HOA Board of Directors Protection Act – Colorado Law
Notice to homeowners in HOA’s: You are not a special interest group. At least you are not a special interest group that your State legislature feels can influence an election, donate large sums of money, or can benefit them by providing you protections against abusive HOA Boards. If you were, by now you would have some legal tools of substance to protect your homeowner rights.
The most current sham coming out of your Colorado legislature involves a piece of legislation, Colorado H.B. 1278, that will (pending signing by the Governor) create an HOA Ombudsman position meant to enhance existing legislation and your by-laws related to protecting HOA homeowner rights. Sounds great but actually another bit of empty HOA-Homeowner legislation that is insulting and deceptive to homeowners and ends up protecting the interests of realtors, HOA’s. Boards, and developers.
Basically, the proposed legislation creates an Office/position for some bureaucrat to collect and catalog homeowner complaints. This “homeowner protection” legislation provides no means of enforcement or penalties in HOA – homeowner disputes, no legal guidance for homeowners in filing complaints, no authority to force HOA Board’s to mediate instead of forcing you to Court (which is set up for you to lose, you to pay, and enrich the legal profession), and the final “no” is that no one seems to know why this Ombudsman will exist.
A final insult: your HOA will use your fees to pay an annual amount to fund the Ombudsman. Now, add insult to injury. You can bet this Ombudsman (“people’s representative”) will be connected to the real estate industry and/or the legal profession and not you and I or any consumer advocacy group. The Ombudsman (HOA Information Officer) appears to report to the Division of Real Estate (beginning to smell). You can bet there will be an effort to argue that this person must be legally familiar with the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (“CCIOA”) and other community association bills (other empty pieces of legislation): sounds like a set up for a lawyer type. See where this is going! In the end it appears our legislature continue to pride themselves with the appearance of legislation and not the substance.