By David Swedelson, Partner at SwedelsonGottlieb, Community Association Attorneys
Earlier this year, I attended a legislative action day in Sacramento. I was surprised by the number of bills being proposed to deal with the drought, with many of them focused on community associations. As the state of emergency with our water supply in California drags on, state and local governments continue to get more aggressive with addressing water use. They do not want us using all that much. And they do not care if an owner’s lawn turns brown.
I recently attended a meeting at an association in Santa Barbara. The association’s large expanse of green grass was turning brown. Turns out that Santa Barbara has issued strong ordinances regulating the watering of lawns; the association can only water their grounds for ten minutes, once a week.
Have you seen SwedelsonGottlieb Senior Partner David Swedelson present his Playing by the Rules seminar yet? Be sure to catch his next offering of this popular program with co-presenter Craig Phillips on July 30, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. in Valencia. The program is free to HOA board members and managers who preregister.
The National Chapter of Community Associations Institute (CAI) recently sent out the following urgent message, which we are reproducing here in its entirety. If you want to preserve the right for homeowner associations to be able to restrict the installation of radio towers and antennas, you need to read and act on this important information:
Looking for a fun, healthy way to support a great cause? This Saturday, SwedelsonGottlieb staff will be teaming up with the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of Community Associations Institute in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Come on over to Santa Monica and join us this Saturday, July 26th at 10:00 a.m.
We are often asked about what portions of an association’s CC&Rs and Bylaws need updating to reflect current state statute and best practices. The answer is usually simple – everything! Due to the reorganization of the Davis-Stirling Act effective January 1, 2014, which included many substantive changes, plus many other statutory changes that have occurred within the past 10 years, many associations’ governing documents have ceased to be reliable resources for effective governance and operation of an association. We are currently assisting many of the firm’s clients with complete amendment and restatement of their CC&Rs, Bylaws, Rules and Policies.
Many boards of directors make enforcement decisions without considering all of the variables. We get contacted and told that an owner has violated the association’s CC&Rs. When we start asking questions, we find out that there have been similar violations in the past that the board has not dealt with. Or we find out that the violation is old news and the board failed to take timely action. Or that the violation was committed by a prior owner.
What exactly is a bedbug? Bedbugs are insects. They are reddish brown, oval and flat, about the size of an apple seed. Decades ago, bedbugs were eradicated from most developed nations using dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (commonly known as DDT) – a pesticide that has since been banned because it’s so toxic. There has been a resurgence of bedbugs in the United States in recent years as a result of increased international travel, changes in pest control practices, and insecticide resistance. And several of our condominium association clients have reported units infested with these little bugs.
In California, condo/HOA associations have the right to tow 
I am not an accountant, far from it. But I am aware that there are two different tax returns that condos, HOAs, and cooperatives can (and should) file (and yes, community associations, while exempt to some extent from paying taxes on assessment income, still may have income and need to file tax returns). I have never really understood when an association would file one tax return form versus the other. I was therefore interested in a blog article on this issue by Donna DiMaggio Berger, a Florida community association attorney. Donna’s article addressed a class she took that focused on the issues pertaining to association tax returns. I am only going to summarize it here. [Editor’s note: the prior link to Donna’s article is no longer valid, our apologies.]