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HOA GOES BANKRUPT FIGHTING OBAMA SIGN

February 11th, 2013, 12:00 pm by

Sam and Maria Farran. Photo courtesy The Washington Post

Homeowners associations can get into big trouble by picking the wrong fight with the wrong homeowner.

Want to infringe on someone’s First Amendment rights? Think you can bully someone into taking down a political sign because they disagree with your politics? HOA boards need to be careful who they pick on.

Check out this story in the Washington Post.

It tells how an HOA board in the Olde Belhaven community in Washington D.C., picked a fight with Sam and Maria Farran over an Obama for President sign they put in their yard  in 2008.

The sign was  four inches taller than the maximum limit allowed by the association’s rules. One HOA board member, Don Hughes, took a hardline stance against the couple. He wrote a letter threatening to ask the HOA board to put a lien on their townhome unless they complied.

But Sam and Maria Farra refused to take it down. They argued their right to display the sign was protected by the Constitution. The board initiated fines in the hundreds of dollars. The couple sued, calling the fines vindictive.

Now, more than four years later, the HOA is being forced to pay Sam and Maria Farra’s legal costs as well as their own. The tab is $400,000 and the legal battle has ruined the HOA’s finances.

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HOA CZAR ON AGENDA FOR 2013 GENERAL ASSEMBLY

January 7th, 2013, 12:01 pm by

Colorado Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora and incoming Senate Majority Leader

When Sen. Morgan Carroll sponsored the Homeowners Bill of Rights in 2005, it turns out she was just getting started in her efforts to rein in rogue homeowners associations boards and property managers who abuse HOA residents.

Stricter reforms followed.

Now, as the 2013 Colorado General Assembly opens this week, Carroll is poised as incoming Senate Majority Leader to tighten the state’s grip on HOAs.

Carroll, an Aurora Democrat, said bills will be introduced in the Democrat-controlled House designed to give homeowners a powerful new ally in their battles with dictatorial HOAs by creating what I’m calling a state HOA czar.

Carroll said she wants to energize the HOA Information Office and Resource Center beyond its current role collecting data and informing people of their rights.

She hopes to transform the office and its leader, HOA Information Officer Gary Kujawski, into a robust investigative and enforcement agency.

Lawmakers, led by Carroll, created the agency in 2010. It spent 2011 registering HOAs — single-family neighborhoods, condo and townhome associations, voluntary improvement associations, property owners associations. And its staff fielded dozens of calls each day from HOA residents reporting claims of abuse.

Early in the 2012 session, the agency delivered a devastating 24-page report to lawmakers chronicling the complaints and sparking calls for strict regulation of the state’s 8,000-plus HOAs.

“When we created the HOA Information Office, we were wanting an ombudsman with investigative authority and enforcement authority,” Carroll said.

“This year, we’re definitely looking at making the HOA info office more robust. There’s a list of things we can do to put more teeth into the office.”

Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver and incoming Speaker of the Colorado House

Carroll said it’s only fair to give HOA residents someone to call when going up against well-funded HOA boards and property management companies and their attorneys.

“Even with the law on their side, most people don’t have time or money to go to court,” she said. “It’s a  minimum $10,000 investment.”

Another bill would require individual property managers be licensed by the state. She prefers it to licensing management companies as a sunrise review recommended in 2012.

“We think it would go a long way toward better compliance with state law,” Carroll said.

“Managers are more likely to advise them to run open meetings, to comply with disclosure laws and produce documents as required if they know their professional license is at stake.”

Carroll has more ideas for protecting the 2 million Coloradans living in HOAs.

And she’s hopeful of winning passage, given the predisposition of House Speaker Mark Ferrandino toward HOAs. (See Saturday’s Side Streets column.)

“I’m really looking forward to this session,” Carroll said.

This could get interesting.

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HOAs TO TAKE CENTER STAGE IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

January 5th, 2013, 12:01 pm by

Incoming Speaker of the Colorado House Mark Ferrandino

Incoming Speaker of the House Mark Ferrandino brings a very personal perspective on homeowners associations to the Colorado General Assembly when it convenes next week.

He’s not a fan.

In fact, when I mentioned HOAs to Ferrandino during his newsroom visit Thursday, he had this response:

“Don’t get me started!”

Seems the leader of the Colorado House had a rude introduction to life in covenant-protected communities. You know, neighborhoods with volunteers to enforce architectural and landscaping rules to maintain community standards and protect property values.

“When I lived in an HOA, I thought of my HOA as being paid as part of my mortgage,” Ferrandino said. “Our HOA fees were $25 a month. They didn’t do much so it wasn’t really a lot of money.

“After living there about six months, I get a notice that there’s a lien on my property. I didn’t realize I wasn’t paying my HOA.”

The Denver Democrat was echoing a complaint I’ve heard often by folks who felt ambushed by the very existence of an HOA in their new neighborhood and the need to pay dues.

Ferrandino was shocked that his HOA board would take such a predatory approach to a new neighbor.

“The president of my HOA wasn’t smart enough to just walk down the street, knock on my door and ask for a check,” said Ferrandino, a fiscal analyst who has a master’s degree in economics. “I could have just written the check for $75.

“I was good for it.”

Instead, he ended up spending upwards of $500 to cover the court costs and legal fees associated with satisfying the lien.

“So you can understand my attitude toward HOAs,” Ferrandino said. “I actively look for areas that do not have HOAs where I will live.”

It will not surprise anyone, then, that Ferrandino welcomes greater regulation of HOAs, their managers and volunteer boards and expects several bills to be introduced.

“There needs to be much more accountability and transparency in HOAs,” he said. “We’re supposed to be a democracy. But sometimes they have dictatorial authority within communities.”

So I asked how he felt about giving the new HOA Information Officer, Gary Kujawski, power to investigate and enforce the 2005 Homeowners Bill of Rights as well as subsequent efforts by lawmakers to rein in HOAs, led by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora.

“I’m open to it,” he said with enthusiasm. “I’d love to see a bill that gives people in HOAs a way to enforce their rights. So they have someone to complain to that can hold HOAs boards and managers accountable.

“We can pass all the laws we want, but if people don’t have a way to complain and enforce those laws, they aren’t worth the paper we printed the laws on.”

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Please follow this link to a December 2012  Side Streets column about recent changes in HOA law.

To read a May 2012 blog about the HOA Information and Resource Center, click here.

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PIKES PEAK REGION LEADS STATE IN HOA COMPLAINTS

January 27th, 2012, 1:15 pm by

Hello, neighbor!

Time again for one of my favorite topics: homeowners associations, or HOAs.

The HOA Information Office and Resource Center just released a year-long study of Colorado’s HOAs. Results are not pretty.

The HOA office fielded 3,053 inquiries, of which 478 were complaints.

Guess what area produced the highest number of complaints.

The Pikes Peak region, of course, with 21 percent of all complaints!

Are we a bunch of whiners, or what?

Not really, says Aaron Acker, the Colorado HOA Information Officer.

“We started with the presumption we’d get a lot of ticky-tack complaints,” Acker said. “We were wrong. Most of the issues were major ones.”

Complaints like HOA boards and managers hiding financial and governing documents.

“Transparency is a big issue,” Acker said. “Homeowners trying to get information are getting significant blow-back from their management companies or HOA boards.”

Aaron Acker, Colorado HOA Information Officer, spoke to a group of Pikes Peak region property managers and HOA board members on Feb. 15, 2011.

“People want to know what’s going on with their money. And HOA boards have a legal obligation to produce records at the behest of members. But we’re seeing a lot of complaints about them not responding, producing incomplete records, fighting requests or charging very high fees for documents.”

Access to HOA board meetings came up often in Acker’s study, as did failure to listen to homeowners — whether by property managers or HOA boards.

“These are pretty major issues, in my estimation,” Acker said.

Acker and his office were created by the 2010 Colorado General Assembly.

Upon opening the office last January, Acker was told to find and register all Colorado HOAs.

 (I used that abbreviation to describe single family resident neighborhoods, condo and townhome associations, voluntary improvement associations, property owners associations.)

So far, he has registered 8,037 asssociations, representing 838,211 homes, condos and townhome units and 2 million residents.

Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region are grouped in the South Central category, which has 661 registered HOAs. That’s about 8.2 percent of all HOAs registered. In other words, that 8.2 percent accounted for 21 percent of all complaints!

 (Industry experts believe upwards of 25 percent of Colorado HOAs remain unregistered.)

Acker said he hopes HOAs will use his findings as a wakeup call to reform how they interact with homeowners.

Lawmakers are digging into the data, as well, and likely will use it to decide whether it’s time to license property managers or give Acker greater power to police HOAs. Stay tuned!

Here is a link to a column and blog I wrote recently about the issue of licensing property managers.

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HOA BOSS FACES QUESTIONS FROM HOA MANAGERS

February 16th, 2011, 12:03 pm by

Aaron Acker, director of Colorado's new HOA Information and Resource Center, speaks Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011, in Colorado Springs to the Southern Colorado Chapter of the Community Associations Institute.

Colorado’s new HOA boss, Aaron Acker, came to Colorado Springs with a clear message for homeowners association board members and professional property managers: he and the new HOA Information Office and Resource Center are not the enemy. 

“We’re not going to be condo cops,” Acker said Tuesday in a speech to the Southern Colorado Chapter of the Community Associations Institute, the trade group for property managers and HOAs. 

“We are not a regulatory agency,” Acker said. “And we are not in the business of mediating disputes. 

“We are strictly an information-gathering agency and resource center for homeowners and for associations.” 

The crowd of more than 100 seemed wary, however, and even a bit suspicious of Acker. 

 

 

Acker said about 3,500 HOAs had registered so far, covering about 250,000 homes in Colorado. But he said many more need to get registered by logging onto his web site and paying the $8.95 fee. 

“I’m encouraging homeowners to become active in their associations and talk with their associations,” Acker said. “I try to help them understand the concept of homeowners associations. A lot of people have never lived under an association and don’t understand their rights. 

He said he welcomed information from association boards and property managers, as well. 

“I’d love to hear from you,” he said. “We understand there are benefits of homeowners associations,” Acker said. “That’s why so many people want to live in them.” 

Here’s a link to a previous blog I wrote about Acker and his agency. 

Aaron Acker, head of the new state HOA Information and Resource Center, fielded questions from the Southern Colorado Chapter of the Community Associations Industry at a luncheon Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011, in Colorado Springs.

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UPDATES . . . HOT UPDATES HERE!

July 14th, 2010, 5:20 pm by

It took three years, but the furor over the Great Wall of Cascade Avenue appears to be over and it has been lowered to comply with Colorado Springs building codes!

Disgruntled residents of homeowners associations, or HOAs, will soon have a state agency to turn to for help.

And the battle for control of the Crystal Park HOA rages on, even after a special meeting appeared to result in a recall vote ousting six board members.

First, the wall.

The wall around the Old North End home of Holger and Sally Christiansen has been lowered in response to a judge's order. The city granted the couple permission to let their decorative columns, called pilasters, exceed the maximum wall height of 6 feet. The chainlink gates appear to be temporary in this July 14, 2010, photo.

It’s been three years since a furor erupted in the Old North End Neighborhood, north of Colorado College, over Holger and Sally Christiansen‘s wall.

In July 2007, neighbors started complaining to the neighborhood association and the city. Public meetings were held. Hearings. Eventually, the dispute led to lawsuits filed by the city and the couple.

The Christiansens lost and were ordered to lower the wall to achieve compliance with city codes limiting it to a maximum 6 feet in height.

They complied. But they received one favor from the city. They were allowed to leave their decorative columns, called finials. They exceed the maximum by about a foot.

The three-year battle over the wall built by Holger and Sally Christiansen around their Old North End Neighborhood home seems to be over. The wall has been lowered, at a judge's order, to comply with city building codes which set a maximum height of 6 feet. This is a July 14, 2010, photo.

Here’s a link to an earlier story on the wall.

And this link will take you to prior blogs on the subject.

The HOA Information and Resource Center will open Jan. 1, 2011, thanks to action by the Colorado General Assembly.

Here’s a link to previous columns about the center.

And this link will take you to blog postings.

Lastly, Crystal Park remains in a furor over its HOA board of directors.

After months of campaining, dissidents in the private, gated community succeeded in gathering sufficient votes to oust the board.

They claimed 184 votes to recall the board. They needed 181 votes for a majority of the 360 members of the community above Manitou Springs.

Not so fast, said the existing board. It deemed the meeting and vote illegal.

I’m guessing this puppy ends up in court where only the attorneys will be the winners.

Here’s a link to an earlier column on Crystal Park.

Read my related blog post at this link.

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Lawmakers take on HOAs GONE WILD!!!

April 28th, 2010, 12:59 pm by

Colorado’s General Assembly is taking a hard look at homeowners associations again.

Starting in 2005, lawmakers began trying to reform HOAs after more and more complaints about abuses by HOA boards surfaced.

Colorado Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora

Leading the charge then and now is state Sen. Morgan Carroll, an Aurora Democrat, who co-sponsored the 2005 Homeowners Bill of Rights which made sweeping changes to how the state’s estimated 12,000 HOAs operate.

The law, and subsequent amendments, addressed common HOA abuses such as secret meetings, hidden financial documents, mishandling of money, selective enforcement of covenants and hidden meeting minutes.

Now, Carroll and a fellow Aurora Democrat, Rep. Su Ryden, are trying again to give homeowners help in their battles with HOA boards.

Colorado Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora

They have co-sponsored House Bill 1278, which is working its way through the legislature.

Originally, it would have created an HOA Ombudsman office, similar to a concept pioneered in 1997 by Nevada and subsequently copied by Florida, New Jersey and other states.

The idea was to give folks a place to get their conflicts resolved through mediation instead of automatically forcing people to sue in civil court.

Nevada is able to resolve half its complaints without going to court. I wrote about its office in January.

Here’s a link to my January column about the HOA ombudsman in Nevada.

And follow this link to my blog related to that column.

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SMALL HOAS SEEK FAIRNESS FROM COLORADO LAWMAKERS

February 21st, 2010, 12:00 pm by

State Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument

 

Rep. Amy Stephens, a Monument Republican, has introduced a little bill in the 2010 Colorado General Assembly that would have a big impact on small homeowners associations.

Stephens’ bill, House Bill 1290, would allow small HOAs to exempt themselves from the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, a law enacted in 1992 to govern condominium and townhome complexes as well as large neighborhoods that have jointly owned parks, trails, open space and covenants.

She calls it a matter of “common sense” because large condos and townhome

Jan Doran

complexes and sprawling subdivisions like Woodmoor with its 3,000 homes have much different issues than small single-family neighborhoods that were commonly build in the 1970s and ’80s.

To Jan Doran, administrator of the Discovery neighborhood homeowners association in Rockrimmon, it’s a matter of fairness.

Her HOA collects just $30 a year in dues from its 329 homeowners. That’s not even $10,000 in annual revenue. She said the HOA can’t afford all the government mandates handed down in recent years by the General Assembly.

It maintains a Web site where it posts all its covenants, bylaws, budgets, audits, reports and meeting minutes. But then there are the reports the HOA must produce for real estate agents and prospective buyers in addition to Discovery residents.

Attorney Lenard Rioth says an oversight in 1992 led to older, smaller HOAs to remain under the rule of CCIOA while newer, smaller HOAs were exempt. He said it’s time to allow the older, smaller HOAs like Discovery to opt out, too, if they like.

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HAVE WE HEARD THE LAST OF THIS ANTI-HOA ZEALOT?

January 3rd, 2010, 12:00 pm by

Have we heard the last of Jan Jackson, Colorado’s leading activist in the fight against homeowners associations and assorted other anti-government, anti-Obama, Tea Party, “patriot resistance“ causes?

janjacksonpage

Jackson spent much of the decade fighting HOAs, as they are known. She has engaged in intensely personal attacks on her own HOA board and her neighbors at the B Lazy M Ranch south of Florissant in Teller County. And she carried on a statewide, even national crusade.

For years, she was a prolific anti-HOA crusader, writing hundreds of articles and Web postings like the one below.

jacksonpage

Last spring, in the wake of a major legal victory in which an appellate court lifted a lower court-imposed gag order on Jackson, she disappeared.

Turns out, Jackson had fallen ill and was hospitalized. Then, she suffered the loss of her husband, Richard Thomas, who died July 3 leaving her a widow after 27 years of marriage. The personal tragedy clearly changed her. She has quit her Web radio blog and stopped posting on state and national anti-HOA Web sites. And she has given up efforts to amend the Colorado Constitution to abolish HOAs.

Jackson said she thinks she has done her part, warning the nation about the evils of HOAs. And she intends to remain on the sidelines of future HOA wars unless she really feels the need to get involved.

Here is a link to a previous blog I wrote about Jackson. I’ve written several columns about Jackson over the years. Here is my March 19, 2009, column. Before that, I profiled her on Nov. 12, 2007.

Here’s a link to Jackson’s HOA radio blog site where you can listen to past broadcasts. This takes you directly to an archived broadcast.

 Here’s Jackson’s page on ResistNet, a site for gun owners and the patriotic resistance.

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HOA DUES – where do your dues rank?

September 20th, 2009, 11:30 am by

I asked. You answered. Below is what we learned.

I’ve posted two lists.

One is an alphabetical list of 80 or so homeowners associations and their cousins — community, neighborhood, recreation, condo and townhome associations. All are from the Colorado Springs region.

The second file contains a numeric list, ranking them top to bottom by amount.

On the alpha list, I’ve included comments I received in e-mails from you, the source of the information. However, I have not included any names or e-mail addresses.

If you find this interesting, informative, valuable or wrong, tell me. Shoot me an e-mail at bill.vogrin@gazette.com. Then stay tuned.

In the very near future, I will be creating a more formal questionaire about HOA dues. It will ask you to click through the amenities you recieve for your money and even comment on the quality of your HOA.

I’m hoping the database will even include a map feature.

There are two ways to look at the database. You can either read the alphabetical list posted below or follow these links to the list: Alphabetical list and Numeric list

  Read the rest of this entry »

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