RE: Materials for Dallas Meeting

Draft of the Act

In anticipation of our approaching meeting, I enclose the draft of the Act as it was discussed in Phoenix, together with proposed amendments to the statutory text and comments as discussed at that meeting. I have tried to highlight the Phoenix changes by the introductory note “[10/05 Decision]”

In that draft, I have removed some but not all the written comments received from various commissioners during or after the floor discussion by the full Conference in Pittsburgh. The remaining comments seem to me, upon reflection, to be ones that the drafting committee has not yet fully disposed of.

In some cases, I have shown previously proposed amendments – which the drafting committee rejected in Phoenix – as deleted and underlined text – as follows: ~~here is the new and deleted text~~.

Other Materials –

I have assembled a large selection of resource materials, many of which you have sent to me and some of which are based on my further research since Phoenix. For ease of reference, I have assembled them in a separate “Resources Materials” document, which is attached. The table of contents includes:

TAB

A Virginia § 55-510.Maintaining, Access to association records

B Virginia § 55-510.1. Meetings of the board of directors

C Virginia § 55-514. Authority to levy special assessments

D Texas [draft] Sec. 83.170. Access To Association Records

E North Carolina Fines limitations [and many other subjects] Act

[2005 sessions law # 422]

F Maryland statutes on Electronic Notice, Electronic Voting

G Connecticut Sec. 33-1235 et seq. Corporate records

H New Jersey provision on Electronic Balloting [D Ramsey]

I Bob Diamond - Declaration provisions on Insurance

J Bob Diamond Declaration provision on Association

and New Technology

K Home Builder’s Notice And Cure Legislation

L Reporter’s Phoenix notes on Insurance issues in § 3-113

At one point or another, most of these materials are referred to in the body of the text of the Draft. I recommend that you print these materials out for use at the meeting.

Please note the list of insurance related matters that we posed in Phoenix; I hope to have some industry participation in our Houston discussions of Section 3-113 [insurance]

3. You may recall that we are presuming that some interest group – whether CAI or another entity – will at some time elect to prepare a list of ‘best practices’ for association governance that we will not include as statutory mandates in UCIOA. In those cases where my notes indicate that we anticipated a particular subject would be addressed in a ‘best practices’ piece, I have tried to indicate that here. The subjects to date include:

a. Creation and Funding of Replacement Reserves

b. Foreclosure rules

c. Litigation Disclosure to Unit Owners

d. [What else?]

If CAI or others can distribute or bring materials regarding ‘Best Practices’ for Associations in Dallas that would be helpful.

4. We have agreed in principle to prepare a separate “Homeowners Bill of Rights”, which is intended to be separately enactable by a State; it would include all of our association governance requirements. I anticipate drafting that document at the conclusion of our Dallas meeting so that it may be available for the annual meeting of the Uniform Laws Conference.

5. We have also agreed to track the changes in this text in the constituent acts – that has not yet been done.

At this date, we do not have further information from the AARP or other relevant bodies concerning any positions they might hold. You may, however, wish to bring with you the materials we distributed before the March meeting.

Carl and I again look forward to meeting with you all again. Please call or email me with any questions you may have.

Cheers, Bill Breetz

William R. Breetz Esq., President Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative, Inc.
University of Connecticut School of Law
35 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
(860) 570-5384 Email: william. breetz@law.uconn.edu