Your Carefully Crafted Hoa Documents, Now Rewritten by the Kansas Legislature
| Publication year | 2010 |
| Pages | 19 |
By Vernon L. Jarboe, Sloan Law Firm, Topeka, vjarboe@sloanlawfirm.com,and Derek L. Brown, University of Kansas School of Law
The Kansas Legislature recently passed House Bill 2472, the "Kansas Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights" (the Act)[1]. According to the Community Associations Institute, which serves such associations, sometimes known as homeowner associations (HOA), nationwide there are approximately 305,400 association governed communities with 24.4 million housing units and 60.1 million residents.[2] These numbers include "a significant and increasing number of Kansans."[3] Due to the growing prevalence of this type of living arrangement, the effective management of these communities has become increasingly important. Despite the fact that there was no blood in the street, mismanagement examples presented to the Kansas Legislature, the Act, set to become effective January 1, 2011,[4] sets forth strict guidelines that establish uniform powers, duties, and limitations for all common interest communities.[5] The scope of the Act is broad; it applies to all communities that contain 12 or more units used for residential purposes.[6] The Act could apply to everything from comprehensive condo projects to communities where the only shared space is a patch of grass.
The Act sets forth various powers and duties of owner as-sociations.[7] Not surprisingly, many of the powers and duties appear to be aimed at accounting for and saving money. For example, the Act requires associations to adopt, and allows them to amend, budgets.[8] This particular provision was probably designed to help cut down on fiscally irresponsible behavior by associations. Unfortunately this provision will be burdensome for the vast majority of associations that have operated effectively using their own methods of accounting. Another provision aimed at saving money involves the option to settle disputes via alternative dispute resolution.[9] In other words, associations may require that disputes between the association and the unit owners or between two or more unit owners be settled using alternative dispute resolution rather than in a court of law.[10] This provision was, seemingly, included to prevent overbearing associations from constantly threatening unit owners with litigation. It is unclear, however, how...
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