Rob,

By law the request to view association records must only be written. An e-mail is a written request. You have several options , you can simply request to view the record, where you will have to go to their office and view the record. Or you can request to get a copy of the record where the association is allowed to charge you no more than $0.15 per page. You can also request to receive an electronic copy of the file back by e-mail. The association has no requirement to send you a digital file for free, and City Property Management will do nothing for free.

Along with your request remind CPM that they have 10 business days to provide you access to the requested record in accordance with ARS 33-1805, and that you expect them to comply with the law.

Dennis

I suspect that a request for a copy of the contract would be ignored. I should send it certified mail?

Rob,

That would be a very good bet. You can always ask to see a copy of the contract between the association and them. That would be the proof of your assumption. If you read that contract carefully you will wonder if any board member actually read the contract before they signed it and approved it. You will pay a premium monthly fee per door in the community but the real issue will be that you will also be billed for everything that you would expect to be covered by the basic fee. You will die a death of 1000 cuts and your cost for management will in some cases double what the basic fee was advertised as.

My advice to you and the homeowners in your community is to watch the financials closely, because your board cannot be trusted to do so for the community if they agreed to hire these people.

Dennis

That’s what I was afraid of. They immediately started doing walk throughs and sending nasty-grams to owners. I bet they get a piece of the fine revenue.

Rob,

City Property management is lead by Brian Links who is the biggest SOB and a__ hole that i’ve ever met. He also leads the Legislative Action Committee for AACM and drives their legislative action to oppose any legislation that helps protect homeowner rights. He has only one agenda and that is making more money off of communities and the homeowners that live in them. I worked against him personally for 4 years now and this opinion is not one generated by casual observation. He will lie, cheat and steal to make more money and works hard to convince legislators that his intent is pure while deceiving them in every way. He is the principle author of the modifications and ridiculous provision of SB 1531 from 2 year ago, that required associations to provide full account statements to every homeowner every billing cycle even if they are current in their assessment and owe no money. This bill allowed the community managers to charge the communities for this mandated and totally unnecessary service to the tune of $2.00 per person per billing cycle. With 1.9 million homes in the state the profit from that bill for community manager exceeded $4 million dollars per billing cycle.
We worked tirelessly last year to undo the damage of that bill but once again Brian Links and AACM distorted a good bill to relieve associations and homeowners with additional provisions to create more windfall profits for community manager companies. Fortunately we were able to kill that bill and but ended up losing any opportunity to provide relief from unnecessary regulation and cost dictated by Brian and AACM.

Ever Community manager that works in that company that i have either directly or indirectly dealt with via our members, is a direct reflection of their CEO and they along with Brian could not care less about any homeowner and see them all as obstacles to making more profit from the associations.
While they may not be the worst community manager company they are definitely in the top 5 worst.

I hope that you get somewhat of an impression of what I think of City Property Management.

Dennis

Billie,

You seem quite versed on the law and appear to have complied in every way possible. The due process to contest any alleged violation was followed completely. You are again correct in the time limit for the response from the association to your contesting the violation. Demand the hearing before the board in open session and invite as many of your friends and neighbors to that meeting. If the board denies your dispute have them specifically identify the exact provision of the governing documents that they assume that you have violated. If you have not violated that provision and they still claim that you have especially if that has not been uniformly applied to all homes in the community inform them that you will file a petition to the Arizona Dept. of Real Estate, based on their failure to comply with Arizona law in the due process for alleged violations and for arbitrary and capricious and totally unreasonable enforcement of association rules .

If it gets to that point let me know and I’ll help you prepare your case for you to present to the ADRE and ALJ.

Dennis

Frank;

Unfortunately your community is still under declarant control. While the change that your declarant recorded 13 years ago actually violated Arizona Law without unanimous consent of all homeowners in the community at that time you are now beyond the statute of limitation for that violation of the law to challenge that amendment in court. I’ve had very similar situations in communities south of Tucson and those communities have been continuing to chip away at what the declarant is attempting to do with he ill gained power.

Because of the very strong lobbying power of the Arizona Builders association and the fundamental property rights of the declarants to sell their properties as they see fit, the period of declarant control is absolute hell on all homeowners. You relinquish all rights when buying a home in a community under declarant control. You will be taxed (assessments) totally without representation. The single issue that initiated the creation of this great country in the first place.

The one saving grace is that Arizona law does have one provision that stipulates that irrespective of any provision in the declaration (CC&R’s) the period of Declarant control will terminate 4 years after all declarants have stopped active sales of any property in the community. While the declarant may have annexed the adjacent property if he has not actively tried to sell any of that property for 4 years or more he will have given up his rights as declarant and the association will be free to elect new board members. Any remaining lots in the community under the declarants name will be counted on a one for one bass relative to voting power. This may still give the declarant considerable power based on his superior voting power, but at least the homeowners have a chase if they work together.

Dennis

John,

Let me first apologize for the lateness of this response, it apparently fell thru the cracks. Your association is full of crap. A virtual meeting is a meeting and and if your bylaws allow for nominations to come from the floor then they allow for nominations to come from the members attending the virtual meeting. I would however caution you that for the meeting to be valid a quorum must be present or have voted by absentee ballot on all the issue before the members. For any legitimate nomination to come from the floor than a quorum of the members must be present at the meeting either in person or virtually via zoom etc. A person voting on board members by absentee ballot will not have the opportunity to vote on any member nominated at the meeting. It is also important to not that Arizona law does not address absentee ballots as optional. It clearly states that any issue brought before the members must be voted by both in person and absentee ballots. If your association does not allow for absentee ballots it is violating the law. Absentee ballots can be counted toward satisfying the quorum requirements for the meeting, but if the absentee ballots are necessary to satisfy the quorum the members cannot consider any action at the meeting that was not included on the absentee ballot. But if the quorum requirements for the members meeting are satisfied by the number of members present at the meeting the members are free to vote on any issue before them even if it was not listed on the absentee ballot.

Dennis

Dave,

The law requires that a special meeting of the association members must be called within 30 days of any meeting where a quorum of the board is removed for the community to elect new board members to fill the unexpired terms of the removed board members. The management company plays no role in this other than to facilitate the business of the association. If there is no board the management has no authority to act in any capacity for the association. The members can call for the special meeting to conduct this vote and to elect the replacement board.

You want to do this as soon as possible because without a board the association essentially does not exist but your CC&R’s are still recorded and valid. No home can be bought or sold in the community without a board in place to act for the association. The association also cannot pay any bills until a board is re-elected. without re-electing a board a court could place the association into receivership that will essentially eliminate all rights for any homeowner and allow the court appointed receiver to assess all homeowners whatever he deems appropriate to pay himself for that service, subject to court review.

This is why i always remind people that if you are considering a petition to remove the entire board you have to think about the next step at the same time and call for the separate members meeting to fill any vacancies created by the recall meeting. One of Covey’s seven traits of effective leaders is to “begin with the end in mind”

Dennis

Tasha,
It’s funny that the association did not a have a record of your correct address but the attorney got it right the first time. Do you have the records of when you submitted your request and the details of that request.? Most CC&R have. Provision that if you do not hear back from the association within 30 days that the requested is automatically approved. As long as you notified the community manager of the official change of address you cannot be held accountable to their incompetence. Check your CC&R for the approval clause. Ask for copies of all alleged communications from the association that were sent to the wrong address. Do you recall the exact day that you notified the association or management company and who you spoke to.? Did your application have your contact information on the application. I know I asked a lot of questions but they are all important to understand you response to the association. For right now file a certified letter to the association contesting the violation based on fact that you were just ow notified of the alleged violation based on the incompetence of the management company.
Get me the information requested and send it to AZHOAtruth@gmail.com.
Dennis