid state tax.

P Veldt;
I’m not exactly sure what you are talking about? Arizona has management companies that are based here only as well as national or multistate companies who also work in Arizona. If you are talking about banking account, I’m not aware of any out of state Common Interest Community that does it’s banking in Arizona. That simply does not make sense to anyone. Again there are multistate banks that have branches in many if not all states, but that does not mean that out of state money is deposited in Arizona banks.
If you could be a little clearer about what you are looking for maybe I can answer your question?
Thank You
Dennis

We basically have the same thing where we live. Myself and another homeowner went to a meeting in September and brought up the fact that our CCR‘s state that there is no commercial vehicles to be parked here, after much discussion they said they would table it and vote on it at the next meeting, well for the month of October the meeting was canceled meanwhile the homeowners board and management company are trying to figure out what a commercial vehicle is. So until they decide what a commercial vehicle is we are getting more
Commercial vehicles here. No one is made aware of any homeowners meetings, the only way we knew that October’s meeting was canceled was because the two of us showed up at Septembers meeting and received an email. We need a whole new board but what can you do with only two people that bother to show up at the meetings? Neither the board nor the management company enforce any rules.

Joseph;

For the CC&R’s to be binding and enforceable they must be recorded in the county recorders office, for any county that the development is part of.

Dennis

Hi Dennis
I appreciate your answers so much and really enjoy reading truthful information.
My husband and I are very knowledgeable in this field of finance and real estate, but the last few months fighting with our board and management company had really opened our eyes much wider. We are flabbergasted as to what is going on.
I have not explained what our original dispute was and right now it really does not matter.
For almost a year now we have been subject to harassment, retaliation and lies, because we are knowledgeable and speak out.
We have lived in this community since 2005 and it is only since this president and this new manager that we have felt the need to speak up.
I would advice anybody to not bother getting an attorney unless you are asking for large damages and even then there are no guarantees.
It is really hard to be knowledgeable and then constantly being lied to.
I wish we had learned about your organization earlier.
Thank you so much for what you do. Reading your responses are like a breath of fresh air.
Today we are letting everything go and celebrate our experiences. Even though we lost our case we feel like we came out on top.
Honesty always win and karma is the shits.

John;
What I need you to do is actually see if the bylaws actually state that the association must do a independent audit annually. It will be specified somewhere. This provision that you cites, implies that it is something that would be available for review, but it does not specify that an audit must be performed annually. This is a records request provision not a financial review provision.

The law is written to allow three options to any common interest community that does not have a specific provision in the governing documents that require an annual or audit under any frequency. For example if the bylaws state that the association must perform an audit of it’s finances every 5 years then it could do a review or compilation for 4 year and an audit on the 5th year. This does not prevent the association from performing an audit at any time if they believe that it is necessary, which in my opinion is appropriate on some frequency if not annually. If you have ever seen a compilation it is nothing more that a duplication of the year end financial summary and a pretty useless document.

Dennis