Dear Cyber Followers: As you may know, the Arizona Legislature is very close to ending its 2015 session. The House will be voting on Monday, March 30, 2015 regarding the fate of SB1452 and SB1453. In my opinion, there are aspects of each bill that will be detrimental to community association governance. For example, SB1452 states that once a director [...]
Hello Cyber Followers: The legislature is headed toward adjournment and things are moving at the speed of light… The following bills have been signed into law by Governor Ducey: HB2032 (Office of Administration Hearings; Construction) – signed 3/17/15 HB 2084 (Condominiums; Planned Communities; Associations; Disclosures) – signed 3/17/15 HB 2578 (Planned Communities, Condominiums Construction Defect Claims) – signed 3/23/15 The [...]
Hello Cyber Followers: We are hearing from legislative insiders that the members of the legislature would like to close this session by the first week in April, 2015. Things seem to be coasting regarding bills affecting community associations. We have no changes to our summary from last week. However, we are watching HB2578 (Planned Communities, Condominiums, Construction Defect Claims), SB1091 [...]
Things at the Arizona legislature are heating up! Two bills (HB2032 and 2084) have been signed by The Governor. The remaining 5 bills regarding community associations are on the one yard line getting ready for a vote today or very likely later this week. We are keeping close track of these proposed bills and will notify you of any developments. [...]
by Beth Mulcahy, Esq. Working with many association documents over the years has given me insight regarding how to best approach the amendment process for such documents. My secret to successfully amending CC&Rs is using a five step plan. Associations want to amend their documents for the following reasons: to delete or modify restrictions that are outdated, ambiguous or unreasonable; [...]
As many of you may have seen in Sunday’s Arizona Republic, our legislature had an “all-nighter” on Saturday night and passed the 9.1 billion budget. If history repeats itself, in my opinion, passing the budget in early March means that the Arizona Legislature’s current session may end sooner rather than later. This could mean a slow legislative year for community [...]
Hello Cyber Followers: It was a relatively quiet week last week for community associations at the Arizona legislature. We are still closely watching nine community association bills. Seven of these nine bills have already passed one chamber of our legislature and are moving quickly through the other chamber’s committee process. Please don’t forget that every week during the legislative session, [...]
by Beth Mulcahy, Esq. Yes, there is! There is often confusion in the community association industry regarding the difference between a “disclosure fee” and a “transfer fee”. Can an association charge a disclosure fee and/or a transfer fee, and, if so, how much? Disclosure Fees An association may charge a “disclosure fee” to compensate the association for the costs incurred [...]
Hello Cyber Followers! Our good news for this week is that SB1385 (Traffic Enforcement in Planned Communities) failed in the Senate on 2/23/15. As discussed previously on this Blog, SB1385 was problematic for many reasons so we are happy to see that bill go by the wayside. We are still closely watching nine other community association bills. Seven of these [...]
by Beth Mulcahy, Esq. Tax time is looming for all Arizonans and this is a commonly presented question for our firm at this time of the year… Yes, an association is required to file state and federal taxes on or before March 15, 2015 for fiscal year 2014. Our law firm suggests that an association consult with a qualified C.P.A. [...]
