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About damn time.
By JESSICA MEYERS
Staff Writer
jmeyers@dallasnews.com
Published 06 April 2011 12:19 AM
A comprehensive bill to rein in homeowners associations sailed through the Senate on Tuesday, with homeowner advocates calling it a barometer of possible action on the issue.
The bill, sponsored by Royce West, D-Dallas, includes a litany of regulations and would require associations to show greater transparency, broaden voting rights, ensure homeowners pay late dues before attorney fees and stop foreclosure without a court order. Currently, HOAs must send only a certified letter warning of impending foreclosure.
Some aspects of the bill, such as limits on solar panel bans and provisions preventing overseas military from returning to foreclosed homes, have already passed the Senate in separate versions.
“Homeowners associations are great quasigovernmental entities, but sometimes they go too far,” said West, a longtime advocate for making HOAs more accountable to homeowners. “I recognize you have to have political balance … and you can be assured whatever comes back [from the House], the heart of it will be this particular bill.”
A similar bill passed the House last session but failed by one vote in the Senate.
“This is a litmus test,” said Robert Doggett, a lobbyist for the Texas Housing Justice League, which belongs to the HOA Reform Coalition. “It’s going to move the ball forward.”
Association representatives, developers and homeowner supporters — who have generally been in conflict — applauded efforts to find balance between property rights and community aesthetics.
“We are hopeful that we are closer than we’ve ever been,” said Sandra Denton, chairwoman of the Texas Community Association Advocates. Attempts to establish HOA regulations have failed in both chambers for more than a decade.
The bill would grant voters the right to suspend or invoke an HOA’s foreclosure ability by a two-thirds vote. But it wouldn’t put an outright ban on foreclosures, which frustrates some homeowners.
“There are a lot of good things in the bill, but they surrounded it by bad stuff,” said Harvella Jones, president of the National Homeowners Advocate Group. “Foreclosure is unconstitutional.”
The bill now moves to the House, where lawmakers have placed a handful of bills with similar elements on the fast track to passage.
What the Senate bill would do on key homeowners association issues:
Transparency: Provide greater notice to buyers about their HOAs, require open meetings and access to association records, and enhance homeowner voting rights and their ability to hold meetings.
Solar panels: Restrict bans on solar panels.
Priority of payments: Require most HOAs to establish alternative payment plans for late dues, and ensure homeowners pay late dues before having to pay attorney fees and fines.
Foreclosure: Require HOAs to obtain a court order to foreclose, allow homeowners to determine by a two-thirds vote whether their HOA should have foreclosure authority, and help prevent foreclosures upon homeowners on active military duty.
Staff Writer
jmeyers@dallasnews.com
Published 06 April 2011 12:19 AM
A comprehensive bill to rein in homeowners associations sailed through the Senate on Tuesday, with homeowner advocates calling it a barometer of possible action on the issue.
The bill, sponsored by Royce West, D-Dallas, includes a litany of regulations and would require associations to show greater transparency, broaden voting rights, ensure homeowners pay late dues before attorney fees and stop foreclosure without a court order. Currently, HOAs must send only a certified letter warning of impending foreclosure.
Some aspects of the bill, such as limits on solar panel bans and provisions preventing overseas military from returning to foreclosed homes, have already passed the Senate in separate versions.
“Homeowners associations are great quasigovernmental entities, but sometimes they go too far,” said West, a longtime advocate for making HOAs more accountable to homeowners. “I recognize you have to have political balance … and you can be assured whatever comes back [from the House], the heart of it will be this particular bill.”
A similar bill passed the House last session but failed by one vote in the Senate.
“This is a litmus test,” said Robert Doggett, a lobbyist for the Texas Housing Justice League, which belongs to the HOA Reform Coalition. “It’s going to move the ball forward.”
Association representatives, developers and homeowner supporters — who have generally been in conflict — applauded efforts to find balance between property rights and community aesthetics.
“We are hopeful that we are closer than we’ve ever been,” said Sandra Denton, chairwoman of the Texas Community Association Advocates. Attempts to establish HOA regulations have failed in both chambers for more than a decade.
The bill would grant voters the right to suspend or invoke an HOA’s foreclosure ability by a two-thirds vote. But it wouldn’t put an outright ban on foreclosures, which frustrates some homeowners.
“There are a lot of good things in the bill, but they surrounded it by bad stuff,” said Harvella Jones, president of the National Homeowners Advocate Group. “Foreclosure is unconstitutional.”
The bill now moves to the House, where lawmakers have placed a handful of bills with similar elements on the fast track to passage.
What the Senate bill would do on key homeowners association issues:
Transparency: Provide greater notice to buyers about their HOAs, require open meetings and access to association records, and enhance homeowner voting rights and their ability to hold meetings.
Solar panels: Restrict bans on solar panels.
Priority of payments: Require most HOAs to establish alternative payment plans for late dues, and ensure homeowners pay late dues before having to pay attorney fees and fines.
Foreclosure: Require HOAs to obtain a court order to foreclose, allow homeowners to determine by a two-thirds vote whether their HOA should have foreclosure authority, and help prevent foreclosures upon homeowners on active military duty.
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