Special Assessment in CC&R’s
My HOA needs to ask the homeowners for a Special Assessment for items such as Painting, Street Paving & ReRoofing, etc. Our CC&R’s say this: “The Association may levy against each Lot which is then subject to assessment, in any Assessment Period, a Special Assessment for the purpose of defraying, in whole or in part, the cost of any construction, reconstruction, repair or replacement of an Improvement upon the Common Area, including fixtures and personal property related thereto, provided that any Special Assessment shall have the assent of two-thirds (2/3) of the votes entitle to be cast by Members who are voting in person or by proxy at a meeting duly called for such purpose.” Our HOA management, attorney says this only applies to our swimming pool & spa area and that we need to change our CC& R’s to be able to do a Special Assessment to do our painting every 10 yrs, etc. What is your opinion on this? Please.
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Deena,
Is your association required by your CC&R’s to maintain the exterior of the buildings? If so, the provision that you quoted covers that expense. Painting is maintaining the exterior of the buildings. While the pool area may be the only common property if your CC&R’s identify the exterior maintenance of buildings within the community as the responsibility of the association then that is a common expense and can be funded by reserves for that long range purpose or by special assessments. The association has the ability and the fiduciary duty in the annual assessment to apply money for long-term maintenance activities in the reserves for issues just like this. They do not have to wait until they are faced with a major expense to call for a special assessment to fund that expense. If the board was doing their job properly there would seldom be a need for any special assessment.
If the association is required in the CC&R’s to maintain the exterior of the building the association attorney has no idea what he/she is talking about.
Dennis
I just got a violation notice from our HOA because I have a nylon political banner tacked to my porch header beam. It is within the 9 sq ft size required…but my HOA states AZ 33-1808 c doesn’t allow political banners or flags…only rigid signs. A sign has a message…it isn’t about the material it’s made out of. Since the statute does not specifically state banner or flag in reference to political signs, they have interpreted it as not included. What do say about this?
Tell your association that the law is clear they cannot restrict political activities and signs. They can either remove their fine of face a penalty issued by a judge for intentional violation of the law and infringing on your right to free speech. You will also add another association to be highlighted for blatant and intentional violation of the law in the local news papers. There is no judge that will agree with their stupid interpretation of the law. So back off and do your job and comply with the law. You can also tell them that I’ll also gladly report any attorney that gave them this advice the Arizona bar for directly advising their client to violate the law.
Dennis
Dennis