The following is an excerpt from The Capitol Insider, an Arizona Association of Realtors (AAR) publication, written by Nicole La Slavic, AAR Vice President of Government Affairs. This new legislation will go into effect July 24th, 2014.
Over the course of the last year, the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) continued to field complaints from our membership, and the public, on escalating efforts by homeowner associations (HOAs) to interfere in private contracts and profit off these efforts. Some HOAs sought to obtain inappropriate information from tenants such as a copy of the tenant’s rental application, credit report, lease agreement, and social security number. To make matters worse, these HOAs charged the tenants unreasonable fees to process this information. AAR is charged with protecting the rights of homeowners and our efforts proved successful on April 17, 2014, when Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1482, homeowners’ associations amendments; omnibus, into law. Pursuant to SB 1482, HOAs will now be limited as to what information they can seek to obtain from tenants. Additionally, the association will be precluded from charging more than $25 to process rental documentation.
As some will recall, this bill reintroduced protections for homeowners and tenants against HOAs was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor last year, but ultimately challenged in court based on the “single subject rule” of the constitution. As a result of the constitutional challenge, HOAs were left with no restrictions on what documents they could require of a tenant and no limit on what could be charged for the collection of these documents.
After many attempts to get this legislation to the finish line, Governor Brewer’s signature solidified the multi-year effort to establish protections for homeowners and tenants. SB 1482 contained a general effective date and will become effective 90-days after the legislature adjourns.
For more information on the bill, please visit: http://www.azleg.gov/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=1482&Session_Id=112
