Colorado House Bill 1277 was passed out of the Senate Local Government Committee on a 3-2 vote, moving on to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration. The bill already passed out of the House on a 35-28 vote. Here is the gist of HB13-1277, courtesy of Colorado Capitol Watch:
Under current law, common interest communities and their unit owners’ associations (HOAs) are not subject to regulation by any state agency. The bill requires any person who manages the affairs of a common interest community on behalf of an HOA for compensation, on or after July 1, 2014, to meet minimum qualifications and obtain a license from the director of the division of real estate in the department of regulatory agencies. Licensees are identified as “community association managers”
Couple things to know about this bill:
- Currently, there is no exemption for managers of vacation ownership properties.
- An applicant must hold either a designation as a Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA), an Association Management Specialist (AMS), or as a Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM) or any other designation as may be approved.
- Applicants must also pass a licensure test, which will assess core competencies in several areas, including:
- comprehension of legal documents and statutes that enable a community association to operate;
- knowing the roles and responsibilities of a manager, owners, committees and the executive board;
- steps for developing and enforcing community association rules;
- effective collection of assessments; and
- characteristics of effective risk management.
Passage will start what is expected to be an interesting rule-making process, which will need to culminate sometime in 2014 so licenses can be obtained by the July 2015 implementation date.
