WE NEED HELP
Good Afternoon Dennis,
We have a section in our bylaws that state :
Section 11.05. Term and Amendments. This Declaration shall run with and bind the land subject hereto, and continue and remain in full force and effect at all times and against all persons. This Declaration may be amended at any time by the Declarant during the Period of Declarant Rights, and thereafter, by the vote or written consent of Owners representing sixty-seven percent (67%) of the Lots. Any such amendment shall certify that it was made in accordance with this provision and shall be effective upon its recordation with the County Recorder for Pima County, Arizona.”
We are having a board meeting Monday and the current board are trying to make revisions to these documents that would benefit the current board on the attempt to suppress voter eligibility. They said they will vote on this. I reiterated section 11.05.
If for some god awful reason they dismiss this , what can we do ? Get law enforcement involved? We can’t really remove them because annual election is coming up and it doesn’t make sense. Please help us !
Kyle Cullen
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Kyle,
The Declaration and Bylaws are two totally different documents. What you quoted was clearly from your CC&R’s (declaration) and not from your Bylaws. The bylaws themselves must specify who and how they can be amended, and it will most likely be totally differently than the Declaration. I suspect that the association is planning on changing the Bylaws and some association bylaws allow that to be done by vote of the board alone. Read the amendment clause in your bylaws, the association must comply with any of the governing documents the same way that you have too. If the association acts outside the authority granted it by any of the governing documents, then you can file a petition with ADRE to have an ALJ hear your case. Just remember you bear the burden of proof that the association violated the governing documents.
Dennis
Dennis
Dennis,
They do have the write to change the bylaws and design review guideline s. They are literally trying to suppress voter eligibility. They are just to change that any homeowner that is in violation of the design review guidelines or part of the declaration, they not only cannot vote but cannot run for office.
They are literally trying to change this 40 days before annual election because they know that a lot of the community won’t be changing voting for them and the ones that want to run are the people they are targeting who are working diligently with the DRC to remedy any violations.
The ADRE are worthless. I have communicated many times with them and there are not a couple things they can do. They don’t investigate. They do tell the HOa what to etc.
Is there a journalist or vlogger or any non profit HOa firms that can help us ?
I don’t want to live in Nazi Germany. these are legitimately horrible evil
Human beings .
We don’t know what to do anymore.
Kyle,
This is exactly what this coalition is about, and what I try to do every waking hour of the day. What you describe is very typical in these communities where associations weaponize and abuse their power to suppress voting and the eligibility of good board candidates from opposing them in elections. This has to stop and to that end my top priority legislation for this session was introduced by Senator Kavanagh SB-1294 to end these practices and protect every homeowner’s right to vote and run for election without the interference of the sitting board. There is nothing more sacred in these communities than the right to vote and have a say in the governance of these communities. This is in fact the only real power any homeowner has in these communities. That bill unfortunately died this session when the assigned committee chair Jake Hoffman refused to have the bill heard in his committee. Senator Hoffman prior to his legislative career worked for a large Community Management company and has demonstrated over the years his allegiance to the HOA Industry over the actual homeowners and constituents in his legislative district. It is my fervent hope that someday legislators like this will be held accountable by their constituents for their failure to protect the fundamental rights of those same constituents to the benefit of special interest trade groups that prey on those homeowners.
I’ll continue to work to try and resurrect SB-1294 in any way possible but if unsuccessful you can be assured that it will return next year. You can find the text of that bill under the legislative tab on this site.
I also agree based on several recent ruling that no homeowner can or will ever get a fair, unbiased or accurate ruling from any ALJ and the ADRE dispute resolution process. While I’ve supported that process throughout its existence, and even saved the agency’s existence when the Speaker of the House presented legislation to abolish the entire Office of Administrative Hearing, the quality of judges currently in that agency has deteriorated since the pandemic to be in my opinion totally incompetent. They simply do not understand the law or the concept of governing documents and simply bow to the arguments of the association attorneys. No matter how baseless those arguments are. If you want a fair enforcement of HOA or Condo law hire an attorney and file in Superior court.
Dennis