COLORADO STATE LEGISLATURE NEW YEAR 2012
This message is sent to you and to many other individuals whose responsibility involves HOAs, Judges, Legal system, and reelections of State Legislators for year 2012.
HOAs legislation is under the complete control of Sen. Morgan Carroll. She has been running this area of fomenting laws that were supposed to protect HOA homeowners in Colorado. Yet in over 10 years not one law has she passed that protects Homeowners in an HOA. This is why the Attorney General of Colorado will not prosecute complaints against Property Managers of HOAs since there are no laws (or Rules) on the books for Property Managers to be charged with violations against HOA Homeowners.
What Sen. Morgan Carroll has sponsored are statutes that set laws that can only be enforced by a homeowner hiring a lawyer for ($20,000) and suing in a court for a County or District Judge to rule on claimed violations. Right now there are no laws that are enforced concerning the Articles of Incorporation or Covenants and Bylaws. Consequently, homeowners have no protection from crooked lawyers, incompetent judges, Property Managers, and board of directors under the control of the HOA lawyers, and Property managers.
When a property owner buys a property in an HOA he agrees to follow these documents to the letter. But the board of directors, Property Managers and HOA lawyers know there are no enforcement laws for them to follow any of the documents that were written to protect the homeowner. The money these HOA services earn or even steal is beyond belief. Any legislature effort to enforce penalties against lawyers, Property Managers, Board of Directors is strongly paid for by a nation wide organization called the CAI. (Community Association Institution). Any legislator who has accepted any donations from this organization needs to return it or hide it for this 2012 election.
We are asking all homeowners to call their legislator and ask them how he will vote on Management licensing. We are setting up a webpage to report the vote preferences and final votes of all Colorado legislators on the licensing issue. This way, Homeowners will be notified to inquire of their representative if they have been bought by the CAI and controlled by Sen. Carroll. We will assure all see how they vote on the up coming issue of passing legislation that all Property Managers must be licensed, and further, whether the final bill adds to the control exerted by the lawyer lobby and the Management companies through their C.A.I. organization influence.
We believe the Real Estate Commission, free of C.A.I influence, will provide more protection for Homeowners. The CAI must not have any influence over the formation of the laws and rules which currently allow Managers violate homeowner rights and ignore existing law. Approximately 26 other states have or are in the process of passing the same requirement of licensing Property Managers. Many have been adversely effected by the lobbying efforts of the C.A.I.
Sen. Carroll is trying to get a weak agency under DORA to be run by an Ombudsman czar named Mr. Aaron Acker (single decider of all complaints over the actions deem against HOA homeowners.) Google his name as in Colorado and his duties are already listed before you the legislature has voted on it. I believe it’s called “Horse before the cart.”
Mr. Acker is a great friend of the Local Chapter of CAI and knows the membership by their first name. He is the last person to be placed in the position with singular authority whose decisions can’t be appealed. He can’t be fired until 2015. This is according to Sen. Carroll’s first effort of passing the HB-10-1278 which you voted a reduced version to collect only complaints from Homeowners costing $225,000. Only Mr. Acker is allowed to read these complaints and he is supposed to summarize the complaints as per his sole opinion by December 2011. Have you as legislature got a copy of his opinion yet?
This legislature has a habit of passing laws without reading them like 06-89. In that law (written by the CAI lawyers not Sen. Carroll), you need to be informed there are provisions that a board member can have a conflict of interest and sell services to his HOA for his own profit. Had your read bill 06-89 you would know why Sen. Carroll had to pass the new bill HB11-1124 to reverse allowing Directors the right to have a conflict of interest with their own HOA. I’ll bet even the sponsors listed with this bill never read it but voted for it. Everyone who cosponsored this bill is incompetent as a legislator for two bills not read each sponsored by Sen. Carroll.
The crooked lawyers and Property Managers have no respect for Mr. Acker agency since they know which side he is on. The only respect and power will be licensing of Property Managers under the full control of the Real Estate Commission. A list of rules will be written like other states have done that set the rules of how a Property Manager’s license can be revoked by actions taken against the HOA owners. In SB 100 it requires all Property Managers to follow the Covenants and Bylaws of the HOA they are managing. In these rules if they don’t enforce the Covenants and Bylaws as written the Property Manager will lose his license. This will be the first time HOA Covenants and Bylaws are enforced for HOA homeowner’s protection since HOA were first created in this state. This omission by this legislature has created a money machine for lawyers, Property Managers, CPAs and yes Board of Directors.
Sen. Morgan Carroll is a disgrace as a legislator after over 10 years of her efforts HOA homeowners still have no laws to protect them from crooked lawyers and Property Managers. That’s called success for the CAI and defeat for the citizens of Colorado.
I repeat Sen. Carroll and any other Legislator who has accepted a bribe from the CAI as a campaign donation must abstain from any involvement with legislation involving HOAs for the rest of this session.
Mr. Aaron Acker must be removed from functioning as ombudsmen of collection of complaints from HOA homeowners. His appearance at a public open house sponsored by the CAI and participation on a panel for discussion of transfer certificates violated the terms of HB11-1124.
The entire bill of HB11-1124 must be repealed since it can’t lead to any establishment of an agency proposed by Sen. Carroll for the benefit of the CAI.
This letter is per my opinion developed from my experience in the field of HOA abuse and litigation in the 18th District Court of Arapahoe County.
This session must accomplish the licensing of Property Managers of HOAs with a set of rules in detail that are a composite of other states license laws developed without any CAI involvement. It’s the fox in the hen house theory. As Democrats you will have enough problems keeping the party together when Obama loses the 2012 election. I don’t think you will need a scandal of how HOAs have been ignored by the State Legislature under the leadership of Sen. Carroll. All members of HOAs will be prompted to call all Legislators of their district and ask if you are in favor of licensing Property Managers under the Real Estate Commission or not. The voters can decide how their votes are cast 2012 for those who don’t want Property Managers licensed by the Real Estate Commission.
This message will be posted on my website at www.court-house.com and sent to the entire Legislature by email and many other copies will be sent as blind copies for others to review.
Jim Burneson
burneson1@gmail.com