March 15, 2013
We’re smack dab in the middle of the Session that ends at midnight on May 27th. Still plenty of time for any bill to pass, and for any bill to morph into something different.
We now have 29 POA-Specific Bills, of which half pertain to condos. Here is a link to the report on those bills – Overview of POA-Specific Bills by Subject & Progress thru 3-15-13
YEAR OF CONDOS
If you know someone involved with condos, tell him to wake up and smell the coffee. Unlike 2011, condos are very much in play this Session. Condo people may be lulled into thinking that “POA Bills” don’t apply to them because condos flew under the radar in 2011. Wake up! Wake up!
We have two multi-part bills that are BIG for condos – HB 1933 by Rep. Allen, and HB 2075 by Rep. Anchia (and its companion, SB 1231 by West). What do they address?
> Board meetings – lots of dos & don’ts
> HOA records – lots more dos & don’ts
> Required policies to record
> Loans to HOAs – board decides
> HOA insurance deductibles – owner pays
> Redemption by owner after foreclosure
My section-by-section overviews of the Condo Bills are at the back of the attached report. Because it’s challenging to navigate the condo laws without a roadmap, my overview also provides some background about the two condo acts (vintages 1963 and 1993).
DEVELOPERS – particularly developers of condos & timeshares
The bills that touch on – or overlook – the developer’s role are not huge in-your-face bills that inspire a call to arms. Instead, the bills are relatively few, subtle, and some are seemingly protective of developers. One such worrisome “technicality” is the blurring of a developer’s “control rights” over HOA governance with the developer’s “development rights” for expansion, build-out, and sell-out. If the distinction isn’t carefully honored, development rights may be at stake. I hope to heck I’m wrong to think that in a few years we’ll look back on this era as the start of the slippery slope of diminishing development rights. The phrase “death by a thousand cuts” comes to mind.
REVISITING 2011 REFORM LAWS
A number of bills respond to the 2011 HOA Reform Laws, such as . . .
> Requiring secret ballots in HOA voting
> Nonjudicial foreclosures for every HOA
> Streamlining nonjudicial foreclosure process
> Front yard flag poles
> More xeriscape rights
> More criteria for approving solar panels
NEW LAND USE RIGHTS & LIMITS
This Session we have single-topic POA bills involving:
> Owning and using adjacent lots
> Electric standby generators
> Propane tanks
> Tree removal
HEARINGS HAVE BEGUN
After a bill is filed, it’s assigned to a committee and scheduled for a hearing. If a bill makes it out of committee, it competes to get on the calendar for a vote by the full chamber. House Bills are heard first in the House, Senate Bills in the Senate. That’s half the battle. Still has to clear hurdles in the other chamber.
A word about bills that are “pending” in a committee after having a hearing at which testimony was taken. A pending bill can be “substituted” ~ or replaced with a version that doesn’t get a hearing. (Seems unfair.)
At any time after the public hearing, the committee may vote on the original bill that was heard, or on the substituted version that was not heard. If a substituted version is approved by the committee, the bill number is preceded by C.S. for “Committee Substitute.” Hence, SB 198 becomes CSSB 198.
You can watch the hearing on your computer (or other devices). If you miss the live webcam, you can watch the archived hearings at your leisure. Here are links to the Hearing Webcams:
A bill’s first hearing may be the only that has testimony and webcam coverage. After that first hearing, if the bill gets out of committee, it may get no further public scrutiny, even though it gets another public hearing in the second chamber. Behind the scenes, the “stakeholders” may be hammering out compromises that change the bill’s wording and effects.
YEAR OF TECHNOLOGY
A number of “technology” bills have been filed that are interesting by way of analogy to POAs. Several bills address telephone conferencing, video conferencing, or internet broadcasts of meetings of local governments, special districts, school boards, and other public and quasi-public agencies. HB 584 by Rodriguez will require county clerks to publish foreclosure posting notices on a website.
HOW TO COUNT BILLS
The attached overview of POA-Specific Bills identifies 29 that have been filed and identified through March 15, 2013. Two of the 29 bills are multi-purpose, with six unrelated proposals, each of which could stand alone as a bill. Five of 29 bills are “companions” – the same bill was filed in both chambers (House and Senate) to increase the bill’s odds of clearing all the hurdles before the session ends. And two of the 29 bills are “bracketed” to specific developments, and not likely to interest a statewide audience. So, bill counts are only an indication – not to be relied on.