4 Remaining HOA Related Bills

    Currently, there are only four HOA related bills that are still active. 
     
    HB 2371 is one we have mentioned in our previous legislative updates and     is awaiting assignment to the Senate Consent Calendar and a Senate floor vote having successfully passed the House and the Senate Government Committee. 

    • The first section of this bill (9-461.15 and 11-810) has a provision that 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 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 HB 2371 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.   
    • Section 33-1806 (HOAs) and 33-1260 (condominiums) contains language that describes what information a 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. 

    The strike everything version of HB 2371 can be found at http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/adopted/h.2371-se-gov.pdf 
    a subsequent clarifying amendment to the strike everything bill can be found at     http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/adopted/h.2371-f1-ugenti.pdf 

     
    HB 2292 - This bill is now in the form of a strike everything amendment as sponsored by Senator Rick Murphy.  The language in the bill has similarities to the first section of HB 2371 (9-461.15 and 11-810), in that it includes provisions that would prohibit a municipality or county from requiring developers or builders from creating HOAs.  However, the bill also states that the HOA or planned community will be “limited to the maintenance of community owned property.”   The bill is currently being “retained” in the Senate Committee of the Whole (COW) as stakeholders discuss implications of this bill given the language that exists in HB 2371.  The strike everything amendment can be found at the following link.   
    http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/adopted/s.2292jud.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 also passed the House as of April 8th.  The bill will go back to the Senate and then on to the Governor for approval or veto.  Following is the link to the current 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 also passed the House Government and the House Rules Committee.  The next step for the bill is to the House floor for a vote.  Following is the link to the Senate engrossed version of the bill.  
    http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/sb1302s.pdf