2013 Legislative Session Has Ended

    As of today, June 14, 2013 at 12:59 am, Arizona’s 51st Legislature First Regular Session has adjourned!

    Any legislation that has not been signed or vetoed by Governor Brewer at this time must be signed or vetoed by June 26, 2013, or it will automatically become law.  Bills that become law will become effective on September 13, 2013 unless a bill contains an emergency clause or delayed effective date.

    There is still an HOA related bill that we monitoring which is sitting on the Governors desk, HB2371 which was amended to SB1454.  Details regarding this bill are below:  

    Section (9-461.15 and 11-810) contains the following

    • 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. 
    • As amended, this 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.  
    • It also provides for a more detailed disclosure for HOAs and condos via the annual corporation renewal with the corporation commission starting January 1, 2015.    

    Section 41-2198.01 contains language 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.     

    Language in Section 33-1806 (HOAs) and 33-1260 (condominiums) 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.


    To view bill SB1454 click here: http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/51leg/1r/bills/sb1454h.pdf