House Bill 165 was introduced on Tuesday February 22, 2011 in the North Carolina General Assembly. The legislation seeks to make widespread and comprehensive changes to an already heavily regulated community association industry. Currently, there are numerous statutes which govern community associations to varying degrees in North Carolina such as the Planned Community Act, Condominium Act, Unit Ownership Act and Non-Profit Corporation Act.
The legislation seeks to add to the Planned Community Act and Condominium Act by making Board meetings more open, placing random limitations on special assessments, implementing rules on the priority in which assessments have to be applied, adding numerous additional recordkeeping requirements, placing time limitations on the declarant control period and when owners not affiliated with the declarant must be elected to the Board and adding numerous additional disclosures a seller of a lot in a planned community must make.
The proposed bill is aimed, in part, at enhancing consumer protections, and will likely add significantly to both the administrative work of community associations, as well as, the laws which they have to comply with on a daily basis. The bill calls for the North Carolina Real Estimate Commission to revise the form Residential Property Disclosure Statements which sellers sign before selling their homes to comply with the numerous new disclosures homeowners would need to make under the proposed new law. Among other disclosures, homeowers would now have to physically provide a copy of the association’s declaration, bylaws, balance sheet and income and expense statement to buyers.
The bill would add significant additional legal requirements for all aspects of community association operations. To see a copy of the bill or to monitor its status, please click here.