DORA Recommends the Regulation of Management Companies

[From the CAI Legislative Action Committee] March 2, 2012–This morning the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) published the Sunrise Review on whether the licensure of community association managers in Colorado is necessary. The Sunrise Review Application submitted by CAI’s Colorado Legislative Action Committee (“CLAC”) recommended the licensure of individual community association managers.

The analysis in the Sunrise Review focused largely on whether unregulated community association managers pose potential harm to the residents living in community associations and the financial costs associated with potential regulation. The categories of “harm” outlined in the report include:

• Advice to aggressively pursue lien foreclosures
• Imposing excessive fees
• Lack of transparency
• Theft of community association funds
• Poor customer service
• Undisclosed conflicts of interest
• Differing interpretation of community association governing documents
• Management of community association contracts
• Accounting failures

Based upon an analysis of these categories of harm, which we recommend that you take the time to review, DORA concluded that “In the end, regulation is justified and widely supported. Given the types of harm identified during the course of this review and the legitimate concerns surrounding the cost of regulation, it is logical to conclude that the best course of action is to regulate management companies.”

The Manager Licensure Task Force of CLAC is currently digesting the report and the recommendation to regulate management companies. Among other things, we are obviously concerned that the report does not address individual managers who are not affiliated with a management company.