Planning continues for the HOA Day at the State Capitol in St. Paul on Wednesday, April 2 at 10:30 a.m. So far it doesn’t look like Mother Nature will grant us sunny skies, but we expect a strong showing. All HOA Leadership Network members are strongly encouraged to attend.

State legislators have been pushing bills that attempt to “reform” HOAs in a way that will be counterproductive. From a network standpoint, we seen board leaders who are smart, well-educated and do the right thing for their communities. They follow their governing documents and make fair decisions for their residents.

Not so, according to these bills.  In our view, if passed in current forms, HOA reform legislation will be bad for HOA boards, bad for HOA governance and bad for the very residents this legislation is meant to protection.

Here’s the summary of why we are opposed.

The HOA Leadership Network supports transparency and accountability but portions of HR 1268/SF 1750 will have immediate and devastating effects on HOAs across Minnesota!

THESE BILLS WILL INCREASE COSTS FOR ALL HOMEOWNERS

Associations have fiduciary duties to their homeowners to preserve common elements and help maintain property values. The current bill will not prevent HOAs from needing to take action to enforce their rules and collect assessments .

These bills will limit HOA’s ability to function appropriately by:

• Unrealistically restricting the volunteer board’s ability to operate effectively;
• Arbitrarily limiting or eliminating HOA’s ability to collect assessments and enforce its rules; and
• Overregulating service contracts and interfering with the right to choose vendors.

The Bills will unfairly pass costs onto the compliant homeowners and undermine thousands of functional HOAs without providing the needed safeguards, like protections against runaway insurance costs. As written, these bills will lead to increased fees to homeowners and increased management fees. Management companies currently keep fees low by offering additional services only when needed. Removing management’s ability to perform and bill for these services would necessitate a significant increase in base management fees.

THESE BILLS WILL KILL BOARD PARTICIPATION

HOA boards are composed of unit owners who generously volunteer their time and energy to manage their communities. Even under current conditions, recruiting and retaining board members is a persistent challenge. These bills would make that challenge significantly worse by stripping boards of the tools they need to govern effectively. By imposing new restrictions and liabilities without offering corresponding support or protections, the legislation transforms a civic-minded volunteer role into a more burdensome and adversarial position.

Rather than empowering boards, these bills create legal and administrative traps that discourage participation, increase risk, and erode morale. The result will be fewer willing volunteers, more board vacancies, and growing reliance on professional management, all of which drive up costs for homeowners and undermine community self-governance.

We are working with CAI-MN, Row Cal Property Management and SJJ Law on mobilizing as many people as possible.  Please join us to voice your opposition.  Register here at CAI-MN’s registration site.  Food trucks available that day at your own cost. We will have signs and t-shirts and some hats to distribute.