Saturday, December 31, 2016

New Requirement For Owner To Provide HOA With Specified Information

Effective January 1, 2017, the new Civil Code § 4041, requires an owner of a separate interest in a HOA to provide written notice to the HOA on an annual basis, presumably to its management company, of the following information:

1.         The address or addresses to which notices from the HOA are to be delivered:

2.         An alternate or secondary address to which notices from the HOA are to be delivered;

3.         The name and address of an owner's legal representative, if any, including any person with power of attorney or other person who can be contacted in the event of the owner's extended absence from the separate interest; and

4.         Whether the separate interest is owner-occupied, is being rented, if the parcel is developed by vacant, or if the parcel is undeveloped land.

The HOA is now required to solicit this information in annual notices to each owner, and at least 30 days prior to making certain required disclosures, enter the data into its books and records.

If an owner fails to provide the information required that is listed above, the property address shall be deemed by the HOA to be the mailing address to which notices are to be delivered.

An option for the HOA is to include a written request for the information on a form request prior to sending out annual disclosures to owners.  If an owner does not provide the information, the HOA should use the mailing address of the owner as the address to which notices are to be delivered. 

The HOA can also include the requirement of Section 4041 for an owner to provide the specified information in its rules and regulations, and conceivably fine owners who do not comply within a reasonable time. 

The information can be solicited from new owners as they take title to the property.

This new law clarifies the method by which HOA's can clarify an owner's address for  serving notice to an owner, and makes the owner responsible for providing the correct information regarding where the HOA should send notices.

No comments:

Post a Comment