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I recently came across an interesting article from CAI (Community Associations Institute). For this article, home owners had been asked how satisfied they are with their HOA:
• Satisfied 72%
• Neutral 19%
• Dissatisfied 9%
Home owners were also asked what they believed the purpose of the HOA was:
• 74% believed the HOA protected property values
• 22% saw neither benefit or harm to the HOA
• 3% believed the HOA were harmful to property values
Overall, the vast majority (by nearly 3 out of 4 respondents) believed their HOAs were beneficial in maintaining property values.
- Jeff Frenzel
Filed under: HOA General Information
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Do you live in a townhome or a condo?
When you purchased or refinanced within the Association, your mortgage company inquired and required proof of insurance for the Master Insurance Policy. The mortgage company was looking to ensure that the policy covered what was required per the Associations governing documents or their legal requirements.
There are times when these mortgage companies forget that they should also be working to protect the rest of their interest for those areas that aren’t covered by the master policy. In a condo it may include your upgrades to the flooring, the walls, your personal property, your appliances, and other parts. In a townhome it will be the walls, the floors, the appliances, your personal property, and any area that is not the common areas of the association. It is important for you, the homeowner to know what is a common element and what is the “unit”. Everything that is the “unit” is your responsibility to insure and by not doing so, you may be in violation of your governing documents.
These costs are usually minimal for the peace of mind. Insurance is for those items that are unexpected and can really save you a lot of money if that unexpected event ever occurs. These policies can even provide you with a place to call home if your home is uninhabitable for a period of time.
For more information, visit the Insurance Information Institute Web site.
Filed under: General Information, HOA Costs, HOA Governing Documents
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Are there times where you just don’t understand what your HOA is doing? You just are frustrated as they just don’t seem to accomplishing what you believe is important. To help understand what you can do to help things go more smoothly in your discussions with your HOA, take a moment to read this great blog on the Morgans Run HOA blog entitled Workng Contructively with Your Association written by Jeff Frenzel. It covers many suggestions and ideas that may help you better understand your HOA, to work with them, and to discuss your concerns with them.
Filed under: HOA General Information
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So your community wants to modify their governing documents to state “No Registered Sex Offenders are allowed to purchase or reside within X HOA.” Sounds like a good idea, right? Sex Offenders are not a protected class so your HOA would not be violating any Fair Housing Laws. If an HOA can change their governing documents to ban all attorneys and it has gone through the court system, then we should be fine, right?
Well according to the class that I attended presented by the law firm of Hindman Sanchez, an HOA can modify their governing documents to ban all registered sex offenders. But how is the HOA going to enforce this? What happens when someone purchases and moves in being “cleared” and then they later become a registered sex offender? Who’s responsibility will it be to approve those clearing someone’s criminal record to move in the community? What happens if you are the homeowner and you’ve been trying to sell for 6 months, you finally have a contract to purchase, and then you find out that the purchaser can’t move in because they are a registered sex offender so backs out of the contract?
When a New Jersey Appellate Court considered the governing documents of a community with such a ban, the court said, “that large segments of the state could entirely close their doors to such individuals, confining them to a narrow corridor, and thus perhaps exposing those within that remaining corridor to greater risk of harm than they might otherwise have had to confront.” What it means, should those that choose not to live in an HOA be forced to be the only areas where Registered Sex Offenders can live?
In Colorado, HOAs do not have a duty to anticipate and prevent dangers that are reasonably foreseeable within the community. If an HOA provides security or the illusion of security, then the HOA has voluntarily undertaken these duties. So if an HOA decides to put together an amendment to their governing documents banning registered sex offenders, the HOA then gives the illusion of providing security to the community. What a burden to be placed on the community as a whole! Along with the burden of now providing security to the community continually, the HOA is now looking at increased insurance premiums for the extra protection, increased costs to administer, and a huge threat of a lawsuit to be the “test” in the legal system.
To read more about this, visit the Hindman Sanchez web site.
Filed under: Court Rulings, HOA Governing Documents
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In this blog I’m going to list / link to different sites that will list the registered sex offenders. Be aware that these lists are updated differently and may not reflect a sex offender that is registering today, or yesterday, or a month ago. Understand that these sites are only as good as the information they can gather / receive. If you would like other sites, please google or use another web search option to find them. Some sites are free while others charge. Another option is to visit the police department directly for a list.
To learn more about Megan’s Law for the State of Colorado, visit the Klaas Kids Foundation.
So if the links are out there, why doesn’t an HOA just put a list on their web site or post it on the community boards? HOA’s are there not to keep a community crime free, they are there to help keep values up and the community aesthetically pleasing. If the Board began posting lists of registered sex offenders, how would they know that these lists are up to date? What happens if there are two John Smiths within the community? What happens if a registered sex offender registered a wrong address and doesn’t live within the community - would you like to live in that home that is listed as a home to a registered sex offender? What happens if you had a similar address - Lane instead of Drive? There are too many liability issues for an HOA Board / HOA community to post this information.
Filed under: Court Rulings, HOA General Information
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