Wednesday, February 27, 2013

HOA's Not a Favorite Subject of Incoming House Speaker | HOA Management | The Premier Home Homeowner Association Management Directory

HOA's Not a Favorite Subject of Incoming House Speaker | HOA Management:
"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."
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As time goes by more and more legislators will have personal experience with HOAs and condo associations, and the hyper-technical, smoke-and-mirrors, leave-it-to-the-industry approach that prevails today will likely change in favor of broader discussions. At least, I hope so.

1 comment:

IC_deLight said...

Lots of legislators have experience with HOAs. Some, like Texas Senator John Carona, have profited mightily at the expense of involuntary members of these HOA corporations. However, there are many, many more who have experienced the practices of these vendors directly, or had family members experience it, or had close friends, supporters, or active constituents that have brought the ugly nature of the HOA scheme and vendors to light.

The industry often claims that homeowners are "apathetic" or "won't get involved" - as if "getting involved" was possible in many cases. Do you have a right to vote? No. Do you have a right to run for office? No. Do you have any desire to have anything at all to do with such an organization? No.

The industry's quips and slick marketing talk i coming back to haunt them. Anyone that has experienced the practices of the unscrupulous vendors knows full well that you aren't going to change the nature of the vendors and that it isn't an "isolated instance". Some of the impacted folks are "getting involved" alright - legislatively at the state and federal levels. I suspect the industry isn't going to like to reap what it has sown.

CAI was adamantly opposed to an Ombudsman in Colorado as well as registration of HOAs. Why do you think that is? As a practical matter, the Ombudsman's offices will always be targeted for regulatory capture. However, now there is a mechanism for assessing the scope of the HOA problem because of the registration requirements. There is still plenty of time for unscrupulous vendors to rip off HOA corporations and the involuntary members, but the noose is tightening a little more around the vendors and that step was far too long in coming. The vendors won't have that many more years of unmitigated predation on the homeowners.