News & Updates From Our Phoenix Legal Team

With the rise of VRBO and Air bnb properties in the Phoenix and surrounding areas, many Associations have attempted to restrict short-term rentals.

For some homeowners, misapplied HOA fees lead to them being accused of missing payments. This is a serious matter that you must fight if you know that you paid fees to the HOA even though you’ve been told that you have not. Avoiding the issue won’t make it go away, so you’ll have to find a way to prove that you paid what you were required to.

Most HOAs have an application that you have to fill out if you want approval for a project. It can take a while, sometimes 60 days, to get approval. You should start the approval process as quickly as you can so your project won’t be on hold if they take a while to approve it.

One of the risks of filling out a project contract with a client is that the company will commit to a price and then their costs will change. Most businesses protect themselves when quoting project prices by putting a specific time limit on the quote.

Your HOA should do its best to preserve the property values within the community and enforce the existing rules for the benefit of everyone who lives there.

In most cases, there will be an opportunity to negotiate any kind of issue that arises in your HOA. You will be able to meet with the board, for example, and present your side of an argument. An HOA is supposed to be neutral, so it should listen to what you have to say and determine if there is reason to make an exception for certain actions or if certain remedies will be enough.

Conflicts with contractors can cause major headaches. Sometimes, the issues are actually minor disputes that wouldn’t justify taking legal action. A homeowner angry because workers muddied their kitchen floors probably can’t sue over an issue easily remedied with a little cleaning.

There is a reason why some people vow never to live where there is an HOA, and that’s because board members could potentially go off on a so-called “power trip” and make restrictions that others feel are unfair or unreasonable.

When you break the HOA rules, they will take enforcement actions against you. You could face fines or other penalties. Can your HOA punish you for something that they ignore from other homeowners?

It’s expensive to complete repairs on a home, so you want to make sure they’re done right. If you start seeing problems when the construction team is working, say something. This is your home and your money, so you should be in charge of the project.

When you hire a construction team to work on your home, one of the risks is that a construction defect may occur. Defects can happen for a few reasons. The first may be because the team is not skilled and makes mistakes with the project’s design or with general workmanship.

One of your responsibilities as an HOA homeowner will be to pay fees to the association to cover their operating costs and any community amenities that they provide. You probably do your best to make all of the necessary payments and stay on top of your obligations to your HOA.

HOA serves primarily as a means of protecting the local community and enforcing standards for the maintenance and appearance of individual homes. However, an HOA can also have a negative impact on a homeowner if it unfairly enforces certain rules or singles out an individual homeowner.

When it turns out that the estimate was too low, the change in cost could leave you scrambling to adjust your budget to cover those unexpected additional expenses. What rights do you have when the contractor or construction company gave you a highly inaccurate estimate?

Homeowner Associations (HOAs) have the power to control how a neighborhood looks to a certain extent. They are able to regulate the external appearance of homes and gardens under the premise that the external appearance of one home could affect the value of all other homes in the community.

Construction contractors and businesses have to license themselves with the state. The Registrar of Contractors (ROC) manages those licenses. You have the option of reviewing a company or professional’s records before you hire them to both validate that they have a license and see if there have been numerous complaints about them in the past.

If you have a homeowner association (HOA), it’s critical that you familiarize yourself with the applicable bylaws. For example, if you want to make alterations to your property, it’s likely that you first have to get permission from the HOA board.Imagine a situation in which you hired a contractor to make some minor changes to your home. You thought you were within your rights, so you gave your contractor permission to move forward with the project. But soon enough, you find that you’ve gone down the wrong path.