AZHOC - Arizona Homeowners Coalition
Voice for homeowner rights and justice.
azhoatruth@gmail.com

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Homeowner

Dec 10 2019
I sent a request for original documents to verify the large amount of reserves our HOA has reported. At the agreed upon meeting there were no original documents provided and the copies did nothing to...
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Business Judgement Rule

Nov 25 2019
Can a homeowner file a complaint with the AZ Department of Real Estate regarding a Board decision that in the homeowner’s opinion violates the business judgement rule? I don’t want to get too specific, but...
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  • From dennisl on Light House Management Company Goodyear AZ - HOA

    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

    Go to comment
    2019/10/28 at 6:41 am

  • From josepha on CCR’s

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

    Go to comment
    2019/10/27 at 2:12 pm

    • From dennisl on CCR’s

      Josepha;

      Absolutely. The law specifies in writing and e-mail is in writing. When requesting records be as specific as possible, know what you are looking for, and ask for reasonable time periods. Remember the association is only required to provide you access to those records not to provide you copies without cost. Most association records are kept in electronic format so it never hurts to simply ask that the electronic record be provided in an e-mail response. They can say no, but it will be easier for them to simply do that then to print them out so that you can go to the office to view them.

      Dennis

      Go to comment
      2019/10/28 at 6:21 am

  • From P veldt on HOA Account

    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.

    Go to comment
    2019/10/23 at 11:19 am

  • From dennisl on HOA Account

    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

    Go to comment
    2019/10/21 at 9:14 pm

  • From joyced on Selective enforcement

    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.

    Go to comment
    2019/10/16 at 12:50 pm

    • From dennisl on Selective enforcement

      Joyced;

      I understand your frustration, but if it is of any solace you are not alone and your community is no different than most. Clearly the first issue to address is to continue to attend meeting and continue to ask friends and neighbors to also attend and provide your comments to the board on how they should go about using discretion in defining “commercial vehicles” based on what exactly they want to achieve for the community. There is a big difference between a normal car with a commercial decal on it and a 20 ton truck. State laws also protect public service vehicles that need to respond to emergencies. Somewhere in there is a line that will make sense for your community. Help your board find that line and everyone will be better off for it.

      Dennis

      Go to comment
      2019/10/16 at 4:14 pm

  • From Dennis Legere on CCR’s

    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

    Go to comment
    2019/10/12 at 5:29 am

    • From josepha on CCR’s

      So, my HOA Secretary has a CCR from 2001. I have a copy of ccr’s From 2007 signed by the receiver after the association went into receivership The only CCR ‘s that are recorded is the original in 1992.
      My HOA secretary says his are the right one not mine. It appears that neither are legal?
      Joe

      Go to comment
      2019/10/13 at 2:41 pm

  • From Bente on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

    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.

    Go to comment
    2019/10/11 at 6:18 pm

    • From Dennis Legere on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

      Bente;

      Thank you for your kind words, please tell all your friends and neighbors about our organization and ask them to join us in our fight for basic fairness and fundamental rights for homeowners. I cannot directly help people that do not know that we are here for them. Together I truly believe that we can make a difference to make these communities places where all the 3.5 million Arizonians living in them, can simply live and enjoy their lives and their homes in peace.

      Dennis

      Go to comment
      2019/10/12 at 5:35 am

  • From Dennis Legere on Audit

    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

    Go to comment
    2019/10/11 at 5:03 pm

  • From Bente on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

    What is your opinion about AACM?
    Is it worth filing a complaint there?

    Go to comment
    2019/10/10 at 10:52 pm

    • From Dennis Legere on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

      Bente
      The Arizona Association of Community Managers claims to hold their members accountable to their standards, but I’ve never experienced that to be true in any way. Community managers pay a significant amount annually to be part of this trade group in order to claim some sort of legitimacy by paying for and attending their training classes, and to take advantage of their lobbying power. AACM is a meaningless certification similar to participation trophies for youth sports, you get it for participation in their training program not for actually knowing or understanding the fundamentals or property servitudes law that truly govern these communities. In fact the principles of this common law are not even taught in their certification courses.
      If you think that Linda Lang the CEO of AACM cares in the slightest about what any homeowner thinks of their community manager, you would be wrong. The community managers don’t work for the community homeowners they work for the association, and their focus is to only serve the board representing the association not the homeowners paying for their service. This organization is about making more money for its members in any way that they can, and all that money comes out of the pockets of the homeowners. AACM will not drop or discipline any management company that pays them thousands of dollars a year simply because homeowners complained to them about a particular manager or the company in general. While AACM will claim that they only represent community manager the reality again is quite different, They have affiliated partners that are mostly HOA attorneys that also pay up to $12,000 per year for that affiliation, do you believe for one minute that AACM will refuse that money because those attorneys abuse homeowners?
      I thing you get a picture of what I think of AACM. Any homeowner looking for help from AACM is a waste of time. The only homeowner that I know of who looked for help from AACM and actually got it relative to an issue with a community manager just happened to be the lobbyist for the Arizona Realtors Association the most powerful political force in the state. Of course those two facts were totally unrelated.

      Dennis

      Go to comment
      2019/10/11 at 10:21 am

  • From Bente Hewitt on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

    Hi Dennis
    Thank you for responding so quickly. Yes our attorney Jon Dessaules told us not to spend any more money as nothing got accomplished. The last straw for him too was the falsified minutes.
    We got s copy of Jan8th 2019 minutes through our attorney not stamped approved. We knew right away they were falsiifuef, because we
    had a copy of the original approved minutes. Because of our conflict with the board and knowing our president was not up front and honest we had printed out all the minutes for
    2018 and 2019 because we suspected they were cabable of doing just what they did.
    We are positive it was the president changing the minutes together with our manager, but she took the fall and the HOA attorney said it was an honest mistake.
    This is when out attorney advised us we would not get anywhere unless we filed a lawsuit and that was not worth paying for.
    Since then we have met with upper management of the management company and they also told us the manager had confessed, but does not know why she did it.
    I also had a long talk with the CEO and he is telling me that they cannot fire the manager because she is now protected by the HOA attorney.
    Last meeting they voted to amend the Jan 8th 2019 minutes to include werbage that never took place. I just looked today and the amended Jan 8th minutes are now posted and approved, but not the werbage they approved in the meeting.
    We are just disgusted.

    There is nowhere for homeowners to go at all.
    What is you experience with AACM?

    Go to comment
    2019/10/09 at 6:01 pm

    • From Dennis Legere on HOA harassment, retaliation and falsifying minutes

      Bente;
      As usual Jonathan is right in his recommendation. To pursue falsifying corporate records would be cost prohibitive unless that act caused significant harm for which you could claim damages. And you are again accurate in your assessment of justice for homeowners, there is little you can do or few options to get justice with these communities. What you can do however is initiate a petition to remove the board or at least remove the leaders of that board for not fulfilling their obligations to the community. It’s not easy to do that but it remains the only answer for many of homeowners issues.

      Dennis

      Go to comment
      2019/10/11 at 10:35 am
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