ADRE process broken
I filed a complaint with ADRE, was assigned to an admnistrative judge at Office of Administrative Hearings, hearing was set and completed – Jan 9, 2026. The 20 day judge decsion period is past, I ahve called, emailed and sent messages on both the Office of Administrative Hearings and ADRE message centers, to no avail. Any suggestions?
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Hello Barbara,
Maybe a longshot, you can go to the website for the AZ Office of Administrative Hearings, on the home page scroll down to the *research your case portal” and maybe there may be some information listed there regarding your case number. Good luck,
Bob
I have done this, watched all along. Thanks for yoiur response. See my next action below.
The judge has 20 days to get it to the ADRE. I’ve had judges take longer. Then the ADRE has 10 days to issue their notice. So I always expect at least a month for the final order to appear.
Been a month plus. See my next step below,
Thanks for the responses. I am now filing a “complaint for special action” with the superior court of arizona after no responses from OAH and ADRE. Chatgpt helped with the process and creaating all docs needed (although not smooth, required many fixes from observations made by me – Chat makes mistakes alot). I’ll file this Tuesday February 24, and serve the summons to all via certified mail (ADRE, OAH judge, Attorney Geberal, HOA attorney). The complaint is to enforce the responce, nothing more at this point. It has been well over a month and nothing in the portal.
Correction / Clarification on the statutory timeline
After reviewing the statute, I want to clarify the timeline under A.R.S. §41-1092.08.
First, the ALJ has 20 days after the hearing concludes to issue the written decision.
Subsection (A) is explicit that AT THAT TIME the ALJ “SHALL SERVE A COPY OF THE DECISION ON ALL PARTIES.”
Second, in contrast to the OAH, the ADRE’s obligation to serve the decision arises only in specific circumstances under subsection (B)—namely if the agency declines to review the ALJ’s decision or if it rejects or modifies the decision.
Accordingly, the statute contemplates the following sequence:
1. ALJ issues decision (within 20 days).
→ The ALJ serves the decision on all parties (§41-1092.08(A)).
2. The decision is transmitted to ADRE.
3. ADRE has 30 days to review the ALJ’s decision (§41-1092.08(B)).
4. If ADRE declines review
→ ADRE serves the decision on all parties (§41-1092.08(B)).
5. If ADRE rejects or modifies the decision
→ ADRE must serve the modified decision and written justification on all parties (§41-1092.08(B)).
Notably, because subsection (A) requires the ALJ to serve the decision on the parties when it is issued, the parties should receive the decision AT THE SAME TIME it is transmitted to the ADRE for review.
The key takeaway is that the statute requires service on the parties when the ALJ issues the decision, and the agency’s 30-day review period begins once it receives the ALJ decision.
ALJ only responded much later, after I filed the complaint in Superior court and they were served.
I also have an issue with the OAHJ. I submitted a complaint and gathered all documentation necessary to prove my case.
Sadly the OAHJ decided on a virtual meeting which made it impossible to present the documents or refute and comments made by the respondents.
It was suggested I ask for a rehearing. A rehearing requires another $500 application fee.
I will be seeking a different avenue for my complaint.
Joe
Dennis,
My HOA has not provided any meeting minutes in almost a year. Is this considered a violation of the Open meetings law?
Budget meeting
Annual meeting
2 regular meetings
1 executive meeting
Thanks
The law does not require the association to provide meeting minutes unless asked in writing. If asked and they refuse, that would violate the records request statute. They have 10 business days to provide access to any association record upon request. One last point meeting minutes are not considered association records until they have been approved by the board or the members at the subsequent meeting.
Dennis
Responding to Barbara’s original post: has Barbara received a determination or any closure from her ADRE hearing? I am not impressed with the reports of ADRE experience posted on this forum. It sounds like they do not meet their timelines and metrics and that they make it very difficult for homeowners to ‘win’. The purpose of a State real estate support entity might be to endorse or favor HOAs so that real estate sales in the State flourish. I will be making decisions in the future about how to advance and resolve interference and over-reach by the Civano (Tucson) HOA. It would be helpful to know the outcome of Barbara’s case, and thanks to all of the participants for adding valuable information about the ADRE process.
Lora,
I’ve unfortunately been made aware of many issues from that specific community by other members of my coalition. Much of what I try to do at the legislature often stems directly from the abuses of power and the law that this specific community has been renowned for. It is such a shame that such a beautiful community has been transformed into a living nightmare for so many residents. If you have specific issues you’d like me to try and help you with, let me know.
Dennis
Hello all,
As an update, I had to take the next step as stated above – to AZ Superior Court. This put me into a situation that required more legal accumen than I was capable of. I muddled thru and it looked good for me. Unfortunately, after they responded (Arizona Attorney General representing ADRE and ADRE judge) to my complaint, I did not respond to their answer – thinking that the judge would decide between my legal initial arguments and their response. The ruling was in their favor only because I did not respond to their response. I believed my orginal complaint laid out the correct argument and the judge would decide their arguments did not meet the required compliance. The same thing happened when I tried to recover my costs – filing etc. I messed up on the process which was frustraating but did not break the bank.
Sometimes the best intention of a process (ADRE intended not to require lawyers) doesn’t work. Anyway, it was a really interesting experience that even though I lost, I enjoyed it. I’m retired and had time. Plus, the situation was light, not life changing.
Thanks for your interest. Barb
Just commenting to see if anyone responds – checking the notify me box.