Is your association complying with CCIOA’s owner education requirement? If you responded with “what owner education requirement?” read on!
Section 209.7 of CCIOA, which was added in 2005 by our old friend Senate Bill 100, requires associations to provide owners with education, at least annually, pertaining to the “general operations of the association and the rights and responsibilities of owners, the association, and its executive board”.
The next logical question would then be “how can my association comply with this requirement?” Section 209.7 provides that determination of how an association will comply with the owner education requirement rests solely with the executive board. This essentially means the board has discretion to determine the content and delivery method of the education.
In our experience, we’ve observed associations using their newsletters to reprint legal articles addressing common interest communities as a means of complying with this requirement. Other communities comply with the owner education requirement by having the association’s legal counsel attend a portion of the annual meeting to discuss various legal aspects of common interest communities. As you might imagine, the opportunities for providing such education are almost endless.
Regardless of which method your association uses to provide owner education, the most important thing to keep in mind is to ensure the owner education component is clearly labeled and delineated as such. In other words, if you’re reprinting a legal article in your newsletter, make sure there is verbiage in the newsletter indicating that the article is being printed to satisfy the association’s legal requirement to provide owner education. If you’re having the attorney attend an owner meeting, make sure to announce that the attorney’s attendance is for the purpose of complying with the owner education requirement.
For more ideas on how your community can comply with this requirement or if you have questions about the owner education component, please contact a Altitude Community Law attorney at 303.432.9999.