FROM TEXAS HOA REFORM COALITION:
http://hoareformcoalition.org/
Beanie Adolph – Director
Nancy Kozanecki – Assistant Director
HOA REFORM COALITION – TEXAS LEGISLATION
Tag: law
Court Decision Helps Community Organizations
Q. I received a legal update via e-blast from a local law firm that specializes in real estate and condo association law. Apparently there is a new court decision that provides relief for banks and third party investors who buy a property at foreclosure sale. As I understood it, a condo or homeowners association will no longer be able to pursue past due maintenance fees if the association foreclosed its lien and owned the property for a period of time. Can you better explain the court decision and what it means for community associations?
Q. We have an owner who has not paid association fees for almost three years. The bank that financed the unit was apparently involved in “robo signing” and the delinquent owner has successfully fought them every step of the way. Does the association have any recourse against the bank, and if so, do you think it would be worth pursuing?
Q. Our condo association has a management company that uses the same vendors for all of their associations. Many of these vendors are handymen who are jacks of all trades (electrical, mold inspections, painting, plumbing, tile, etc.). The management company does not seem to require proper licenses or make sure they have insurance. Consequently, our board thinks these things are unnecessary. What is the association’s liability if something goes wrong?
HOAs Adjust To Texas Law Changes
By MATTHEW WATKINS
Want to go green by harvesting rainwater and installing solar panels at your house? Your homeowners association can no longer stop you, even if it considers the projects eyesores. Religious symbols under a certain height and flagpoles with United States, Texas or military flags are now also fair game.
And if your homeowners association wants to foreclose on your home for missed dues and unpaid fines, there are new hurdles it must clear. That is because of a series of new laws passed during the 2011 legislative session that have shaken up how the state’s numerous and sometimes controversial homeowners associations operate.
The laws cover much more than the regulation of members’ yards. Now, all associations must follow open records and meetings laws, meaning they are subject to freedom of information requests, are required to give 72 hours notice before each board meeting and must take meeting minutes.
They now must obtain an expedited court order to foreclose on a house. And they must offer payment plans for their dues and follow new regulations for how they collect and apply payments.
Texas Homeowner Association Laws
By Bill Oliver
With more than 60 homeowners associations (HOA), the city of College Station TX is devoting staff time to staying on top of new state laws. Barbara Moore of College Station’s neighborhood services office says additional requirements for HOA’s will affect how she does her job. Before new laws took affect January 1st, Moore says they worked with recruiting and training new HOA officers. Now, she will be assisting HOA’s with complying with new open meetings and records requirements among other things.
Moore says a recent meeting with 80 HOA representatives and members of a HOA trade association generated some surprise from HOA leaders about the increased responsibility caused by new state laws.
Associa Announces Opening of Texas HOA Collections Service
There was a recent news article that announced that – HOA Collection Services (HCS), an Associa company, launches this week in Texas and California, providing collection services to community associations.
“When community association Boards find collections services necessary, it is paramount to provide efficient, respectful service at a competitive cost,” said Paul Reyes, president of HCS.
Associa is the largest Homeowner Association and Property Owner Association companies in the United States and is moving into Canada and Mexico. It is a diversified company with branches in every aspect of HOAs, including homeowner association management, insurance, and now collections. Associa also owns a homeowner shopping enterprise, a political PAC, finance corporation, .
At the same time that John Carona, owner and founder of Associa, was building up the company, he was also building up a political career. He is a Texas state Senator and his company, Associa, also founded a Political PAC – Associa PAC. Senator Carona currently serves as Chairman of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, Joint Chairman of the Legislative Oversight Board on Windstorm Insurance and as Co-Chairman of the Joint Interim Committee to Study Seacoast Territory Insurance. He also serves as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting and the Senate Criminal Justice, Education and Jurisprudence committees.
Personal comment begins….. I don’t think that legislators, through their private corporation ownership, should be allowed ‘PAC ownership’. And, I really question the sanity of allowing legislators to own companies that would benefit from their own legislation, especially when they have a way to funnel their own company funds, through a political PAC, into their political candidate choices. This is just too much ‘ownership’ of enterprises that can effect every citizen in that geographic area. I believe that this type of activity may be at the core of the ‘disgruntled voters’ in this country. …. end of personal comment.
What do you think?
Disturbing New Trend Impacting HOA’s
By Donna DiMaggio Berger
Two recent legislative attempts signal a disturbing trend that has the potential to negatively impact Florida’s community associations.
The first is this year’s construction defect bill, HB 1013, sponsored by Representative Artiles and its Senate companion, SB 1196, sponsored by Senator Bennett. These bills would take away a homeowner’s rights to pursue a developer for defects to the driveways, roads, sidewalks. utilities, drainage areas and other so-called “off-site” improvements that are not located on the lot on which a home is constructed or which are located on such a lot but do not contribute to the “habitability” of the home.
Texas HOA Law Changes
By Jennifer Slewer
A slew of changes are now in effect for the state’s homeowners associations, the love-’em-or-hate-’em groups that everyone seems to have an opinion about. The changes grant homeowners more freedoms when it comes to outdoor decorating and installation of environmentally friendly systems. The changes also make it harder for HOAs to foreclose because of unpaid fees.
Now, HOAs won’t be able to keep you from displaying the U.S. or Texas flag, or flags of military branches. Free-standing flagpoles 20 feet tall or less will be allowed, too — legislation filed in response to an HOA that sued a Marine veteran for flying the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole.
HOAs also won’t be able to keep you from hanging a religious display on your front door, but they can require you to keep it at 25 square inches or less. That legislation was filed after a Jewish couple was threatened with a recurring fine for displaying a mezuzah, a parchment with Hebrew verses enclosed in a case affixed to the doorpost.
New Texas Laws Change HOA Powers
By Natalie Solis
Nearly 5 million Texans live in neighborhoods with homeowner associations. Compared to other states, HOAs wield a lot of power. But that’s starting to change. For many North Texans, home owners associations are the norm and not the exception
Angel Long is well versed in the rules. “Just those little things… the arbor on the back that had to be approved, and all the regulations,” she said of her Frisco home. “It wasn’t ever a hard process, but just something that had to be followed.”
Rules are one thing, but taking away someone’s house is another. “Lawyers from other states can’t believe how easy it is to take away someone’s property down here,” said attorney Clint David. “They think it’s like the Old West. They really do.”
Now Texas lawmakers are pulling the reins on HOAs with new laws. Some took effect last year, and others began January 1, 2012. Most of the new laws affect single-family homes, not condos or townhomes.