Records Inspection Request
I sent an email to my HOA management company on Friday, 1/5/24, with the following request:
“I would like to inspect all Architectural Requests for the property located at XXXXX X. XXXXXXXX Ave., Somewhere, AZ 85XXX in the XXXXXXXXX XXXXX Subdivision.”
I received their response today, 1/11/24, which stated the following:
“Please fill out a records request form.”
With the attached form to fill out.
I do not agree with some of the terms included on the form which asks me to indicate the following:
“My purpose for wishing to inspect the records:” followed by a free-form text field.
“I certify I will use the information for the described purpose.” (initials requested to confirm)
“I affirm my understanding that the information provided is copyright protected by the HOA and is for my sole use and shall not be copied or provided to any other party.” (initials requested to confirm)
“I authorize the Association to charge my account $.15 per page for all documents provided electronic or otherwise and any mailing charges, if I request the documents to be mailed to me.”
I responded to the management company stating the following:
“My email is sufficient notice for you to provide these records.”
I would greatly appreciate any comments regarding this situation. According to the A.R.S., I do not believe I am required to fill out a form to request to inspect HOA records, the email should be suffricient.
Thank you!
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Richard,
All of this is total BS. The law requires the association to provide you access to any association record upon written request and your e-mail satisfies the law. You have no requirement to provide a purpose or to certify to any of the other provisions of that request form. The association is allowed by law to charge you $.15 per page for physical copies if you specifically request copies of any of the documents that you look at. AACM has introduced legislation that will attempt to put into law ridiculous restrictions like this on homeowner rights to access association records. We must all contact our legislators and specifically the sponsor of that legislation HB-2085 Rep Hendrix at Lhendrix@azleg.gov and ask that he either, significantly modify that bill of refuse to hear that bill in his committee as written.
As for your specific request, I assume that you are looking to see all architectural request for a certain home in your community that is not yours. Why you are doing that I don’t know, but while it is specific it is extremely broad and could result in a significant amount of research depending on how old your community is to research all of history. The association would have the right to fight this request based on the burdensome work necessary to research and find all the records for this home. A more reasonable request would be for records in the last two years. Request like this is why community managers do stupid things like yours has and will result in them trying to change the laws that will allow them to do the things that your community manager has established.
You all have a right to reasonable request for records, trying to ask for unreasonable request or for fishing expeditions will impact the rights of all of us to get any records. We all hate when associations abuse their power over us, but we cannot abuse our power for access to records, or it will be taken away. The
HOA industry has a lot of money and they will not hesitate to spend some of that money to influence the legislature to make life easier for them at our expense.
Dennis
The homeowner has a largecamper parked in their back yard. It is visible from the main road through the community. The President of the HOA lives next door to them. The President of the HOA can see it from his home. This would not be approved by the HOA/Architectural committee. I asked one of the Board members about it, they asked about it and were told, I’m assuming by the President, that this homeowner has an exception for it. I call BS, the homeowner purchased the home when I was the President of the HOA and I never saw a request for an exception. And it has been there a very long time. So the HOA and management company aren’t doing their jobs and/or are playing favorites. Unfortunately, variances may be transferred from owner to owner so it is necessary to ask for all the records back to 2016 when the home was built. The management company has told me that all of the records of the HOA are stored electronically. If searching electronic documents for a specific address for an 8 year period is too much work, the management company is in the wrong business.
Richard,
You have to understand that all management companies are basically lazy and don’t do anything that they do not have too. Because a company stores records electronically does not mean that they set up their system in a system that is indexed in multiple ways to facilitate record retention or retrieval. They most probably have their files filed electronically in the equivalent of paper file boxes without any indexing. It’s not like this is a real company where efficiency is premium. I’m sure there may be some that actually understand their business and need to be able to access records rapidly as a differentiating feature of their company over the service of any other, but I’ve not run into one yet.
I now understand your situation, I’m just thinking that a better way to request what you are looking for would be to ask for the specific waiver authorization that allows this homeowner to violate the association governing documents relative to parking of the RV in plain sight in violation of the governing documents. No matter how antiquated their file retention system is they cannot say that it is too difficult to find one document without condemning their entire file management system. Your request is for one simple document that must exist if they are allowing the situation to continue. I suspect the document does not exist and they will be forced to tell you that. Then they have a problem.
Dennis
I would ask for the specific document EXCEPT the last time I objected to a document not existing a meeting was held to amend the minutes of an HOA meeting so that the document could be created based on the amended meeting minutes. This is the reason my request is slightly vague, I want to be able to see that the document does not exist without them knowing which specific document I’m looking for. Just so the document doesn’t magically appear after I note it does not exist. Yes, those games get played all the time around here.
As I read this situation it is clear that the homeowner has a situation regarding a clear violation of the governing documents. I feel that asking for a document regarding the validity of this situation is somewhat a waste of time. If you receive or review a document that indicated a variance or waiver of the camper situation I am sure you would question that documents credibility based on your governing documents. I believe getting to the heart of the matter might be worth considering here. Filing a non compliance complaint issue with the management company would require them to either support the current situation via some type of documentation or follow protocol regarding the non compliance issue. I would suggest looking for strong supportive language in your documents i.e.:
“The board has a duty and obligation to enforce the CC&R’s”
Language regarding the storing of recreational vehicles on any area of the property
Have there been any amendments to your governing documents specific to this issue
How long has this non compliance issue existed without being challenged?
This is the path that I have taken often with our HOA which as a result has prompted them to take action . If the action they take is correct, that’s great. If the action taken is not in compliance with your governing documents then at least you have that knowledge to take the matter further if desired.
In my experience management companies and HOA boards often thrive on putting stumbling blocks in our path. I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is how many stumbling blocks do I go over before I give up. Dang that USMC for instilling unwavering diligence to my own stubbornness when it comes to HOA issues.
Good luck with your efforts.
Robert,
Well stated, and thank you for your service to USMC and all of us.
Dennis