Thank you for including the clause about “all votes to be by secret ballot”.

Thanks for the reply Dennis. Hopefully you can get something passed, because with a lot of people renting houses these days trying to get 50% quorum is impossible.

Sunny,

Unfortunately, this happens in far too many communities. This is the fact. State law requires a meeting of the members to be held annually. it does not say that a meeting must be called annually but rather it must be held. If a quorum is not achieved the meeting is not held and must be reconvened until it is held. Everyone uses the excuse of the unreasonable quorum requirements and the hardship, but no-one remembers that for the most part the board alone can change the quorum requirements in the bylaws to whatever is reasonable for their community. It’s time for board to get off their backsides and amend their governing documents to facilitate the election and annual meeting process. The problem is that boards don’t want to change the quorum requirement to allow elections to take place because this simply extends their power over the community indefinitely. There are many communities in this state that have never held an election and those board members have protected themselves from any accountability to the members of the community.
I will no-longer wait for boards to do the right thing for their communities and will work to mandate free and legitimate elections in these communities. My top priority legislation for next session will clarify these laws and limit quorums to 25% or any lower number specified in the governing documents, standardize the voter eligibility requirements and the board candidate requirements and standardize the voting and election process in these communities under state law including all votes to be by secret ballot.
This madness has to end, the only true power the members have is the power to vote and elect or recall their board. We cannot allow these communities to continue to suppress that power by their incompetence.

Dennis

Great, Dennis. Thank you! Luckily, I know already how to search all of those resources you listed!! I know we do take on the responsibility of maintenance, so signs are pointing toward private ownership.

Rhonda
The County tax assessor’s office also has tax maps for every lot in your development including the lots owned by the association as common property. If the area of your streets are shown as lots or parcels then you own the streets. If your community is gated then the streets have to be privately owned.

Dennis

Rhonda,

The plat for your community must describe all common property usually as “Tracts” if your streets are not included in tracts than they are public streets owned by the city or county. The plat is part of the declaration and recorded in the county recorder’s office. It will also be clear that the streets belong to you if your association maintains them and includes them in your long rang maintenance plans for your reserves.

Dennis

Prairiebelle,

Typically contact information like e-mail accounts and phone numbers is treated as personal information and maintained confidential unless the individual approves their release. Nothing in the law however, requires that.
If the individual involved whose personal information was released by the association without their consent should contact the association and file a complaint. The name and mailing address of the homeowner is public information and free to be deiminated at any time.

Dennis

Thanks for the response. What do I do if they don’t comply with the meeting rules? Is there someone I can make a complaint to? I am going to notify them today about the meeting rules I don’t expect they will comply however. They have shown nothing but inconsideration to myself and most likely others.

Kellie,

Your association board has absolutely no obligation to make everyone happy, their only obligation is to act in the best interest of the community as a whole. Any board that tries to make everyone happy will fail miserably. That is simply human nature, we have only ourselves to make us happy.

There is no organization overseeing HOA or Condominiums in Arizona. What are your issue and concerns? Maybe I can provide you some advice that helps you understand and deal with your association board. Or clarify the laws governing these communities.

Dennis

Keith,
Let me first thank you for your very generous donation, please do not believe that I expect anything for my help. This is a very controversial issue. In 2016 state law was changed to allow non-profit corporations to use on-line voting systems. The statute that was modified was ARS 10-3708. All HOA attorneys and community managers immediately informed all association boards that they can now use on-line voting if they want, because they are all for the most part non-profit corporations. Ignoring the fact that the non-profit corporation act cannot supersede any provision in the planned community or condominium act. Both those statutes specifically identify that all voting in these communities must be done in-person and by absentee ballot. Additionally, both the planned community act and condominium act specifically excludes the use of ARS 10-3708 for these communities. This is not convenient for the HOA attorneys, so they just ignore it claiming that an on-line voting system is simply another form of delivery for absentee ballots. This is simply untrue, as these systems are complex voting programs accessed via the internet and easily manipulated.
It has always been by understanding of the literal language in the statutes that on-line voting is not appropriate for these communities based on the current law. The most significant issue here is that even in the non-profit corporation statute, the use of an online system is only authorized if certain conditions are met and the corporation allows anyone that does not want to use the on-line system to be provided a paper ballot. This is another issue that the attorneys and community managers conveniently ignore or forget to tell homeowners. You absolutely under any circumstance must be allowed to use a paper in-person or absentee ballot. They don’t want to have to do any more work and don’t want you to know that you have a choice.
I personally don’t have a problem with the use of an on-line voting system as long as the association board and the community managers are not allowed to manage the system during the voting process and adequate controls are applied to ensure the integrity of the voting process. These systems are most useful for large communities and of very little value for small communities.
I’ll be proposing legislation to reform the entire voting process for these communities and allowing an on-line voting system with the necessary controls in place. Even in my proposed legislation any homeowner that is not comfortable with the use of an on-line voting system must be allowed to vote with a paper ballot.

To your very simple question, these systems are in use throughout the state in large communities today and in my opinion this is totally illegal under Arizona Law as it applies today.

Dennis