NJ bill S2016 seeks to hold HOAs answerable under the Constitution

NJ Senator Shirley Turner sponsored a bill to revise NJ’s Condo Act, S2016 (2004).

It can be found at S2016

Section 2 reads, in part:

e. The very nature of a homeowners’ association is to provide governance over and maintenance of the real property of a common interest community that is owned in common by all of the residents. New Jersey statutes require these associations to be formed by the developer, but have not provided the necessary detail to guide these special corporations in carrying out their duties once the control of the community has shifted to the owners. Homeowners’ association governing boards have relied on corporation law to fill in many of the gaps that the “Condominium Act,” or other statutes, do not address. Corporation law, however, is geared towards businesses or charitable organizations. Homeowners’ associations are technically not either; they are, in fact, the functional equivalent of neighborhood governments. Accountability measures are needed to ensure that such quasi-governmental entities are operating democratically and guided by principles of fairness that benefit all of the owner-members of these communities.