re : trying to be green

This is another example of how our lawmakers have failed over the past two decades vis-à-vis H.O.A. reform. See my earlier post here, "Re-Inventing the Square Wheel" (27 Aug 2023).

01. In 2005, Colorado passed Senate Bill SB05-100 “Concerning Increased Protections for Homeowners”, allowing owners of H.O.A.-burdened property to install water-conserving landscaping.

It worked so well that …

02. In 2013, Colorado passed Senate Bill SB13-183 “Water Conservation in Common Interest Communities”, allowing owners of H.O.A.-burdened property to install water-conserving landscaping.

It worked so well that …

03. In 2019, Colorado passed House Bill HB19-1050 “Concerning the Promotion of Water-Efficient Landscaping on Property Subject to Management by Local Supervisory Entities”, allowing owners of H.O.A.-burdened property to install water-conserving landscaping.

It worked so well that …

04. In 2021, Colorado passed House Bill HB21-1229 “Home Owners’ Associations Governance Funding Record Keeping”, allowing owners of H.O.A.-burdened property to install water-conserving landscaping.

It worked so well that …

05. In 2023, Colorado passed Senate Bill SB23-178, “Water-wise Landscaping In Homeowners' Association Communities”, allowing owners of H.O.A.-burdened property to install water-conserving landscaping.

Decades of experience have demonstrated that the State of Colorado should not expect good-faith compliance with the law, regulations, or Court Orders by the H.O.A. board members, H.O.A. managers, H.O.A. attorneys, etc.

I know of associations that have been placed under Court Orders to do things and they just don’t do them. It’s not just that they defy statutory law. But they’re ordered to do something and still not do it. It’s mind boggling.

- Evan McKenzie, former H.O.A. attorney and author of Privatopia (1994) and Beyond Privatopia (2011). “On the Commons”. November 19, 2005.

Homeowners associations are prevalent and their actions impact property values, property rights, living environment, and personal rights of the residents; and many of the HOA’s have abused their power, disobeyed the law.

- Larimer County Republican Party Resolutions - 2006, # 24.

It's like something you would see in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. People think these things don't go on. But we know they on every day in condo and homeowner associations. These people who have no idea how to use power at all. They won't even accept limits on their power.

They don't even know what the law requires of them, these directors. They go by what some lawyer tells them to do, which the lawyer tells them to do only because he or she knows they can get away with it.

If the lawyer tells them “Oh, just jack 'em around. Who cares what the rules are? Who cares what the law says?” it doesn't make any difference. The transaction costs of enforcing an owner's rights are so great that they are hardly ever able to do it.

- Evan McKenzie, former H.O.A. attorney and author of Privatopia (1994) and Beyond Privatopia (2011). “On the Commons”. June 26, 2010. Emphasis in original.

Instead of reacting to the H.O.A. outrage du jour, our lawmakers need to craft policy to anticipate the predictable abuses of homeowners by the H.O.A. industry.

Unfortunately, there is no interest nor political will in doing so. Instead, they repeatedly put up regulatory window dressing in order to give the appearance of doing something.

I've represented myself -- and other homeowners -- in more H.O.A.-related litigation than I've ever wanted to be involved in. I've seen how the law works. And more importantly, I've seen how the law does not work.

During that time, I had to endure listening to out-of-touch lawmakers tell me how they were making things better for H.O.A.-burdened homeowners, while experiencing for myself how much worse things were actually getting.

The stories that lawmakers tell the public, and what goes on in the court rooms where their laws are enforced, are two very different things.