HB 2371 and Status of Bills

    The deadline for committees to hear bills originally assigned to them was Friday, February 22nd.  While bills not heard in their committee of origin can generally be considered "dead," we will continue to monitor activity in the House and Senate for bill amendments related to the HOA industry. 

    The green box to the right has the status of each bill we are tracking.  Bills that are now considered “dead”, read “dead this session” and if still active is noted where in the process they are.

    HB 2371 sponsored by Representative Ugenti passed out of the House Government Committee with a vote of 8 ayes to 1 nay.  It will now go to the House Rules Committee and then proceed to the House floor for a vote.  You can view the bill here: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/adopted/h.2371-se-gov.pdf. 

    Some members have asked for more detail regarding this bill, below a recap of what impact the language has on an association or Board member.  HB 2371 has some reasonable language while not having any real negative impact on our communities. 

    • Language in the first section of the bill (9-461.15 and 11-810), would prohibit a municipality or county from requiring developers or builders from creating HOAs.  Based on our experience, this is not detrimental to the future of HOAs as the developers and builders create their own CC&Rs and plats with common areas but not generally as a result of a demand by the applicable city or county.  They would still be able to create HOAs.  
    • HB 2371 as amended would also give management companies the statutory authority to execute liens on behalf of our associations and to appear in small claims court as a representative vs. just a fact witness so that our Board members would no longer have to attend hearings with us.  The bill goes on to provide clarification on “or other form of delivery” as far as voting in annual meetings to specifically state by “electronic mail and by facsimile” which is somewhat worrisome given the success we have had with the ballot process but we can still make this work and it does provide clarification.  HB 2371 also provides for a more detailed disclosure for HOAs and condos via the annual corporation renewal with the corporation commission starting January 1, 2015.    
    • Under section 41-2198.01 there is language in the bill that deals with complaints or petitions filed by a homeowner through the Administrative Law Judge or ALJ hearing process and this language states that if the petitioner or homeowner wishes to dismiss the request before a hearing is scheduled then the filing fee would be refunded to the petitioner or homeowner.   
    • The last section of HB 2371 includes language under 33-1806 (HOAs) and 33-1260 (condominiums) that describes what information an HOA or condo can request regarding tenants of owners and what cannot be requested.  Whereas we could not ask for a copy of the lease agreement, we can, however, ask for names of tenants, contact information, names of minor children of the tenant occupying the home or unit, the time period of the lease and a description of tenants’ vehicles and license plate numbers.  This creates a statutory opportunity for associations to request this information which has not been readily available in the past.  A fee of $25 could also be charged by the association or managing agent each time a new tenant occupies the home or unit.  

    HB 2527 – This bill states that a condominium association could not prohibit the indoor or outdoor display of a “political sign” by a unit owner on the owner’s property except earlier than 71 days before Election Day and later than 3 days after Election Day.   The bill has been successfully passed by the House and was transmitted to the Senate for committee assignment on March 1, 2013. The House engrossed version of the bill as transmitted to the Senate can be found at the following link.  http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/hb2527h.pdf

    SB 1278 - This bill states that planned communities would have no authority over public roadways dedicated to a government entity. Unlike similar prior years’ bills, this bill also states that this would only apply to those planned communities whose CC&Rs are recorded after December 31, 2014. This bill successfully passed the Senate and has been assigned to the House Government Committee.  Following is the link to the Senate engrossed version of the bill.  http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/sb1278s.pdf

    SB 1302 – This bill provides additional clarification on the design guideline/architectural review committee bill that became law after last year’s session. This bill successfully passed the Senate and has been assigned to the House Government Committee.   Following is the link to the Senate engrossed version of the bill.  http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/sb1302s.pdf