Cohousing-L Mailing List: Posts from CAI Advocacy Blog for 01/24/2024

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

The Community Association Institute publishes a monthly newsletter to update 
associations on the decisions their legislators are making that affect 
homeowner associations. The newsletter format doesn’t fare well when being 
funneled through text-only media so I just cut and pasted the parts related to 
this topic.

One of the reasons to read the whole list is that legislation often moves from 
one state to the next. If Colorado is deciding something that means it is in 
the air and may be adopted by another state.

Sharon


2024 State Legislative Season: Processes and topics at play

By Phoebe E. Neseth, Esq. on Jan 24, 2024

It’s a new year, and 46 states, as well as the District of Columbia, started 
their 2024 legislative sessions. Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas only 
meet every other year. As usual, volunteers in CAI’s state legislative action 
committees (LACs) are hard at work advocating on behalf of the more than 75.5 
million Americans living in community associations. By monitoring state 
legislation and educating lawmakers, LACs protect the interests of the 
community association housing model.

The length of each state’s legislative session varies. Florida and Virginia 
meet 30 to 60 days a year, while Massachusetts and Michigan meet year-round. 
While some states will introduce legislation once their sessions begin, bills 
in many state legislatures are pre-filed in the weeks leading up to their 
session being formally convened. This streamlines the legislative process by 
allowing more time to draft bills and consider which committee they will be 
referred to, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Once a bill is introduced, it is heard in its committee and chamber of 
introduction. According to Statescape, a number of states have codified a 
crossover deadline, meaning a bill must pass from one chamber to another for it 
to continue to be viable for consideration during a given year’s session. CAI’s 
LACs track these crossover deadlines to ensure legislation impacting community 
associations is moving forward and legislation they are opposing is being held. 
Each state also has a bill signing or vetoing deadline that gives a due date of 
when a governor must take action on legislation.

More than 30 states convened their legislative sessions for 2024. Here are 
highlights of bill topics introduced to date in a selection of states impacting 
community associations:

    • Alaska: regulating alterations of planned community units
    • Arizona: flagpole and flag regulations; annual meeting procedures
    • Colorado: community association manager licensing; landscaping practices
    • Florida: association fining process; association database; estoppel 
certificates
    • Georgia: land transactions in community associations; community 
association study committee
    • Hawaii: dispute resolution; board rules and regulations
    • Illinois: parking regulations
    • Indiana: beekeeping regulations
    • Kentucky: Planned Community Act updates
    • Maryland: reserve study and funding regulations; solar regulations; 
manager licensing
    • Missouri: homeowner bills of rights; Association chicken regulations
    • Mississippi: covenant amendment processes
    • Nebraska: solar regulations; political sign regulations
    • New Hampshire: condo board meeting procedures; special assessments in 
condos; condo assessment liens
    • New Mexico: condo owner-occupied percentage requirements
    • New York: association ombudsman office; building inspections; taxation of 
associations
    • Oklahoma: association document retention
    • South Carolina: short-term rentals; amateur radio
    • South Dakota: firearm regulations in associations
    • Utah: solar regulations; short-term rentals
    • Virginia: resale disclosures; reserve studies and funding; conservative 
landscaping
    • Washington: amending and updating the Washington Common Interest 
Ownership Act