If Your HOA Owners Can Add a Backyard Unit, What Happens to Your Documents?
HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - December 22,
2023
In this week's tip, we discuss the mess California legislators have created because it applies not only to our California readers, but also because it's a challenge that could be coming to our readers in other states,
too.
Picture it. You live in an HOA with 100 units. Then your state allows every single owner the right to build an accessory dwelling unit in their yard (think granny flat). And the state says owners who do that can set that up as and sell
it as a condo.
What? How would that new condo fit into your HOA community?
That's what a new California law allows. But how would that work in practice? David C. Swedelson, the principal at Swedelson & Gottlieb, a law firm that represents associations throughout California, says he's discussed this issue with others, and they don't yet understand how this new law will play out.
"We've talked about it, and we don't know how it's going to work," he says. "Gosh forbid the legislature should ever ask us for input on these things. Often, we shake our heads and say, ‘What were they thinking?'
"I represent some associations that are large properties," says Swedelson. "I recently went to the Reagan Library out in Simi Valley. I was looking down the hill from there because we represent an association called Presidential Estates, and the library has a road easement through the association.
"Those properties are multi-acre properties," he says. "They're so big we had a homeowner renting out their property for a film shoot. I could envision someone in that community building an eight-unit building on one of those properties. Yet we don't have answers
to the questions that will arise when someone tries to develop a subassociation within an association."
Perhaps you're in Colorado? A similar bill permitting ADUs was almost passed into law there recently, so you may not be far behind in
having to face this issue.
"Last year, Gov. Jared Polis introduced a bill that would essentially do the same thing, leaving all zoning decisions in state hands as opposed to the local authority," explains David Firmin, managing partner at
Altitude Community Law PC in Lakewood, Colo., with satellite offices in Loveland, Colorado Springs, Durango, and Frisco.
"Under the law, despite any provisions in the declaration to the contrary, any owner would be able to add additional
units to their property," he explains. "The thought process is that you flood the housing market and bring prices down with all those new units."