Hoa Gone wild
Can your Hoa send you a legal bill if you resend a complaint before it is set for hearing in front of the Arizona Real Estate Commission?
Are Arizona residents going to be further victimized by their HOA?
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Zubinsislucky
Attorneys fees cannot be awarded for any action before an administrative law judge. From what i understand your question to be you withdrew a petition before the ADRE and after the fact the association sent you a bill for the attorney fees, where they had the attorney respond to the ADRE based on your complaint. However Many HOA’s use vague language in the governing documents to charge any homeowner for any legal fees expended by the association for any issue. There are no laws protecting homeowners from these clear attempts to intimidate homeowners from filing complaints against them. They don’t comply with the law in the first place than charge the homeowner for any legal cost associated with trying to hold them accountable to the law. They use this power to suppress and intimidate any homeowner from holding them accountable to the law. This is fundamentally wrong but until i can get enough support from homeowners to change the laws to better protect homeowners this will never change.
Read the specific language in your CC&R’s relative to legal expenses of the association that is the guidance that you have to live by. The state offers no protection for you what so ever.
Dennis
I just want to know where to start
1. Governors office
2. Arizona Real Estate commission
Arizona Case law has determined that a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge does not constitute legal action and does not warrant the awarding of legal fees to the prevailing party. Tell your association that if they had simply complied with the law or the governing documents this petition would not have been necessary and they would not have had to incur any legal expenses. Because i simply wish to enforce the law as a right granted to me by Arizona law does not allow them to charge me for their legal expenses.
Dennis
I cannot comment any further on the issue without some understand of the petition that you filed and then withdrew. If you filed a petition to ADRE but withdrew it before a hearing was set with the ALJ than you are entitled to a refund of your application fee. I’d need to know a lot more about your specific petition and the reason why you chose to withdraw that petition before i can comment of the association billing for the legal expenses they incurred. If your petition was truly frivolous and not based on legitimate violations of law or the governing documents the association may very well have the right to charge you for the legal cost they incurred.
Dennis