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

Gerald,
Nothing in the statutes requires written approval, but the association must maintain a record of every ARC approval available to any homeowner upon request. There is nothing personal or confidential about an ARC approval, so any record request on that subject is not protected from disclosure.

Because associations are supposed to keep records of their approvals or denials, when community managers are not competent, and most associations fail to maintain accurate records, it is meaningless. Then, new management companies come in and, not seeing any record of approval for ARC changes, they immediately assume the homeowner violated the requirements and impose fines.

LET ME MAKE THIS CLEAR TO EVERYONE OUT THERE.

WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR HOME DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE TRUST THAT YOUR ASSOCIATION WILL MAKE ACCURATE AND RETRIEVABLE RECORDS OF ANY MODIFICATION REQUEST, ASSESSMENT PAYMENT, VIOLATION NOTICE ANBD DISPOSITION, FINE PAYMENT OR ANY OTHER CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE ASSOCIATION OR ITS AGENTS. MAKE A COPY OF EVERY REQUEST THAT YOU MAKE AND THE DATE THAT YOU SUBMITTED IT. ALL COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN YOU AND THE ARC. AND ANY APPROVAL OR FAILURE TO RESPONDE TO THAT REQUEST WITHIN THE TIME FRAME REQUIRED BY THE CC&Rs. IF YOU GET WRITTEN OR VERBAL APPROVAL, MAKE A WRITTEN RECORD OF THAT AND THE NAME OF THE INDIVIDUAL WHO GAVE YOU APPROVAL. KEEP THIS IN A FILE IN YOUR HOME, AND WHEN YOU SELL THAT HOME, GIVE IT TO THE PURCHASER.

Without this information, you are subject to the whims of the incompetent management company, and trust me, they will always assume you were wrong, and the association records, or lack of records, simply means that approval was never granted. You will never win this argument or litigation if it comes to that without it.

Please protect yourselves and your home. Until laws are enacted to protect homeowners from these abuses, please keep detailed records of all transactions with the association to protect your home and rights. I proposed legislation to address these issues once again this year, but that proposal was not sponsored as a bill.

Dennis

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

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.

Do you have any suggestions or referrals for low cost legal advice regarding dealing with HOAs? Not all homeowners living in HOA ruled communities can afford thousands in attorney fees. All of our time is valuable. Certainly a lawyer’s time is as well. Just inquiring about whether or not a homeowner has any legs to stand on can be expensive ($300 for a 30min consultation was quoted by one of the listed law firms).

I do everything required by Dennis and timely. Thanks to all that do so.

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.

Thanks, Dennis. I did not know that the HOA has the right to disapprove a modification if city planning and development approved it. My neighbor, a retired construction contractor, applied to city P&D to widen his cement driveway by placing paver bricks to the side of the cement. There was some back & forth with the city, but his application was approved & installed without repercussions from the HOA. I want to be able to have a city approval in hand before any HOA interaction, but thanks to you I learned something and will be prepared if the HOA does try again to act unreasonably. The board runs up attorney fees like crazy, and of course they use homeowner money to pay for their unwillingness to even try and comply with the various guidance documents and laws. One homeowner, a real estate broker, prevailed in a lawsuit & we had to pay $300,000+ in damages to reimburse for unlawful fines plus costs. I applaud your efforts to educate board members. I know Civano is not the only HOA that runs up legal fees like mad, and since the cost does not seem to deter them, I am always looking for effective channels to enforce my rights. I appreciate you and this organization more than I can say.

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.

Lora,

I agree with you completely and applaud your innovation, but the association has the contractual right to approve or disapprove any modification under current law. If the association is so stupid as to reject a modification because it looks bigger in defiance of physical reality, their decision can never be considered reasonable. Show them the spec sheet or product detail from wherever you bought it. Then ask whether they are willing to pay the $500 ADRE fee for being stupid, because they will lose any complaint filed with ADRE.

All associations have a duty to act reasonably in the application of their discretionary authority of design control, enforcement, or rule-making as established in Arizona Case Law.

Dennis