AZHOC - Arizona Homeowners Coalition
Voice for homeowner rights and justice.
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Executive Mtg

The Board of Directors held an executive meeting to discuss a light repair proposal and a Management agent addendum. The Mgmt agent contract addendum deals with a negotiation between the Board and Mgmt agent regarding...
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POA and white roofs

I live in a POA association which encompasses many homes. 4100 lots are covered Welcome SRP, our electric supplier, is offering a rebate for home owners who coat their flat roof white as an energy...
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HOA Landscapers

Hi, The HOA landscapers recently dug up 8 plants from behind my wall. I had a landscaper designer measure my property line with a measuring wheel and based upon his measurements, my property extends 7’...
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  • From Huck Shapiro on Declarant control in violation of 33-1243

    Thanks Dennis for the response. I had our realtor check and recently the declarant has offered one unit for sale (985 N Granite Reef Rd #140) at price way above market value. This clearly is a recent attempt to subvert the statute. However there are records of the same declarant buying units (not selling) several years back. It is clear we need better legislation. The legislation should also hold the AZ licensed property management companies liable in any lawsuit since they are violating the established statute. We have a homeowners FB group and can get owners to also write to legislators in district 008. Some owners rent out their units, so they can write to their legislator also.
    – Huck

    Go to comment
    2023/09/19 at 8:58 am
  • From Dennis Legere on Lack of Communication

    Eric,

    What you are experiencing is what is known as the period of declarant control where the Declarant is granted by himself a dictatorship over the community. The members cannot elect a board and have absolutely no say in the operation of the community. This is ripe for abuse, and from what you have described I’ve seen even worse abuse by declarants. and I’ve tried to provide legislation to address this for planned communities all to no avail. There are in fact laws existing limiting the period of declarant control for condominiums but not for planned communities. I’ve drafted legislation to address this and have pitched it to legislators in the Queen Creek Are and Oro Valley are based on specific community issue in those districts. If you want to protect and establish your right to self-governance of your communities, then you need to write your legislators and ask that they sponsor legislation to protect that fundamental right. Have them get their assistants to call or write me at the e-mail address above and I’ll gladly meet with them and explain my proposed solution. Remember Declarants have rights too and my proposal strikes a balance between homeowner rights to self-governance and the right of the declarant to complete the development and sale of the community without interference from the association. This is a far-reaching issue and a significant problem for many communities.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/18 at 7:50 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on Board recall petition

    Carrie,

    Since I answered this question directly by e-mail, I’ll summarize the answer for the rest of the members. What was provided was a survey not a request for special meeting of the members for the purpose of doing anything. Of the 5 issues on the survey only one is actually actionable by the members, and that is the recall of a board member. The association has absolutely no requirement to act on the survey. To do that they would have had to circulate a petition to hold a special meeting of the members for the purpose of recalling the board member by name. If they got the required number of members to sign that petition for the special meeting, then the board would have had to call for and hold that special meeting within 30 days and the members could then vote on the issue. Someone can sign a petition to call for a meeting of the members without agreeing to vote on that issue at the meeting. The petition does nothing to affect the recall it only calls for a meeting.
    If you process the petition properly you could use an electronic signature tool for the signature portion, but you would still have to identify the date of signing, the printed name and lot or address of the member.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/18 at 7:38 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on Conflicting Policies

    Amy,

    Let me just say this I personally drafted the legislation that allowed members to record board meetings. Once you record a board meeting that recording is yours to do whatever you want with. You can share it with any other member of the association who was at the meeting and the association has absolutely no authority to limit you from doing that. You cannot share it with anyone outside the community unless you are using it as evidence in a hearing or court. The law specifically protects that option. The association has the authority to prevent anyone from recording only if they record that meeting themselves and then provide it to any member upon request at any time. The association board has absolutely no authority to delete that recording at any time as that recording become a record of the meeting and must be retained as long as the minutes for that meeting are retained. Which is forever. If you recorded the meeting yourself the association has no authority to ask you to delete that recording after 30, 90 day or whatever so they cannot also do the same. If anyone ask for the recording of that meeting one year, two years or whenever after the meeting the association is required by law to provide that member the unedited copy of that recording.

    The association attorneys will say and do anything that the board pays them to say or do. and does not mean that is ever right. Remember if the association attorney gives the board bad advice they are protected under client/attorney privilege and if the association violates the law because of that advice the association can be taken to court but not the attorney and when the association is taken to court the attorney makes more money right or wrong, win or lose. Why do you think there are so many blatant violations of the law in these communities, because they can and if you try and enforce the law the attorneys make more money.

    Creating a policy does nothing. As soon as the association refuses to provide a copy of a recording after they deleted it according with their policy, they are violating the law and can be held accountable to that either in court or thru a petition to ADRE. If I were you, I’d wait until the policy takes place and request a copy of a board meeting after they deleted it and if they refuse to provide you that copy then file a petition to ADRE on their violation of the open meeting law.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/18 at 7:27 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on Time for legal help?

    John,

    Your note has many issues. As long as a quorum still exist on the board, they can appoint anyone they want to fill the unexpired term of the vacated board position. Reasonable Records request have to be honored and answered by law and are not optional. Elections must be held annually to fill positions with expired terms. I’m not sure what you are saying relative to the board member refusing to step down? As for a recall effort you and your community are free to circulate a petition for a special meeting of the members for the purpose of voting on the recall of any board member. The petition does not accomplish the recall, the vote of the members at the meeting decides the issue. The number of signatures required for the petition depends on the size of your community but the quorum for the meeting is set by law at 20%.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/18 at 6:45 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on Declarant control in violation of 33-1243

    Huch,

    There is no way to enforce the law without going to court. The condominium statute is clear, the period of declarant control ends 4 years after the declarant ceases to offer any unit for sale. Leasing is not offering a unit for sale. The law applies to both the original declarant and any assignee that is your specific situation. If in fact your declarant has not offered any unit for sale in the last 8 years the period of declarant control ended 4 years ago. The declarant was required by law to turn the condominium over to the board of directors that was elected by the unit owners. Because the declarant still owns 47% of the unit he carries a significant voting power but get only one vote for every unit that he owns. Based on this even if he did turn the association over to the elected board he stall can very much dictate the makeup of the board based on his voting power. But that board has no allegiance or obligation to the declarant and must act in the best interest of the community. as a whole. This has long been a problem in these communities with declarants refusing to relinquish control over the community. We need stronger laws to prevent this from happening and the resultant abuse of the fundamental property rights of the unit owners and members to self governance. What district are you in or if you can send me your community address and your specific CC&R’s I’ll review your documents and get you the contact information for your legislators for you and other in your community to contact your legislators and ask that they sponsor or support legislation to end this rouge abuse of declarant control and protect the property rights of the homeowners. I’ve already drafted legislation to address this issue and pitched that proposal to two different legislators, that have active communities being abused the same way yours’s is.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/16 at 3:52 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on Requests for Records

    Dave,

    While I’ve always been an advocate for homeowners right to reasonable records request, this is clearly excessive. While they may have engaged Jonathan as their attorney I would bet that he would inform them that this request is unreasonable. Without any credible reason requiring such a detailed review of all association transactions there is no way that any judge would not see this as nothing but an unreasonable and overly burdensome request and fishing expedition. The financial responsibility to manage the association is the board’s and while any reasonable request to view any specific transaction is the right of any homeowner, they have no right to conduct financial audits on their own without justification. The HOA industry has already attempted legislation last session to restrict the access of association records for homeowners and we were fortunate to be able to kill that legislation. I fully expect the industry to try again this coming session based on unreasonable request like these. These people have a vendetta and are abusing their right to access and in doing so risking everyone’s right to access of association records. I’ve never questioned Jonathan’s advice to any of his clients but if he goes along with this request than he and his client will lose before the ALJ. While they may have better success if they choose to pursue this matter in Superior court, there is still sufficient court precedent that your attorney can use to clearly establish that this request is unreasonable and overly burdensome. If they pursue that venue, then you would be able to request the award of your legal fees when you prevail.

    All of this is based on the premise that there was in fact no past experience that warrants a detailed scrutiny and review of all financial transactions of the association, based on malfeasance by the association or its agents. If there is than all bets are off and the request for detailed review would be warranted. I true forensic audit would take days by a trained CPA in forensic accounting. A few hours to review all detailed records of the association would be nothing but superficial and simply a power move to abuse their right. There is no way that a trained forensic accountant would be able to review all association records in a few hours, especially when they reviewed a years’ worth of records in 3 hours. This was a superficial exercise to make you jump through hoops for their entertainment pleasure. Call their bluff.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/10 at 7:21 pm
  • From Dennis Legere on HoA Board Election restrictions

    Bob,
    The entire purpose of this coalition is to organize homeowners in this state to get engaged and push their legislators to enact legislation that will help protect their rights and make these communities better places to live. My top priority legislation this session will solve this problem, while I have a legislative sponsor, I and he alone are not enough to get this legislation enacted into law. That is where all of you come in. I and we need all of you to write or call your respective legislators and ask them to support any legislation that I put forward to protect the fundamental rights of all homeowners in these communities.
    You have a right to vote on the issues that affect your communities, and you have a right to run for board positions without the screening or interference from sitting board members. You also have the right under the Arizona Constitution to vote by secret ballots to protect you from retaliation by board, community managers or other homeowners based on how you voted on any issue.

    When I call for action to address any legislation please respond with that call for action as specified. Together we can make these communities better places to live and the balance the power in these communities between the associations board and members.

    Dennis

    Go to comment
    2023/09/10 at 8:26 am
  • From Joseph Danielek on ARS 33-1813 A. 4. (g) request petition

    I’m reluctant to say anything else here as they maybe viewing the site.

    Go to comment
    2023/09/09 at 12:41 pm
  • From Bob Dunlop on HoA Board Election restrictions

    Thanks Dennis
    Please let me know what I can do to help remedy this.
    Bob

    Go to comment
    2023/09/09 at 11:46 am