Susan,
The HOA resale disclosure laws for Arizona are very weak at best and was the initial subject that i tried to address when i first got involved in the legislation. I attempted revised legislation for the first three years and had nothing but resistance from the HOA Industry, the kiss of death was resistance from the Arizona Realtors Association. They did not want legislation that would force the association to truly disclose the extent of their mismanagement of money or their treatment of homeowners that could risk or impact the sale of homes in these communities. This is truly a buyer beware state that requires home buyers to have to investigate on their own their true risk of buying in one community over another. Under Arizona law any association greater than 50 homes or units the association is responsible to disclose the specific information identified in law and reflected word for word in the Real Estate contracts. For an HOA the statute is ARS 33-1806 and for a Condo the language is exactly the same. Some financial information is required based on a current state of affairs without any variances year to year. I’ve had associations that planned special assessment on homeowners of $5,000 that were applied one week after a person bought their home without ever having that fact disclosed to them prior to when they bought all without violating any law. Transfer fees are another pet issue of mine that are abused to no end by associations. They however must be disclosed no matter how inappropriate they are.
Dennis

Interesting question. I’m not an attorney so i can provide no legal advice, but this is somewhat outside the norm of HOA authority. Typically what would happen in a case like this is to hold the homeowner responsible for the behavior of the contractors that work for them. Clearly what the sub-contractor did was totally inappropriate but the homeowner brought him into the community. To apply some sort of ban on that contractor working or even entering the community would probably be a violation of Arizona’s right to work provisions in the constitution. While I would agree that the association is free to create rules to protect homeowners from nuisance and harassment behaviors of other homeowners that impact their comfort and enjoyment of their homes, I know of no other case where this was applied to non-residents of the community. If I were you I would consider informing the community of what took place and advising them that if this contractor is considered for any work that would require ARC approval then that approval would not be granted. You could then establish a rule that requires the homeowners to identify the proposed contractors and sub contractors to be used on all projects requiring ARC review and approval.

Dennis

Terry,

While the Board President can call a meeting of the board at any time for any issue, he or she has absolutely no power to do anything else without the prior authorization of the board. The officers of the board are appointed by the board itself and can be removed from that position by vote of the board. However, the board has absolutely no power to remove a board member without a vote of the members of the community. Duly elected or appointed board members can only be removed by resignation of that board member or a petition to recall that director submitted by 25% of the community members.

It you can provide me more details on why the secretary believes that the association is conducting illegal meetings i can provide you guidance on the legitimacy of that claim. Having said that, it is extremely suspicious when a board president immediately attacks another board member who claims that the association is conducting business inappropriately instead of investigating that claim. The other board members have just as much responsibility to the members that they represent to conduct business according to the law. That is absolutely not the way any association board should act. There is a very important reason for boards to be independent thinkers and not simply puppets that only act at the whim of any one board member. You community surely deserves much more from your board president that what this demonstrates.

Dennis

Bente,

Your bylaws allow the association the ability to deny you your fundamental right to vote on any community issue, including amendments or board elections. It is for associations like this that create these type of broad based excuses for denying homeowners the right to vote on issues in their own communities, that i drafted my open meeting and voting bill that would limit an associations ability to deny any homeowners right to vote to only failure to pay assessments when due. An association can fabricate a violation against an individual that opposes their actions to prevent that person from voting and running for office. They can then also disqualify any individual they want who signs a petition to recall the board.

Dennis

Hi Dennis
This is what our Bylaws say regarding ineligable to vote.
Section 4.3 Good Standing. I f a Member otherwise entitled to vote is delinquent in the payment o f periodic or special Assessments, fmes, penalties, interest, late charges, transfer fees, refinance fees, costs ofcollection, lien fees, attorneys’ fees or other monies owed to the Association or is not in compliance with the tenns of the Association’s Governing Documents, the Bylaws or the Rules and Regulations ofthe Association, the Board ofDirectors may, in its sole discretion, certify that such Member is not in good standing and such Member’s right to vote shall be suspended until the delinquency, breach or violation is paid in full, cured or corrected.

What exactly does certify that such member is not in good standing mean?
Thanks again

Without reading through all the replies. Let me just tell you. We hired City Management Company. Great sales pitch. Worst property management company I have ever worked with as the president.
Bente

Rob,

Please remember that renters don’t count unless the owner has given the renter permission to act in his stead in writing to the association. Only actual home owners are members of the association. Contact information is generally considered confidential and most associations don’t provide that information unless permission is granted by each homeowner. Unless you have contact information these petitions are seldom successful without door to door leg work. Again why HB-2052 is so important.

Dennis

Thank you for the quick and thorough reply. The 25% threshold is quite low in my case, given the size of the community, that’s literally just a handful of votes. Some of units are renter occupied. Do you know if AZ requires HOA to provide the name and address of all members upon request? I could just write some letters and organize a vote.

Winslow,

While I’ve answered all question thru the e-mail stream that you sent to me directly, I’ll repeat that answer for the benefit of any member reading this question. Whether or not homeowners know that CC&R’s exist or not is totally irrelevant. If they are recorded they exist and all property in that community is subject to the conditions and restrictions of that recorded document. Renewal of existing CC&R’s is typically automatic and needs no action by the community or the board, but you would want to see the specific language of your particular documents.
Arizona law provides no vehicle for the courts to reduce the approval requirements for changes to the declaration. The approval requirements specified in the declaration is required.
What was not included in this question but relevant to the case is that while the CC&R’s were recorded and required that a non-profit corporation be created to run the community and enforce the CC&R’s, the declarant never created that association and for over 16 year the association never existed. Technically any home in the community could not be bought or sold with recorded deed restrictions that were not implementable. This put the community in grave danger and my advice for this community was to hire an attorney and create an association to comply with the CC&R’s. While this will do nothing to change the CC&R’s it will at least allow the association to function and free the homeowners to sell property legally.

Dennis

Rob,

The process starts with a petition signed by 25% of the homeowners in your community. This takes a group effort by like minded individuals and friends. Get your core group organized, and go door to door or call for an informational meeting at any community meeting room. The management company does not work for the community it works for the board and will do absolutely nothing to help in your effort. This is why my bill HB2052 is so vital to this type of effort. It prevents the association from restricting your ability to post signs or to organize meeting or hold those meeting for that type of effort. The association will never provide you the contact information for all the homeowners unless each individual homeowner has given permission to make that information public.
Once you have your signatures (get more than the minimum 25%) present that to the board. The board must then call for a special meeting of the members to be held within 30 days of the receipt of the petition, to vote to remove the individual board member cited in the petition. The board would be required to notify every member of the community of the special meeting and the subject of that meeting. A simple majority of the homeowners voting at that meeting in person and by absentee ballot decides the outcome. An important thing to remember is that if you are removing only one board member the board not members get to decide who will fill that vacancy for the rest of that unexpired term.
Dennis