Help from Senator Hildy Angius with AG investigation – Wickenburg ranch
Hi Mr. Legere:
As you might remember, WIckenburg Ranch is having numerous legal issues with its developer and HOA. One big problem has been the AZ AG’s office refusal to review anything dealing with HOA’s and their referral to the ADRE, which in most circumstances does not have jurisdiction over the specific legal issues. We have brought all this up with Senator Hildy Angius and she has offered to assist us in securing a meeting with the AG’s office. Here is a copy of her email:
About Post Author
2 Responses
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dear Mr. Crouch,
Thank you for your patience as I followed up with the Arizona Department of Real Estate (ADRE) regarding your concerns about the Wickenburg Ranch Community Association’s financial practices and developer misconduct. I have received a response from ADRE, and I’m writing to share their guidance and outline potential next steps.
The ADRE has clarified that their jurisdiction over Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs) is limited to the Petition Process, which allows homeowners to bring allegations of Planned Community Management violations to the Office of Administrative Hearings at a lower cost. They do not directly regulate HOAs, but the Petition Process could be a viable path to address issues such as the misuse of pass-through accounting, lack of transparency, or violations of Arizona statutes (e.g., A.R.S. §33-1805 or §10-11621).
You can find more information about the Petition Process on the ADRE website at http://www.azre.gov by searching for “HOA.” For your convenience, I have attached the Petition Form and an informational brochure provided by ADRE. Additionally, ADRE’s HOA Hearing Specialist is available to assist you with filing a petition to have your case heard by an Administrative Law Judge.
Given the complexity of your allegations, including nonprofit misuse, consumer fraud, and potential elder exploitation, you can continue to pursue coordination with the Arizona Attorney General’s Fraud and Special Investigations Division. I can assist in facilitating a meeting with the AG’s office to address the jurisdictional gaps and the conflict of interest you previously encountered. Please let me know if you would like me to escalate this matter further or arrange a direct discussion with the AG’s team.
Respectfully,
—
Imran Umar
Assistant to Senator Hildy Angius,
Arizona State Senate
Legislative District 30
602-926-5051 My question is, what is the best approach on this. Should we contact other representatives, the Governor, let them know that the Az Board of Accountancy is looking into this as well as ADRE and the IRS. What say you.
Geraldine,
Like I told you before the Attorney General is prevented by law from intervention on any issue with an HOA. The Representative’s offer to try and intervene I believe is fruitless. Your claims of fraud and anything else is just that a claim and not necessarily based on anything in law. Every homeowner had an opportunity to read and understand the clearly stated provisions of the CC&Rs prior to buying their homes in this community and as such you were all provided notice of those provisions, even if you did not understand the ramification of those provisions. As such you are all subject to those provision unless any of you would file a lawsuit against the declarant and association on the validity of those provision based on property servitude law. Again like I’ve always told you only homeowners have the cause of action to file such a suit. None of the agencies that you have made claims to, in my opinion, have any authority to file any such lawsuit. While i believe that under property servitude law the declarant never had the authority to mandate assessment to pay for a community membership to a totally separate for-profit corporation not part of the common property of the association. While i believe that Property Servitude law is clear on this issue it would be up to the homeowner and their attorney to prove that case. Because you do not like what you agreed to when you bought your home does not make those provisions wrong or illegal, unless you are willing to take on the above type of lawsuit. If you did not like the provisions of the CC&Rs you were under no obligation to buy a home subject to those CC&Rs.
Dennis