HOA Management Company Hiding Behind Privacy Act
I was curious if anyone has run into issues with requesting access to the Membership List/Register. Our HOA’s bylaws call out that the Membership Register being one of the items available to inspection upon demand:
” The Membership Register, the Books of Account, and Minutes of Proceedings of the Members and Directors shall be open to inspection upon demand of any member at any reasonable time during office hours, and for a purpose reasonably related to his interest as a member.”
When referring to the association bylaws and ARS § 33-1258, the property management company representative denied the request stating it would violate the “Privacy Act” – I assume they mean the Privacy Act of 1974.
From what I have found, it seems like a membership list (name, address, potentially phone/e-mail unless opted out) are all fair game with a reasonable purpose. Health and financial data about individual members is/can be withheld.
Are HOA’s covered by the Privacy Act, or is this merely a tactic to stall and ignore records requests? Has anyone encountered or researched this before?
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Jonathan,
The membership listing for any community is a public record of that community fully subject to records request. The association can restrict access to e-mail information unless the individual authorizes its release by physical and mailing address is not restricted.
The excuse is simply another example of delay tactics and total BS to keep from having to do their job.
Dennis
Thanks Dennis. The management company finally sent the membership list, but appears to have removed the mailing addresses of the members and only provided the complex address and associated unit number. In your experience, is this a valid way around providing the information requested? Seems like just another tactic to stall and hinder anyone from talking with other members and putting together any petitions/proposals.
The mailing address of every homeowner is a record of the association and as such is subject to records request. There is nothing secret of confidential about the mailing address of the owners. E-mails would be a different thing as would phone numbers but that is not what you asked for. Whether a behavior of associations is normal, or routine is totally irrelevant that does not make the behavior proper or legal. Many associations do this but it is still wrong.
Dennis