Cohousing-L Mailing List: Update from the CAI Advocacy Blog.

On Mar 27, 2024, at 2:02 PM, CAI Government Affairs <government [at] 
caionline.org> wrote:

Update: First Quarter Community Association State Legislative Trends
By Phoebe E. Neseth, Esq. on Mar 27, 2024

Now that the first quarter of the year is behind us, 10 states have officially 
adjourned for 2024. With 46 state legislatures convening in 2024, CAI’s 
legislative action committees (LACs) have been advocating on the state level to 
develop and maintain sound and effective public policies for the community 
association housing model.

CAI’s Government and Public Affairs team is tracking more than 1,100 state 
bills impacting community associations across the United States. More than 
7,180 emails have been sent to almost 500 state legislators and staff by CAI 
advocates promoting reasonable public policy on behalf of the community 
association industry.

Last fall, CAI’s LAC members predicted legislative and policy trends in 2024 
based on conversations with elected officials, industry stakeholders, and 
peers, and many of these are proving to be accurate. Here is a round-up of 
legislative hot topics and issues impacting community associations being 
addressed to date:

Reserve Studies and Funding: 
Legislation that mandate reserve studies and appropriate funding for 
condominium and homeowners associations is a policy issue expected to be 
discussed in numerous states in 2024. CAI supports mandated reserve studies and 
funding for new community developments and periodic reserve studies for 
communities with major shared components.
These seven states introduced legislation to address new or update current 
reserve study and funding regulations in community associations: Connecticut, 
Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Virginia.

Access to Affordable Insurance: 
Access to affordable property insurance coverage, especially for condominiums 
and housing cooperatives, has become increasingly challenging. Community 
associations have seen extraordinary premium increases that are unaffordable. 
Extreme examples of the insurance crisis can prompt community associations to 
use a line of credit or special assessment to pay these extraordinary premiums.

These five states have introduced legislation addressing insurance regulations 
that would impact community associations: California, Florida, Hawaii, 
Maryland, and South Carolina.
Environmental Sustainability: To address issues related to climate change and 
preserve the environment for the future, community associations are navigating 
rules related to the installation and placement of solar devices and electric 
vehicle charging stations as well as incentives for energy-saving initiatives 
like window replacement, lighting choices, and more.
More than 20 states including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, 
Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, 
Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington 
are addressing regulations related to electric vehicle charging stations and 
solar panels this year.

Board Member Education/Training:
Community association board members are faced with increasing responsibility to 
navigate compliance with local, state, and federal laws and greater 
complexities within communities; especially with the aging infrastructure and 
with a greater number of people living in community associations.  As these 
volunteer roles become more complex, legislators are looking for solutions to 
ensure volunteers have the proper training and education to fulfill their 
responsibilities. As such, more states are considering mandatory education 
requirements for board members. CAI currently opposes mandatory board member 
education; it supports board member education as a best practice. A CAI public 
policy task force is currently recommending that this policy be adjusted to 
support some level of state-mandated board member education. This update is 
under consideration and a final policy will be published later in 2024.

These three states have introduced legislation regulating state-mandated board 
member education in community associations: Maryland, New Jersey, and 
Washington. Washington introduced legislation that would mandate fair housing 
training for officers or board members in community associations, which failed 
to pass in 2024.

Fining Authority and Foreclosures: 
Homeowners value community rules and regulations that lead to safer, more 
attractive, and more valuable homes. Rules are enforced with fines that could 
lead to foreclosure. It is most important that CAI preserves the association’s 
authority to collect unpaid assessments when seriously delinquent, and as a 
last effort through a lien and foreclosure process.

These seven states introduced legislation limiting a community association’s 
foreclosure ability: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, and Virginia. State LACs are working or have worked directly 
with legislators and staff to educate them on the established reasonable 
procedure behind lien foreclosure in community associations. Virginia’s bill 
became law and establishes a minimum threshold for pursing foreclosure to 
enforce judgment or assessment liens of $5,000 exclusive of attorney fees. It 
also requires associations to maintain individual assessment account records, 
and document recorded liens as long as effective. It also extends assessment 
lien enforceability from three to 10 years.

Dispute Resolution in Community Associations: 
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is statutorily required in many states. 
Even where ADR is not required by law, CAI urges communities to adopt policy 
resolutions to offer ADR for housing-related disputes between individual unit 
owners as well as between owners and the association.

These 10 states have introduced legislation to either create an ombudsman 
office or initiate dispute resolution practices by community associations: 
Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New 
Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York.

If you have questions or comments, please contact CAI’s Government and Public 
Affairs team at government [at] caionline.org, and learn more about CAI’s 
advocacy priorities.The post Update: First Quarter Community Association State 
Legislative Trendsappeared first on CAI Advocacy Blog.

Update from the CAI Advocacy Blog.	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:19:20 -0700 (PDT)