The Community Associations Institute Arizona Legislative Action Committee (AZ LAC) needs your help opposing HB 2865 homeowners' associations; attorney fees and HB 2866 homeowner's associations; unlawful enforcement; damages. Both bills have been sent to the Rules Committee and can soon head to the full House for a vote. If enacted, HB 2865 would force unit owners uninvolved in a dispute to pay the association’s outstanding attorney’s fees, and HB 2866 would unnecessarily criminalize association enforcement actions.

If HB 2865 passes, associations will be prohibited from collecting the attorney’s fees it spends in a legal dispute. Moreover, this bill will prevent an association from using assessments to pay for an attorney, effectively prohibiting an association from hiring an attorney to assist it with its legal needs or to defend it in a legal proceeding. When an association requires legal representation to try and collect a past due balance or to enforce its governing documents, it has always been able to collect the attorney’s fees it incurs in the process from the owner that breached the contract. This bill attempts to abolish that practice and make it so that the owner who loses a lawsuit will not be required to reimburse the association the attorney’s fees it expended. This will force the rest of the owners in the community, who had nothing to do with the dispute, to pay for these fees through increased assessments or through a special assessment to cover any gaps in association funds. 

HB2866 will act to penalize associations and burden them with unnecessary financial penalties for attempting to enforce covenants that contradict state law. State law changes often, which can make an inadvertent error in enforcement a very real possibility. Also there are existing mechanisms for owners to dispute association rules and procedures that they do not agree with. HB2866 will penalize associations up to $2,500 for every violation letter sent, and for every enforcement attempt taken, that misstated, misquoted or miscalculated legal requirements. This bill will result in the association having to seek a legal opinion before taking any steps to enforce the governing documents to ensure its actions do not contradict state law. This will result in an immediate increase in the association’s costs and may force associations to increase assessments or levy special assessments to cover these costs. 

Please take a moment TODAY to reach out to your Representative and urge them to OPPOSE both HB 2865 and HB 2866 and protect your community from costly over-regulation!

Want to help oppose this bill further? Copy and paste the draft email and send it to the following additional legislators and their staff (if you are not already one of their constituents):

• House Speaker Rep. Steve Montenegro - smontenegro@azleg.gov
  • Copy Scolaric@azleg.gov  
• House Rules Committee Chair Rep. Laurin Hendrix- LHendrix@azleg.gov
  • Copy choffman@azleg.gov 
• House Majority Leader Rep. Michael Carbone- MCarbone@azleg.gov
  • Copy cvalencia@azleg.gov  
• House Majority Whip Rep. Julie Willoughby- JWILLOUGHBY@azleg.gov
  • Copy Davis@azleg.gov