A bill to license homeowner association managers in the state won’t be introduced this year but could come next year, a spokesman with the Community Associations Institute said Friday.
“Nothing is coming this session,” said Chris Pacetti, co-chair of the licensure task force for the Colorado Legislative Action Committee at CAI, the largest trade group representing community managers.
After studying the topic for about seven years, the CAI submitted a “sunrise” application with the Department of Regulatory Affairs late last year making the case for licensing individual community managers.
They argued managers should pass criminal background checks and undergo training to improve how HOAs operate in the state.
Pacetti said the group had a plan of action if DORA said yes and one if it said no. It wasn’t prepared for the answer that it got — that management companies and not individual managers should be regulated.
“They didn’t say yes or no,” Pacetti said.
The group plans to ask its members about what they want to do next. It also needs to get a better sense of how many HOA managers work independently versus under the umbrella of a larger company.
CAI’s concern is that people managing an HOA, not just their employers, need to demonstrate the expertise that licensing will demand.
Brian Tobias, a senior policy analyst with the state who conducted the sunrise review, said that most homeowner associations sign contracts with management companies, not individual managers.
Those management companies determine who gets put in place as manager, not the individual HOAs, and they are the ones liable.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com , twitter.com/aldosvaldi
