Chapter 5 - § 5.16 • OBLIGATIONS OF UNIT OWNERS GENERALLY

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 5.16 • OBLIGATIONS OF UNIT OWNERS GENERALLY

The most basic obligation of a unit owner is to comply with the CCIOA and the declaration of the community of which he or she is a member. The Uniform Act makes clear that if anyone governed by it fails to comply with any of its provisions or any provision of the declaration or bylaws, any other person or class of persons adversely affected by that failure has "a claim for appropriate relief."²⁷⁶ However, Colorado did not incorporate that provision from the Uniform Act into the CCIOA. While no one seems to doubt that unit owners are bound by, and must comply with, the CCIOA and the community's declaration,²⁷⁷ nowhere does the CCIOA say that directly.²⁷⁸ It does address recovery of costs incurred in an attempt to remedy any failure to comply with the Act, a declaration, bylaws, articles of incorporation, or association rules and regulations.²⁷⁹ It also decrees that any right or obligation established by the CCIOA is enforceable by judicial proceeding,²⁸⁰ and that there is an obligation of good faith in the performance or enforcement of every contract — presumably including the declaration — or duty governed by the Act.²⁸¹ Of course, the declaration itself will ordinarily bind — and be enforceable against — the parties and their successors and assigns, meaning the declarant, the association, and the unit owners.

As a general rule, the association is a separate legal entity and is solely responsible for the contracts it enters.²⁸²

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Notes:

^[276] Uniform Common Interest Community Act § 4-117. The section also allows for punitive damages to be awarded for a willful failure to comply with the Act, and for a court to award costs and reasonable attorney's fees in an appropriate case.

^[277] Consider Ski Time Square Condo. Ass'n v. Ski Time Square Enters., 119 P.3d 588 (Colo. App. 2005); Buick v. Highland Meadow Estates at Castle Peak Ranch, Inc., 21 P.3d 860 (Colo. 2001); Pagosa Lakes Prop. Owners Ass'n v. Caywood, 973 P.2d 698 (Colo. App. 1998) (owner of property in subdivision is on constructive notice that his or her property is subject to unrecorded restrictions and regulations by virtue of recording of declaration, which creates and grants broad powers to association).

^[278] Note that the CCIOA encourages alternative dispute resolution. C.R.S. § 38-33.3-124(1)(a). It also allows the declaration, bylaws, or association rules to specify situations in which disputes must be resolved by binding arbitration. C.R.S...