05.01.25

ISSUE # 115

CIC Info Bytes 05/01/25

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This Issue, That Issue

• There’s usually one or more disturbing articles in every issue of CAI’s Common Ground magazine.  The May/June 2025 edition gives us “Gold Standards” where the business partner council chair speaks about business partners as “the core of CAI.”  The composition of CAI’s Board of Trustees gives that away.  CAI’s Board composition is currently down to ONE non-business partner representative out of 15 positions.  That’s 6.7%: the same as 2022.

Compare and contrast June 2025’s article with November 2021’s ”Listening to our Homeowners” authored by then Homeowner Leader Council chair Janet Newcomb who summarized the – never released homeowner leader survey results (!) – thusly:

“Homeowners feel that CAI doesn’t think they are as important as community managers and business partners, and they believe management companies need more vetting and accountability.”

Foreclosure Investor Forced to Sell

• Colorado: Everything’s changing after a court ruling forcing the sale of a home foreclosed by an HOA AND because of owner’s equity protection bill HB25-1043. 

For three years, Villela and her four children have lived in a house in Green Valley Ranch, in far northeast Denver, that her family bought but no longer owns. The home is now owned by an investor who bought it at auction for $23,524 after the neighborhood homeowners association foreclosed over unpaid fines for overgrown weeds and other minor violations.

But a ruling earlier this month by a Denver District Court judge gives Villela a chance to buy the home back. Other qualified buyers could also make offers, depending on what kind of agreement is made between the city and the investor during ongoing court proceedings. Meanwhile, that investor is trying to evict the family.

It’s a tense situation in an ongoing fight in Colorado over the power that HOAs have to foreclose on homeowners over unpaid fines and fees.

Judge Mark T. Bailey ruled April 5 that Welcome to Realty LLC 401K PSP, an investment company owned by Christophe Attard, must sell the house it bought at the foreclosure auction in December 2021 because the company does not meet the conditions of Denver’s inclusionary housing ordinance, which sets affordability covenants on some homes. Those covenants prevent homes from being owned by investors.

Bailey’s order also placed an injunction prohibiting Attard from leasing the house and, because affordability covenants eventually expire, the judge demanded the clock reset to account for the three years Welcome to Realty has owned the house.

Housing advocates believe the ruling will set a new precedent in Denver and could force other investors to sell homes with affordable housing covenants that they bought at foreclosure auctions forced by HOAs.

The judge’s order “would also suggest that every sale at auction of every home in Green Valley Ranch was probably not legal because the auction house, or the county sheriff who’s running the auctions, were not qualifying buyers,” said Zach Neumann, co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project, a housing equity nonprofit. “And as far as we can tell, most of the purchasers are real estate investors who, by definition, are not qualified buyers. And there’s a lot of potential that all of these sales have been invalid and are potentially reversible.”...

An investor paid $23,000 for a Denver family’s foreclosed home. Now a judge has ordered him to give it up.

— Noelle Phillips | The Denver Post | April 23, 2025

Chapter 11 and an Unpaid $1,400,000 Water Bill

• West Palm Beach, Florida: Owners and tenants in this two-story condominium are facing challenges after having failed to pay their water bill for approximately 3 years.  It will be fascinating to see how this bankruptcy plays out.  Read about bankruptcy in Issue# 72.  More details in Issue# 114.

The city of West Palm Beach had notified residents at a local community that their condominium association had not been paying their water bill and the city would turn off the water on Monday, April 28.  That situation has now changed.

According to the city, Green Terrace Condominiums, 2800 Georgia Avenue, has declared bankruptcy, which means the water won't be shut off for at least another 30 days.

That gives people still living there a little more time to find a place and move out…

🎥 VIDEO: West Palm Beach steps in as condo complex faces $1.4M water bill, bankruptcy proceedings — Al Peflhey | WPEC | April 28, 2025

Generating Noise Complaints

• New York, New York: Diesel generators are enough to make urban living unbearable.  We’ve covered decibels before in Issue# 106, Issue #79 and Issue# 68.

Residents at a Financial District condo building have had their lives upended after a neighboring building installed emergency generators right beneath their windows — tormenting them with constant ear-shattering that sent some fleeing the state.

For three long weeks, the three massive commercial generators have been sputtering black smoke against the now-stained facade of 101 Wall Street, whose neighboring 500-unit luxury building is utilizing the obnoxious power sources after their electricity went out in a fire...

...Residents were initially warned April 3 that the noise and smoke would last up to six weeks as 95 Wall Street worked to turn their power back on. Inexplicably, the Sunbelt power suppliers weren’t stationed outside the 23-story luxury rental building they benefited, but in front of their next-door neighbors at 101…

...Neighbors have lodged dozens of 311 complaints in the last three weeks, nearly all of which were closed because the Environmental Protection (DEP) “didn’t observe a violation of the NYC Air or Noise Code at the time of inspection and couldn’t issue a summons.”

Frustrated by the lack of action, Edwards purchased her own sound level meter — which registered an ear-splitting 94 decibels inside her apartment around 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

For comparison, that noise level is just 6 decibels short of a moving train, according to the City Noise Code....

Wall Street condo tormented by ear-blasting noise, black smoke from generators — Katherine Donlevy | NY Post | April 24, 2025

Encampment Cleanup

• Altamonte Springs, Florida: If the association owns the land, the association pays the bill.

Bruce Brown wrote to our help desk about a homeless camp in between the Corniche Townhomes were he lives and Lowes on State Road 434. He said he noticed it as it started to grow...

...Brown said on April 1, the homeowners association received a code enforcement violation and discovered that the community would be responsible for part of the cleanup because part of the camp was actually on their private property.

“We were amazed. We were, like, beside ourselves. We were, like, ‘No, why would we own all this?’” Brown said. “And, you know, we never needed it. But whoever built our property, this was part of the package. And it’s wetlands. You can’t build on it. So, it was just tacked on to everybody.”

Brown said the HOA ended up paying about $9,000 and hired a bio-hazard company for the cleanup. It took a crew of six around eight hours to complete.

“We have expenses. We just did the paint. We have to re-pave the road that’s on our property. So, there’s a lot of expenses running an HOA,” Brown said. “I think people will be upset to find out that we had to put $9,000 into cleaning up this that we didn’t even know we owned. You know, they say, too, if it reoccurs, then we will be fined again.”...

Altamonte Springs HOA pays $9,000 to clean up homeless camp. Here’s what happened — Catherine Silver | Click Orlando | April 24, 2025

Open Meetings Matter

• Belmont Bay, Virginia: Do you know your state’s open meeting laws for condos and HOAs?

A Belmont Bay resident and former homeowners' association president is attacking the current association leadership over transparency concerns.

Leaders of the riverfront community in Woodbridge held a meeting with its developer, Miller & Smith, in executive session Dec. 5 – allegedly without notifying the wider community.

The complaint is tied to Belmont Bay’s pending rezoning plans, by which Miller & Smith has agreed to cede 100 acres from the 160-acre former golf course to Prince William County. The remaining 60 acres will be devoted to the construction of 358 new townhomes. 

In a proposed land transfer, Miller & Smith offered three additional land parcels to the HOA during the Dec. 5 meeting…

…“The complaint relates to two issues: 1. The Board conducted business in the Executive Session that is not allowed; and 2. The Board held a private meeting on 12/5/24 with M&S, a developer of Belmont Bay, on a land offering without proper advanced notice to residents and withheld information from the residents afterwards,” Lau’s complaint read…

Belmont Bay HOA facing scrutiny over transparency concerns — Sébastien Kraft | Inside Nova | April 21, 2025

Owners Vote NOT to Upgrade

• Mesa, Arizona: Will the third time be the charm for this retirement community?

For the second time in as many years, many residents in a northeast Mesa retirement community last week cautiously celebrated their win in voting down a new and bigger Activity Center that would have required each of the HOA’s 2,358 households to pay thousands of dollars in an additional assessment.

The Fountain of the Sun Association failed to capture 66.67% of the votes cast to move forward with the project.   The ballot asked that the board be permitted to enter into a contract in excess of $1 million to build a new Activity Center. The ballot didn’t mention what property owners would pay in an assessment, which would be voted on next January or February. 

“They’re going to try again,” said resident Dan Christensen, who opposed the project. “This is the second time it’s been voted down but they are just going to keep going until they get what they want.”  But at least they won’t have to face it again until next year, Christensen added.

According to Association General Manager Blake Frey, 1,882 valid ballots were counted with 1,207 “yes” votes, or 64.1%, and 675 “no” votes. Of the community’s 2,358 residences, 79.8% of the property owners cast a ballot.  HOA President Betsy Wergin noted that the association failed to win approval by 48 votes.  "This was the second vote with very close to the same outcome”...

Mesa Home Owners Association residents defeat activity center plan — Cecilia Chan | The Mesa Tribune | April 28, 2025

Fed Up

• Houston, Texas: This is an unfortunately vague story about frustrated owners at London Townhomes.  What’s in those bylaws, exactly?  Aside from unilateral governance, what has gone so askew?

More than a year after a meeting between homeowners and the HOA president turned physical at the Energy Corridor area London Townhomes, several residents reported little improvement...

..."According to our bylaws, the owners are supposed to be mostly in charge of the association and have input in any major decisions that are made," Smith said. "But that hasn't happened in the last 2 1/2 years."

Meanwhile, they claim needed maintenance has been delayed or overlooked, while the HOA president and board are mainly unresponsive. They added that they finally held a meeting this week only after a majority of homeowners signed a petition, and one even filed suit in Harris County Civil Court.

"We have one person calling the shots for pretty much everything, and that's not the way it's supposed to be," homeowner Rebecca Delossantos said...

...While the HOA president didn't respond to us, someone with the management company did speak with us off-camera. She disputed much of what residents claimed and said maintenance requests are handled as quickly as possible. She added that the meeting this week, in her opinion, was very productive.

'We're all fed up with it' | West Houston homeowners contact KHOU… — Jason Miles | KHOU | April 24, 2025

Arson Is NOT the Solution to your HOA Dispute

• Longwood, Florida: HOA disputes should never escalate into arson.

A Longwood man is heading to prison after setting his own condo on fire in what investigators called an act of revenge.  Prosecutors say 56-year-old Marc Hermann torched his unit last year after a dispute with his homeowners association over unpaid dues.

The fire damaged multiple units and displaced neighbors.  Hermann was just sentenced to 12 years in prison, plus 15 years of probation.

Longwood man convicted of burning down his condo over dispute with homeowners association — James Tutten | WFTV | April 29, 2025

CAI Moves into WV

• West Virginia: A new CAI chapter will eventually be formed here, although we must say the board member quoted in this article sounds like CAI’s ideal manchurian candidate.  Once the chapter exists, we’ll add it into our CAI lobbying data that’s part of the CAI Report Card.

Kathy Knight informed the Tucker County Commission of the formation of the conditional chapter during the Commission’s April 23rd meeting.

“After 18 to 20 years of West Virginia trying to have a chapter, the Community Association Institute, we’re finally making it happen,” Knight said. “It has been a long, difficult, bloody road, but we are making it happen.”

According to Knight, conditional approval for the Chapter arrived in December just before Christmas. Since the approval arrived, Knight said she and her organization have been working on the necessary paperwork. Knight said that her organization has accomplished in months what most start up chapters take five to seven years to accomplish. However, there is likely an additional two years worth of work yet to complete to finish establishing the Chapter, Knight said…

…According to Knight, currently, Tucker County has a total of 33 HOA’s registered. That count is up from an initial number of five in the County when Knight first spoke with the Commission. According to Knight, HOA’s are not tracked at the County or State level…

Tucker County Founds First CAI Chapter in WV — Lydia Crawley | Parsons Advocate | April 29, 2025

Association RE Specialist?

• RESAAS is launching a “Certified HOA Specialist” designation for real estate agents that sounds more like a marketing ploy than an accountable system for real estate agents to be accountable to fully explain a condo, co-op, or HOA property to a potential purchaser.

RESAAS Launches Homeowner Association Certification with HOA.com — CNW Group | April 22, 2025

• The real estate industry is suing…itself.

The heated dispute between brokerage giant Compass and Kirkland, Wash.-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service over pre-marketing rules and private exclusive listings has now escalated to the courts. 

On April 25, Compass filed a lawsuit against NWMLS in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging “monopolistic” and anticompetitive business practices, obstruction of seller choice, retaliation via a recent suspension of data services and other claims…

…What Compass claims: The brokerage takes direct aim at several NWMLS policies, including rules against pre-marketing and office exclusives, which Compass lawyers say affect seller choice, hurt consumers and prevent the brokerage from implementing its 3-phase marketing strategy. 

Compass said it had spent months trying to work with NWMLS to implement rule changes that would allow office exclusives, but claimed NWMLS “simply refused” to do so…

Compass sues Seattle-area listing database as battle over exclusive real estate listings escalates — AJ Latrace | Geekwire | April 26, 2025

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Florida: Condominium ownership has gotten so expensive that folks who relocated to own property in the last 4 years are moving out of state.

Retirees Rob and Karen Dickson moved from upstate New York to Punta Gorda, Fla., in 2021. They paid $319,000 for a condo with a terrace on the third floor, overlooking a golf course inside their gated community. 

But then their ownership costs began to rise. Two years on, their insurance rates doubled after a hurricane, and the unit was hit with a $7,200 special assessment to pay for building upgrades, which they paid in four monthly installments after insurance covered $2,000 of the cost. Their HOA fees soared by 25% to nearly $800 a month. Now, these fees are up to $1,000.

The couple listed the unit for sale last summer. They competed with 43 other condos for sale in the same community and accepted an offer for $358,500, about $20,000 below their asking price. They moved back to New York to be closer to their grandchildren because they could no longer afford the travel...

...South Florida condominiums enjoyed one of the biggest real-estate booms in the country for years. Median condo prices in Miami-Dade County were up 8% in February from the same month last year and more companies are relocating to Miami, West Palm and other South Florida cities.

But those areas are outliers. Condo prices in the state of Florida overall have fallen between 1% and 6% each month annually since July 2024, according to Florida Realtors. In February, prices were down 3%...

Why Florida’s Condo Owners Are So Desperate to Sell — Deborah Acosta | WSJ | April 22, 2025

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Brainerd, Minnesota: A former resort becomes a homeowners’ association.

Crow Wing County commissioners approved a preliminary and final plat for the former Butternut Point Resort in Pequot Lakes.

Butternut Point is on Lower Whitefish Lake and Pig Lake with the former resort extending out on the point in Ideal Township.

The 3.4 acre property was purchased by Butternut Point LLC, with a mailing address of Eden Prairie, in 2021 and it went through the platting process with the county in 2023, but deeds were never recorded...

...Pence said the property has the lodge and six cabins with common space they will all own through a home association management with the cabins sold as individual lots. A conditional use permit was approved in 2001 to convert the resort into residential use...

Former Butternut Point resort cabins move toward homeownership — Renee Richardson | Brainerd Dispatch | April 18, 2025

Built Environment

• Seattle, Washington: First Light condominium is the newest luxury tower to receive a certificate of occupancy.

Seattle's tallest condo tower has finally opened, delivering the views and amenities that project boosters have been touting since last decade, including a dramatic pool that cantilevers over the 47th level and a Zen-like space called the Secret Garden one floor up on the top level.

"We just received our certificate of occupancy on these amenity levels last week," First Light condo listing broker Doug Sonnenberg of Compass said on a Monday tour. "The pool, obviously, is that showstopper."

Over the last two decades different developers have taken a run at the property at Third Avenue and Virginia Street. Vancouver, British, Columbia-based Westbank acquired the site in 2018 for $35 million....

...Average per-square-foot prices for under-contract homes range from $1,300 on the lower floors to closer to about $3,000 for the top floor, where two of the four penthouses have sold. The building-wide average is about $1,550 a foot, Sonnenberg added…

…First Light also has commercial space, including 115,000 square feet of office that the Broderick Group is marketing and retail space that's being marketed by CBRE…

First Light, Seattle's tallest condo tower, finally opens after delays — Marc Stiles | Puget Sound Business Journal | March 26, 2025

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New York, New York: The office-to-residential conversion movement is growing.

The push to convert offices emptied out by remote work into much-in-demand housing has hit a new phase. 

Once concentrated along the high-rise-lined Water Street corridor in Lower Manhattan, dominated by a smattering of developers and mostly limited to rental units, conversions are increasingly being undertaken by fresh developers on the scene like GFP Real Estate. And the transformations are showing up in new neighborhoods, such as Times Square, Turtle Bay and NoMad, with a mixture of unit types—namely condos as well as rentals.

Not all of the second phase of transformations may take root, however, as some announced years ago have yet to break ground. Steep development costs may also be an issue for some sites, even as tax incentives have grown and zoning barriers have fallen, contributing to a quadrupling of planned projects in a year.

But the recent evolution of the trend suggests that conversions are no longer just a pandemic-era pipe dream.

“There’s more and more recognition that a lot of buildings are well past their useful life,” said developer Nathan Berman of Metro Loft, a longtime converter who’s considered king of the sector. “Converting them to housing is the smartest financial move.”...

Office-to-resi conversions aren’t just for FiDi anymore — C.J. Hughes | Crain’s New York Business | March 11, 2025

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Dunwoody, Georgia: A sizable office conversion proposal.

The Dunwoody Homeowners Association at its April 27 meeting heard from representatives regarding proposed developments, including an office conversion in the Perimeter area and a drive-through fast food restaurant in Ashford Lane.

WorkSpace representatives discussed a plan to convert a 600,000 square-foot Perimeter Center office complex into multifamily residential housing.

The proposed development would involve the conversion of an existing 14-story office building at 64 Perimeter Center East into 169 condominiums, along with the construction of 101 town homes and 119 age-restricted apartments at 66 Perimeter Center East.

Dunwoody Homeowners Association hears presentations from developers — Cathay Cobbs | RoughDraft Atlanta | April 28, 2025

• Is a recession looming?  The last calls in earnest for a recession occurred in late 2022 and throughout 2023, but they proved to be incorrect as the Fed navigated a “soft landing.” 

Let’s check in on recession forecasts: The IMF says there’s a 40% chance of a US recession this year, while the median forecaster surveyed by Bloomberg sees a 45% chance. Polymarket is at 55% as of this writing, and Southwest’s CEO says the US recession has already started. The ECB’s chief economist says a recession in the eurozone is “unlikely,” but the Bundesbank’s president warns that tariffs may cause a recession in Germany…

The Forecast: Predictions — Walter Frick | Bloomberg | April 27, 2025

Inflation and Monetary Policy

• US consumer sentiment is down and inflation expectations are riding high.

US consumer sentiment fell to one of the lowest readings on record and long-term inflation expectations climbed to the highest since 1991 on fears of the economic fallout from tariffs.

The final April sentiment index fell to 52.2 from 57 a month earlier, according to the University of Michigan. While a slight improvement from the preliminary gauge of 50.8, the latest figure is the fourth-lowest in data back to the late 1970s.

Consumers anticipated inflation will rise at an annual rate of 4.4% over the next five to 10 years, the data out Friday showed. They expect prices to rise at a 6.5% pace over the next year. While down from a preliminary reading of 6.7%, year-ahead price expectations are still the highest since 1981…

US Consumer Sentiment Slides While Inflation Expectations Jump — Nazmul Ahasan | Bloomberg | April 25, 2025

The International Monetary Fund provides a wealth of data about the global economy.  Also see the IMF’s 2025 Global Financial Stability Report.

…One more data point to watch is the IMF’s five-year forecast for global growth, which has grown steadily weaker in recent years. “I think it’s quite possible that the IMF medium-term outlook will be less positive,” says Dynan, though by how much depends on the assumptions the IMF makes about tariffs. “There was some optimism among forecasters last year that we might be heading for a brighter outlook given productivity-enhancing technologies like AI,” she says. Instead, we might see the most pessimistic medium-term forecast in decades.

Forecast: Will Trump’s Tariffs Hurt Global Economic Growth? — Walter Frick | Bloomberg | April 20, 2025

HUD Housing Discrimination Relief goes Kaput

• Also see Fair Housing Cases in Jeopardy from Issue# 113.

Since being sworn in this month, civil rights director Harmeet K. Dhillon has redirected her staff to focus on combating antisemitism, the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports and what Trump and his allies have described as anti-Christian bias and the Democrats’ “woke ideology.”

The division changed mission statements across its sections to focus less on racial discrimination and more on fighting diversity initiatives. And department officials reassigned more than a dozen career staffers — including section chiefs overseeing police brutality, disability and voting rights cases — to areas outside their legal expertise...

...More than 100 division attorneys have already said they will leave their jobs, Dhillon told conservative podcaster Glenn Beck during an appearance on his show Saturday. Many departed because they disagree with the division’s new direction, she said.

The division had about 380 attorneys when Trump began his second term in the White House. Approximately half have left or said they will leave, according to people familiar with the division, and Dhillon told Beck she had no problem with their departures...

...The civil rights division was established in 1957 as part of the Civil Rights Act, which focused on fighting racial discrimination. Since its launch, the division has been tasked with upholding “the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States, particularly some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” according to the Justice Department’s website.

The office has 11 sections that aim to combat discrimination in educational opportunities, housing, employment, voting and more. Some civil rights advocates fear Dhillon’s changes could amount to an abandonment of the division’s founding mission.

“For almost 70 years, the civil rights division has enforced laws that Congress passed to promote equality, dignity and fairness for all Americans,” said Stacey Young, a former civil rights attorney who left this year and founded Justice Connection, an advocacy organization for former Justice Department employees. “By effectively purging the vast majority of the division’s lawyers, DOJ is grinding this work to a near halt.”

Civil rights lawyers leave en masse as Justice Dept. mission shifts (free 🔗) — Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck | The Washington Post | April 28, 2025

Service Animals Are not Subject to Pet Restrictions

• Bangor, Maine: State agencies are homeowners’ best hope as HUD and DOJ are gutted.

Rebecca Parsons purchased a condo in the 12-unit Hellas Condominiums in Old Town in January 2024. Shortly after, the condominium’s homeowners association found her in violation of the HOA’s “one-dog rule” because she had a service dog and a pet dog, she said.

A service dog is not considered a pet under federal law.  The HOA also denied Parsons’ initial request for a fenced-in area for Otis, her service dog, Parsons said….

…Parsons filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission on Aug. 16, alleging discrimination by the HOA. The commission, which enforces the state’s anti-discrimination law, unanimously voted in March that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination has occurred.”

The commission said it will work with Parsons and the HOA board to try to reach a settlement before Parsons decides whether to file a lawsuit.

“I just want them to admit that they discriminated and change their behavior,” Parsons told the Bangor Daily News. “But I don’t see their behavior ever changing if they keep trying to double down that they didn’t [discriminate]. Because if they think what they did was right, then they’re going to keep doing it.”...

Old Town HOA discriminated against woman and her service dog, human rights commission finds — Marie Weidmayer | Bangor Daily News | April 23, 2025

Barks are Bad, but Bites are Worse

• Georgia: The Chestnut HOA’s insurance company has denied coverage for a $10,000,000 judgment.

An insurer told a Georgia federal court that it doesn't owe coverage to a homeowner's association in a $10 million suit brought by a woman who said she was viciously attacked by her neighbor's dogs in part because of the association's failure to enforce its covenant on animals…

Georgia HOA Not Covered In $10M Dog Attack Suit, Insurer Says — Hope Patti | Law 360 | April 25, 2025

LEGAL STRATEGY: While the dog custodian’s liability was not disputed, collectability posed a challenge. The dog’s custodian did not have her own insurance policy or any real financial assets. Through diligent work, Coopers’ handling attorney Andrea Posey learned that the homeowners’ association charged for insurance, and that insurance was supposed to provide coverage for incidents like this. After the homeowners’ association’s insurance company failed to accept the tender, the defendant stood trial as a precursor to an insurance bad faith case. 

OUTCOME: Coopers LLP obtained a $10 million judgment, and the matter will now proceed as an insurance bad faith case against the insurance company for failing to defend the defendant.

$10M Judgment for Boy, Mother Attacked by Dog — Candice Flanagan  | Coopers LLP | Winter 2024

1:25-cv-02238 | Auto-Owners Insurance Company v. Bispham et al — Georgia Northern District Federal Court | Suit Filed 04/23/25

Lawsuit to Overcome $4.7M Fine

• Aptos, California: The Rio Del Mar HOA is locked in a legal battle with the California Coastal Commission that’s set for a jury trial this summer.  View coverage in Issue# 86.

Is a stretch of sidewalk off of Beach Drive in Aptos a public beachfront walkway or a private patio? 

The debate has irked residents who want access to the 800-foot stretch of concrete path, and isolated the members of the Rio Del Mar Beach Island Homeowners Association, who erected a green, chain-link fence to block off the area for their own use. 

The question of whether an HOA can privatize a part of publicly declared land has drawn attention up, down and beyond California. Later this year, the public could finally have an answer as the sides are expected to take the issue to trial…

…For the past year, the issue has largely remained out of public view, with lawyers from each side quibbling over language in the lawsuit filings. However, a representative from the Coastal Commission and a lawyer for the HOA each told Lookout they expect the trial to begin this year, and as early as the summer…

Rio Del Mar HOA’s fence spar over public walkway expected to go to trial later this year — Christopher Neely | Lookout Santa Cruz | April 28, 2025

Flag Disputes

• Jacksonville, Florida: Florida state law is relatively permissible in terms of flag display covenant prohibitions for HOAs (reference our State Statutes Concepts Matrix), but religious flags are not part of those prohibitions.

A Jacksonville man is at odds with his neighborhood's homeowners association over a flag he says represents his faith— but the HOA says it’s a violation of the rules.

If you’ve driven down Atlantic Boulevard recently, you may have seen it: a sign and flag in bold letters that read, “Jesus Returns.” It’s posted in the backyard of Hector Gonzalez and his mother's home in the Sutton Lakes community.   “The flag’s been up about a month now,” Gonzalez said….

Divine Dispute: HOA tells Jacksonville man to take down 'Jesus Returns' flag — Anthony Austin | First Coast News | April 22, 2025

HOA Billboard Burglar?

• San Antonio, Texas: Billboard burglary.

Funeral home mogul Robert “Dick” Tips is taking a San Antonio homeowners association to court over its removal of a billboard from property he owns.

Tips, chairman and CEO of Mission Park Funeral Chapels & Cemeteries, alleges “one or more persons believed to have been acting on behalf or in conspiracy” with the Coronado Enclave Homeowner’s Association went on his property and “unlawfully removed” the sign in May 2023.

He is suing the association and five individuals — including current or former HOA members — seeking damages of at least $250,000 but not more than $1 million. The complaint was filed Monday in state District Court in San Antonio.

While Tips doesn’t know who “trespassed” to remove the billboard, he says the association and one of the individual defendants “are likely to have knowledge about what happened to it.”...

Funeral home mogul Dick Tips takes on San Antonio HOA over billboard — Patrick Danner | San Antonio Express News | April 24, 2025

Do you Own Your Pipes?

• Pipes and electrical wires within condominium units are often designated as limited common elements and that means an association could have a responsibility to maintain, repair and replace (along with a correlated fiscal responsibility).

Q: I am a condo owner. Our board of directors is adamant about doing some work in my unit, even though it is not necessary. They want to replace my copper piping that they say, "has the potential to leak — it could be six months from now or three to five years, who knows, from now but we need to replace them.”

The pipes are not currently leaking, and they do not show damage of any kind. The work they claim is needed could render my apartment useless for at least a week, and my wife and I will not be able to use the toilet, the vanity and the shower. My question is: can I refuse to let them enter my apartment unit to make "repairs" that are not needed?

A: …The Condominium Act grants the association the irrevocable right to enter your unit when necessary to maintain the common elements or other property that is the association’s responsibility, or to protect other units. They would be doing both here.

So, legally, you do not have the right to prevent them from accessing your unit simply because you don’t think the repairs are necessary, and because they would be an inconvenience. There are lots of inconveniences in a condominium — that’s part of living with dozens of others in the same property. If you refuse, the association can either enter forcibly (though I never recommend that for safety reasons), or instead get a court order requiring you to allow access — in which case you’ll end up paying the association’s attorney fees and costs. Don’t let it get to that point…

Owner balks at days without water as condo demands to replace aging, but unbroken pipes — Ryan Poliakoff | The Palm Beach Post | April 27, 2025

Owner’s Driveway Becomes Collateral Damage

• Florida: Improvements within a lot of a plat community (a Unit in UCIOA terms) are often the responsibility of the owner even if those improvements are disturbed by maintenance, repair and replacement of a common element.  Condominium associations, on the other hand, are typically responsible for any damage caused by their activities within a unit.

Q: I have a question about who is responsible for covering repairs to my driveway. I live in a single-family home that has an HOA...

The HOA manager told me that they would pay for fixing the leak if it is an irrigation issue (the irrigation for the houses in the neighborhood is maintained by the HOA), but it was my responsibility and cost to pull up the brick pavers to allow them to investigate the leak as well as my cost to lay the pavers back down…

I did not cause the leak…it just was pure chance that the leak happened to be under my driveway…

A: …Your declaration of covenants will specify exactly who is responsible for what repairs. As you say, the association is responsible for the irrigation, but presumably you are responsible for your own driveway. If the association is forced to remove some of your pavers to access and repair the irrigation, that damage is incidental to their repair.

It’s very common in condominiums for declarations to have language stating that any damage caused to a unit during the association’s repair of the common elements (so-called “incidental damage”) is also the association’s responsibility; but that kind of language is unusual in an HOA (these issues are a lot less common with single family homes).  Without that, the only way I can see that the association would be responsible to repair your pavers would be if they had somehow negligently failed to maintain the irrigation system, causing the leak in the first place — but that seems unlikely.

Neighborhood irrigation broke, now my driveway is busted. Who pays - me or the HOA? — Ryan Poliakoff | The Palm Beach Post | April 20, 2025

• ALL STATES: Out of 338 bills introduced (excluding 49 companion bills), 36 (~11%) have passed their respective legislatures thus far in 2025.  See tracking above ⬆️

• FLORIDA: Relief for condominium owners crushed by mandatory “full funding” for replacement reserves is the predominant issue of 2025, but it’s not the only issue…

It took 5,500 Central Florida homeowners several years to win a landmark class action lawsuit against their developer, who was making millions in profit each year by charging them “club fees” to use their neighborhood pool, clubhouse and other amenities.

Now, as the Legislature plays out the final week of its regular spring session, a half-dozen bills are in play that not only would allow developers to charge those mandatory fees but also would protect them against current and future lawsuits…

…A Central Florida appeals court had ruled in June 2023 that the amenities fees were illegal and ordered their subdivision’s developer, Avatar Properties, to pay back Solivita homeowners the $63 million Avatar collected over the past two decades…

The 6th District Court of Appeals said that under Florida law governing homeowners associations,  developers may not charge more than routine maintenance and operational costs for such amenities.

The judgement against Avatar, a subsidiary of Taylor Morrison Homes, came out to about $10,000 per household. Taylor Morrison has a market capitalization of $5.6 billion, making it one of the most profitable home builders in Florida.

Yet the developer is still charging fees, homeowners say, that are in violation of a court injunction, and the association has filed a motion of contempt.

And ever since the ruling, lobbyists for the state’s largest developers began working with lawmakers to change the law itself, leaving Solivita residents afraid Avatar will start charging even more…

Central Florida homeowners beat their developer’s ‘club fees’ in court. Now the legislature may undo it — Anne Geggis | The Palm Beach Post | April 28, 2025

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Using Florida’s unique bill passage rules, HB913 was substituted for SB1742 with a significant amendment from Sen. Bradley.

Engrossed Senate Amendment to Florida HB913 - House Concurred — 04/30/25

…The bill, which now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, would allow certain condo associations to fund their reserves through a loan or line of credit, give residents greater flexibility to pause payments to their reserves while they prioritize needed repairs, extends the deadline by which associations have to complete structural integrity studies and exempts some smaller buildings from having to do those analyses…

Florida lawmakers approve changes to condo safety law passed after Surfside collapse — Kate Payne | Associated Press via ABC News | April 30, 2025

One of the biggest splits between the two bills involves what power a condominium association’s board of directors should have to borrow money.

The Senate version requires that a majority of the condo membership approve securing a line of credit or a loan to maintain reserves or make repairs, while the House version allows the condo board to make the decision. The Senate version also allows the investment of reserve funds, which the House version does not.

Like much of this year’s legislative session, this issue has been marked with conflict between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the House leadership. DeSantis has indicated his disapproval of the House bill and his support for the Senate version.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Fleming Island Republican Jennifer Bradley, moves the required completion of a structural integrity reserve study to the end of 2025 and would also allow condo associations to “temporarily pause” required reserve-fund contributions from owners for up to two years. The House version does not have an extension.

“You know, you have people that are getting hit with these crushing assessments," DeSantis said April 23, the day the House bill passed. "They’re on a fixed income. They can’t afford to fork over $100,000, and this is being put forward basically because of policies that were implemented by the Florida Legislature.

"So you have a responsibility to … recognize those unintended consequences and help people stay in their homes,” continued DeSantis, who signed the 2022 and 2023 laws. “That’s what you should be doing, but they haven’t been willing to do that yet, either.”...

🎥 VIDEO: Florida condo crisis: Legislature's two approaches to fixing association financial woes — Anne Geggis | The Palm Beach Post | April 28, 2025

The Florida House on Wednesday approved in a near-unanimous vote this year’s condominium bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis has criticized as part of his feud with the chamber’s leadership.

With a little more than a week until the scheduled end of the session, House lawmakers approved Miami Republican Rep. Vicki Lopez’s bill, HB 913, which would allow condominium associations to open lines of credit instead of raising cash from owners to fund building repairs…

...“The House condo bill seems to be something that favors developers and puts the interest of developers over the interests of Florida residents,” DeSantis said during an April 10 press conference at the City of Sweetwater Community Center…

House passes condo bill following DeSantis' criticism — Jackie Llanos | Florida Phoenix | April 23, 2025

• WASHINGTON: SB5129 was signed into law last week.  SB5686 is awaiting the Governor’s signature.  Learn more! Here’s how Ken Harer from Condo Law Group has to say about open meetings:

“So there’s clearly a group of constituents who are talking to the legislature and convincing them that condo and HOA boards are running amok and doing things in secret.”

HOA United successfully negotiated accelerating the open meetings requirement from RCW 64.90 / WUCIOA to January 1, 2026, but nobody has to convince the legislature that boards are running amok and doing things in secret.  Ken continues:

“...we have a lot of clients who do not want to try and hold open meetings or give 14 days’ notice in advance of any decision being made.  But I can tell you that you’re going against a legislature which thinks it is reasonable for all these decisions to be made in an informed and open manner.  And so I guess my recommendation would be to start trying to work with what the legislature’s requirements are instead of arguing with them about it because arguing is going to be unsuccessful…”

Well said, Ken!  For some background, according to a WSCAI attorney liaison, the LACkies spent years hammering out RCW 64.90.  The open meetings requirements in 64.90.445 are closely aligned (and sometimes verbatim) copies of language included in the ULC’s UCIOA framework.