Side Streets   Neighborhoods, people and issues

. UPDATE . NEW. VIDEO .

We have achieved video from HOA boss Gary Kuhawski‘s town hall meeting on Saturday.

Follow this link to a YouTube video of the first 90 minutes or so.

To see the second portion of the meeting, click here.

Finally, the third portion is visible here.

I don’t expect the video to go viral or anything. But don’t look for it to viral like some “Gangnam Style” clip.

.

The new state HOA boss wants Colorado Springs residents to know he’ll help them any way he can in their dealings with their homeowners associations.

But he won’t give them legal advice or investigate allegations of rogue boards, illegal elections, secret meetings, unfair covenant enforcement or discrimination because the  Colorado General Assembly hasn’t given him that authority.

Yet.

That could change depending on what lawmakers do with several pending bills. And about 75 people ignored the snow Saturday morning to spend three hours talking about the possibilities with Gary Kujawski, the HOA Information Officer.

Kujawski outlined the duties of his  HOA Information Office and Resource Center — mainly registering HOAs, dispensing information about the laws governing HOA boards and managers, and fielding complaints.

And he tried to gauge audience interest in proposals before the Legislature, such as House Bill 1134, a major bill that would expand his office and grant him investigative and enforcement powers.

For example, a large majority of those in attendance agreed there is a need for mandatory licensing and bonding of professional HOA managers and their companies.

But no real consensus emerged over the idea to require mediation in HOA disputes or to create a referee system for dispute resolution.

Other ideas included creating an online rating system of HOAs and management companies, and allowing for monitoring of elections and term limits for board members.

Colorado HOA Information Officer Gary Kujawski discussed possible regulation of homeowners association during a three-hour town hall meeting Saturday.

The session was a wide-ranging conversation that at times was a how-to-govern workshop and other times a question-and-answer session.

Many in the crowd were experienced HOA board members who were defensive of complaints and challenged the need for state regulation of their activities. Others were residents who complained of the need to punish rogue boards.

Early in the meeting, one man in the crowd demanded to know: “What’s prompting all this talk that HOAs are such demons?”

Another attendee said she “takes exception” to the notion all HOAs are run by control freaks who simply want to punish people and steal from residents.

Many seemed surprised when Kujawski told them his background as a longtime HOA resident and board member. In fact, he was president of a large HOA because: “I was afraid to get off the board, afraid of what would happen in the community.”

In his new role, however, Kujawski said he is neutral on HOA issues.

“I am not a member of a consumer advocacy group or a trade group,” he said, insisting that no one in state government wants to regulate HOAs “just for the sake of regulation.”

But he gets 25 calls a day, on average, from folks with questions and complaints. Some are frivolous and can be resolved by simple conversations, he said.

“But a lot of people call me in tears,” Kujawski said. “They are dealing with some tough issues. They are frustrated. Some are complicated problems and they need legal counsel.”

As expected, many in the crowd wanted advice on their personal problems with HOAs, such as a woman who said her HOA president is a dictator who adjourns meetings, sends everyone home, locks the doors then “finishes the meeting in the dark.”

Kujawski said some of the horror stories are extreme and are examples of the types of cases he might investigate and take enforcement action against if lawmakers decided to grant him the authority.

Some in the audience were upset they had to register their HOAs every year and pay dues, about $16 this year. Others noted just 309 individuals filed complaints with the office in 2012 and suggested there was no need for regulation given upwards of 2 million Coloradans live in 8,300-plus HOAs statewide.

But Kujawski noted that few callers bother to file formal complaints since there’s nothing he can do for them.

And Kujawski promised to return in May or June for another town hall meeting, in perhaps a larger venue with a panel of experts to field more questions.

Attendees on Saturday gave him warm applause at the end and generally praised his presentation.

“It was really valuable,” said Eric Fitz. “If nothing else, now we know where to go for help.”

That opinion was shared by Marylyn Massey, who gave Kujawski a written complaint about her HOA after the meeting.

“I learned a tremendous amount today,” she said. “It was very helpful. And I’m hoping to talk to him about my concerns with my HOA at the Arbors at Mountain Shadows.”

Kujawski also urged everyone to stay tuned to action in the final weeks of the General Assembly because he expects several HOA-related bills to come up for debate and action.

Be sure to read Side Streets for updates on all HOA legislation.

Colorado HOA Information Officer Gary Kujawski discussed possible regulation of homeowners association during a three-hour town hall meeting Saturday.

=============

While gun control debate has dominated the Colorado General Assembly, work is underway on a few bills dealing with  homeowners associations.

At the beginning of the 2013 session, legislative leaders talked about plans to rein in rogue HOA boards. A key proposal, by Sen. Morgan Carroll and Rep. Su Ryden, both Aurora Democrats, called for an overhaul of the HOA Information Office and Resource Center.

Carroll and Ryden want to transform it from a data-collection bureau into a watchdog agency with authority to investigate HOAs and enforce state laws regulating the boards.

They want to upgrade the role of HOA Information Officer Gary Kujawski to make him into what I call an HOA czar charged with investigating alleged HOA infractions and abuse.

They introduced their plan as House Bill 1134 but the proposal has not come up for debate. It sits in a House committee as its sponsors work to gather support.

“Some changes are being considered to figure out how we can get the enforcement we want within a budget we can afford,” Carroll said Tuesday.

Colorado HOA Information Officer Gary Kujawski

While she may be frustrated at the slow pace of the bill, Carroll said she is encouraged that Kujawski is touring the state, holding a series of town hall meetings to hear for himself the problems being reported by many of the 2 million Coloradans living in 8,300-plus HOAs statewide.

In fact, Kujawski will visit Colorado Springs on Saturday to talk to area HOA residents about their experiences. (There are no remaining seats available for the event but I’ll report on it in Monday’s Side Streets.)

“He’s doing a listening tour to understand the scope of the problems,” Carroll said. “By going on the road and hearing the problems and seeing they are real, he’ll be able to come back and explain the depth of the need for enforcement power. It’s crazy not to be able to do anything about all these problems.”

An unexpected HOA reform bill making progress in the Legislature deals with electric cars and the rights of HOA residents to install charging stations in their condominium complexes.

The proposal, Senate Bill 126, would make it illegal for an HOA board or any landlord to block installation of a charging station at a tenant’s expense. Carroll said the bill was a response to a problem at a Denver condo complex.

Under SB 183, HOAs would not be able to fine homeowners whose lawns die because they observe watering restrictions, which are anticipated this summer amid the current drought.

It also overrides any covenants that demand water-guzzling turf lawns and ban xeriscape  landscaping methods featuring drought-tolerant plants.

The bill has passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House.

================

Smoking has been banned from most public buildings. It is forbidden in restaurants and bars. It is outlawed in airplanes and generally is socially unacceptable.

Is the battle of the butts now coming to homeowners associations? Don’t HOAs have enough to worry about already?

Better add it to the list, I’m afraid, of issues facing the boards and management companies of HOAs.

Consider this: A jury in Orange County, Calif., has found an HOA board negligent for failing to resolve a secondhand smoke dispute between neighbors at a  condominium.

The dispute involved a couple upset that their neighbors smoked heavily on their patio and sidewalk. The couple said the smoke aggravated their son’s asthma. Eventually, the family moved to escape the smoke and sued in March 2011.

After a five-week trial, jurors recently awarded the smoke-averse family $15,500, finding the condo association and management failed to ensure the non-smoking family’s right to the “quiet enjoyment” of their own unit.

The family received $6,000 was for economic damages and $9,500 for emotional distress. The HOA was responsible for 60 percent of the damages, with the remainder to be paid by the management company and tenants.

Smoke has been an issue in the Colorado Springs area.

Side Streets has featured a neighborhood dispute over smoke from cigars and cigarettes infiltrating a neighboring townhome.

I’ve written about hospital employees angering neighbors by puffing on nearby sidewalks.

Another column focused on smoke from a neighbor’s fireplace choking a neighbor in her home.

And I even wrote about smoke from a backyard fire pit igniting a neighborhood feud.

Follow this link to the entire Orange County Register story.

About 35 feet separate the chimney of Rachel Catt’s rental home on Jon Street, left, from neighbor Luanne Wiley’s home on Corbett Lane on the right. Neighbors say the wood-burning stove inside produces choking smoke that infiltrates Wiley’s home.

.

This link takes you to a Side Streets column on Oct. 11, 2012,  about a dispute over a smoking chimney.

To read about the smoking dispute between residents of Boulder Park neighborhood and the employees and patients of  Memorial Hospital, click here.

To read more about the 2008 smoke feud at the Woodbridge Townhomes in Colorado Springs, click here.

Follow this link to my 2006 column about the fire pit feud.

===============================

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.

===============================

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.

——

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.”

=======

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.

=====================================

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.

—

Please Friend me on Facebook and follow my Tweets on Twitter

 ==================================================

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. 

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.

==================================================

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.

=====================================================