Homeowner
Hi Dennis, You were very helpful when I was denied access to the financial records and meeting minutes of my HOA. I never did receive the material and interestingly, the Board had the HOA attorney send me a debt collection notice via unsecured email. I am paid ahead on my assessments and have never been in arrears. A bigger issue has arisen in that the unexplained distributions continue to friends of the Board for political action meetings. On May 13, 2023 our facilities were used for a campaign event and abortion rights rally by 3 Democratic candidates, including the currently serving City of Tucson Ward 4 councilwoman. This is a clear violation of ARS 33-1808. The Board is posting what I find to be sinister and unfounded notions on the HOA bulletin boards. Example: the pet ownership committee and current Board president ordered that homeowners must take dogs inside the dwelling immediately if dogs bark. Pima County has authority and ordinances guiding animal control in the event of excessive barking. The approved minutes further empower the committee members to observe and confront homeowners of “how they should behave in the common areas”. These activities are beyond the scope of ensuring property value. They are violations of civil rights and State laws. Can you recommend effective action?
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Lora,
While I don’t know exactly what your CC&R’s say about nuisance activities the dog barking issue is typically handled under that provision. The association has the right to create rules to address behaviors or actions that impact the ability of other homeowners to enjoy their homes and common areas in peace. Excessive dog barking would come under that provision.
Hopefully you contested the debt collection notice, and did not just ignore it. Don’t ever expect an attorney to comply with the law if money is involved. They will do everything and anything to make more money.
You mentioned that your association is an HOA as such they own all the common property and can do with it as they please. While I successfully changed the law to ensure that homeowners were allowed to use the common property for informal meetings to address community issues that statute does not limit the use of the common areas for political activities approved by the board.
What you want to make sure is that if outside organizations are using the common property that the same rules apply to them as any other use of the common property. These political meetings cannot be treated differently. If you wanted to use the common area for a party or wedding and are charged fees for those uses, then those same fees must be applied to these outside groups as well.
Contrary to your assumption 33-1808 does not restrict the board from allowing the use of their facilities to any organization that they want.
First look to your governing documents relative to uses of the common property to find any guidance there. The board is obliged to comply with the requirements of those documents the same way that you are. If something is out of place than bring the issue up to the board at the next board meeting If they are violating or ignoring the requirement of the governing documents, you can file a petition to the dept. of Real Estate to force the association to comply with the requirements of the governing documents.
Dennis
Dennis
Thank you, Dennis. That was a fast response and much appreciated. I did ask for a verification of debt letter from the attorney plus a copy of my account ledger dating back two years. The reply was that they were treating my request as a records request and they sent the ledger copy, which is accurate. I also replied to the debt collector statement exercising my right to stop the emails. It is my understanding that they will need to communicate by USPS in the future. So far I have not heard from them again. I was referring to section M of 33-1808 that states only ONE non-member political candidate can rally inside an HOA. If the number of political activists are unlimited, then it is certainly a strategy to fill the HOA Boards with homeowners who are party activists through funding and favors from the political parties.