Tag: ULC

Uniform Law Commission rejects subjecting HOAs to Constitution

Today I received a telephone rejection from ULC on my proposal for an HOA Members Bill of Rights.  It comes a day after my Commentary on ASU Law silence containing a statement that there has not been a ULC response, some 3 weeks after ULC’s Oct. 29 meeting.

“I am waiting for a response from The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) that is drafting updates to UCIOA. Its Scope Committee is reviewing my request for ULC study of my proposal for an HOA Member Bill of Rights; it will meet again in January.”

Nothing in writing, nothing formal, just a phone call. The essentials of the call, after a short debate where we could not reach an eye-to-eye understanding of what my point was, is very disappointing.

“I appreciate your call and our discussion on my rejected proposal.  I think we are too far apart at this time: ‘not functionally useful for lawyers,’ and ‘not workable.’”   The Scope Committee and editorial board “had difficulty in seeing HOAs as a government.”

In this call I stressed my proposed statute that would mandate HOAs to be subject to the Constitution like any other local government; the response was, “they didn’t see how that would help.”

Long ago The Founding Fathers rejected the patchwork approach to modifying the Articles of Confederation and replaced it with a complete rewrite — The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It’s well beyond time that the HOA “constitution,” the CC&Rs, be replaced in its entirety as proposed in A Plan Toward Restructuring the HOA Model of Governance.

ULC apparently doesn’t believe so!

ASU Law ignores content-neutral free speech for HOAs

Much to my disappointment, the ASU Law library has not responded to my 3 emails[i] requesting an HOA advocate resource listing on its Homeowner Associations resource webpage. Under Books CAI attorney member Scott Carpenter is listed (reference is to an AZ Bar Assn booklet on HOA law, and under Websites AACM (community manager association) is listed.

Both of these listings carry the lobbying view found in the CAI School of HOA Governance.[ii] Neither address constitutional issues nor do they contain the views of constitutional lawyers. There is a constitutional issue at play as I informed the librarian and the Law School Dean  — the illegal bias toward one party’s content while denying another party’s material content. The law requires content-neutral free speech which I believe is being violated by ASU. So, as I proposed, remove these listings, or add my books and web pages or those of other homeowner rights advocates.

How can law students from the prestigious Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law obtain access to material information concerning the long ignored HOA legal scheme that, apparently, ASU does not agree with?  Change cannot occur in the blind! There cannot be change without change!

PS:  I am waiting for a response from The Uniform Law Commission (ULC) that is drafting updates to UCIOA. Its Scope Committee is reviewing my request for ULC study of my proposal for an HOA Member Bill of Rights; it will meet again in January.

NOTES

[i] Copy of email letter

gKS256@nyu.edu

To:  Beth DIFelice (beth.difelice@asu.edu)

CC: ‘douglas.sylvester@asu.edu’; Diana.Bowman@asu.edu

November 11, 2020

Email letter

Beth DiFelice

Director ASU Law Library

Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Arizona State University

[ii]  The foundation and principles of the School can be traced back to CAI’s Public Policies, The CAI Manifesto (its 2016 “white paper”), its numerous seminars and conferences, its Factbooks and surveys, its amicus briefs to the courts, and its advisories, letters, emails, newsletters, blogs etc. I have designated these foundations and principles collectively as the CAI School of HOA Governance.

Laws without enforcement are just recommendations

In response to a post by Maria Winlet on the FB page, “HOA Reform – stop the abuse”,  reporting an article by Jessica Boehm of The Arizona Republic, I posted the following on the FB page:

“Want to stop this flagrant abuse and lack of homeowner protection by pro-HOA biased legislation, here in az or in any other state? Let’s hope that the uniform law commission — creator of UCIOA and its failed 2008 bill of rights version — agrees to pursue a legitimate bill of rights focused on limiting HOA government and protecting member rights, as is the intent of the constitution’s bill of rights. Set to decide this Oct. 29th. * * * * the ULC scope committee is handling the review. Timothy Berg is the committee chair. You can send an email to info@uniformlaws.org attn T Berg with a reference to member bill of rights. They have my history of HOA member bill of rights as posted here and on my website. We must offset CAI’s influence.”

All advocates and homeowners need to do their part if substantive reforms are to become real.

HOA advocate to advise committee on UCIOA revision

I was invited to participate in the drafting of revisions to the Uniform Law Commission’s (ULC) Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) and Uniform Condominium Act (UCA). As an invited Observer with full participation rights I bring “in the trenches” in-depth experience and extensive research to restore the lost Constitution to HOA-Land.

With the advocates’ failure to nationally unite and collaborate to attain substantive HOA reforms, going forward with ULC’s statewide collaborative approach will benefit all interested parties, including HOA members. The drafting committee is comprised of conscientious and dedicated unpaid volunteer attorneys appointed by their state. Uniform Acts (UCC for example) adopted by ULC are presented to state legislators to adopt and to ease the disorder brought about by different rules in different states that affect a person’s home in an HOA.

My late 12 hour introduction into the amend and revise procedure allowed me to orient myself to the functioning of the UCIOA committee as well as presenting a few points of view. The proposed UCIOA changes are in the review process and need to be approved by the ULC commissioners at their annual meeting, yet to be determined as a result of the coronavirus restrictions.

When and if future revisions to UCIOA are in order I hope to participate more fully.