As it turns out, HB2353, designed to restore homestead exemption rights to those living in Arizona HOAs, never made it to the governor’s desk.
It died in the Senate government committee. Representative Eddie Farnsworth tried to get it through as a striker (last minute substitution of one bill for another), but the CAI (Community Associations Institute) swung their lobbying efforts into action and defeated that effort.
This is at least the third effort of Farnsworth to restore homestead exemption protection to those who live in planned communities such as homeowner associations or condominiums.
Planned community associations have the same power to foreclose on your home if you don’t pay your assessments as a bank does if you don’t pay your mortgage.
The bank’s power makes sense because it has an actual equity interest or capital investment in the property. However, an association does not. It did not give you the money to buy your house. The essential question becomes one of why should an association have any more right to foreclose on your property than any other creditor such as your credit card company or your doctor?
The CAI was originally established in 1973. The basic purpose was to do research on and provide educational resources for planned communities. The original intent was to protect the interests of association members, builder-developers, management companies, legal professionals and vendors. [See “Privatopia” by Evan McKenzie for more information on the CAI.]
Over time it was the members who got lost in the shuffle. For attendance at the ever more expensive conferences or purchase of the slick educational materials, the individual members did not get the business tax breaks the others did.
Repeated efforts to protect individual homeowner rights by state legislators across the United States have been defeated again and again by the CAI. Sometime in the future, when homeowners wake up to the importance of homestead exemption protection and the fact that they don’t have it in Arizona, the laws are bound to change.
Two years ago the Idaho State House of Representatives approved a bill allowing associations to file liens for failure to pay association assessments. The next day they reversed themselves because the bill violated basic property rights.
The key question may well be: Will the baby boomers now retiring put up with the restrictions of these quasi governments called HOAs?
Another question occurs: How can a retirement community exclude younger returning veterans who might want to live in their associations? Can one actually say, “I’m glad you risked your life in the service of our country, but I don’t want you living next door?”