HOA and condo issues hit Annapolis

Montgomery Village takes on expanded advocacy role for HOAs

The deluge of bills — more than 30 were submitted — stemmed from a special task force on ‘‘common ownership communities” which met for the first time in 2006. The statewide task force, which included two Montgomery Village residents, recommended better communication, disclosure and education for residents and boards of directors. The slew of bills that ensued in 2007 did not get far.

‘‘Last year it really became very, very, very intense,” Levine said. ‘‘This year was the year to end all years. I have never seen anything like it.”

Four of the bills passed; most died in committee or were referred for further study.

Of particular importance, Levine said, was House Bill 42, the Homes Financial Accountability Act of 2008. A reincarnation of a bill from 2007, H.B. 42 called for more and better record-keeping and stricter standards on an HOA’s response to requests for information. This year’s version was ‘‘dramatically better” than the year before, Levine said, but it still would have placed an ‘‘undue burden” in forcing HOAs to potentially have to disclose large amounts of information at great cost.

H.B 42 made it through the House almost unanimously — Del. Saqib Ali (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village cast the lone dissenting vote after conferring with Levine — but stalled once it got to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Among the four bills that passed was H.B. 117, which lays out rules for homeowners and condo owners in installing solar panels. After tweaking and combining it with elements from another bill, H.B. 117 passed unanimously.

With the constant government outreach, the Montgomery Village Foundation is not just about enforcing paint colors and running recreation programs anymore. In the 15 years that the foundation has had a government relations position — Levine at the helm for half of those years — Montgomery Village has come to exercise greater influence on the county’s and state’s political scene.

There are more than 900 ‘‘common ownership communities” — HOAs, condominium associations and co-operatives — totaling 121,000 homes, plus more than 90 groups each in Gaithersburg and Rockville.

As Montgomery County nears 1 million residents, that number is only going to grow, said Peter Drymalski of the Commission on Common Ownership Communities, a resident panel that runs through the county’s Office of Consumer Protection. He said that ‘‘probably 80 percent” of all new construction in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties will come as a common ownership community.

But most of that is as associations far smaller than the Village.

‘‘As these things go, it is a very tightly run and professional organization,” Drymalski said.

That structure gives it a bigger voice to officials.

‘‘They have access to a group of people,” said County Council president Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown. ‘‘It’s a great to have an organization that can bring the opinions of people to you. [And] it’s great to go back and say, ‘Is this an issue to you?’ ... I know that if Sharon brings something to my attention, there’s enough there that I’m going to have to do my homework and find out what is going on.”

The foundation has never had as much presence on the state level, Levine said.

Levine was talking about the Tech Tax in the special session in November, long before it became one of this session’s most divisive and time-consuming issues.

She recalls bills and legislation at will, citing minutia like light bulbs having to be 7,000 lumens in the county’s outdoor lighting standards bill.

State Sen. Nancy J. King points to the special session, talking about a tax bill, where Levine waited six hours to give three minutes of testimony. Levine pointed out how the bill would burden homeowners associations.

‘‘Everybody sat up and said ‘Oh my Gosh, that’s right, HOA’s.’ Nobody had even thought of it,” King said.

So expect more HOA bills in the future, and to see Levine educating delegates and senators on Montgomery Village, even if many residents might not be aware of how much she and the foundation do in Annapolis.

‘‘They would know what she didn’t do if their assessment fees go up,” King said.