10 replies to this topic

[Samsonn1]

Hi folks- I am new here. I appreciate any and all advice offered=)

My question is this- I am a member of an HoA in colorado. i am interested in having a builder friend of mine install air conditioning in my house, because in the summer it gets to be 85+ degrees here easily. The HoA here isnt receptive to any ideas me and another owner came up with, and i heard friend a friend there was a law that prohibited HoAs from preventing air conditioners, more specifically swamp coolers. Frankly i dont have enough experience with swamp coolers to be able to hazard a guess as to whether or not it would be sufficient... But out of all the homeowners, i am the ONLY person living in their unit full time- everyone else rents out their units and so obviously they couldnt care less about A/C- they arent ever here when its hot.

Does anyone have any idea about any such law? Id really like to come up with some information that might convince the other owners to back off a bit about this.

thanks a ton in advance=)

Samson

[Samsonn1]

well-

the HoA has said no outdoor evaporative units. They have said no to units in the crawl spaces that that produce 70+ decibels (incidentally these condos are on a road that busses drive by every day every 5 minutes from 5:30 am to 2:15 am every day- busses that rattle the windows). I spoke with an ac guy that said 70 decibels in a crawl space would be like a whisper outside... At any rate- i am not sure exactly what other details would be pertinent, but again i did hear something from a friend about a law that made it so HoAs couldnt stop you from installing some kinds of A/Cs in your own condo

again it gets close to 90 degrees here at times every summer, and ceiling fans just dont do it. I was wondering more specifically if anyone had ever dealt with this, or if anyone was at all familiar with the law about HoAs controlling an owners ability to put an A/C unit in. Colorado isnt close to as bad as where i am from, but in the south- people drop dead every summer from heat stroke and such. so i can see why such a law might have been passed.

Any thoughts?
thanks again folks=) i hope everyone is well

Samson

[pg1067]

Does anyone have any idea about any such law?

Colorado isnt close to as bad as where i am from

If the second quote above means you live in Colorado, you can search the Colorado Revised Statutes here: http://www.lexisnexi...opics/Colorado/. I searched for "air conditioning" and got 23 results but don't have time to review them all.

i heard friend a friend there was a law that prohibited HoAs from preventing air conditioners, more specifically swamp coolers.

Typically, when someone tells you, "hey, there's a law that says ____," the smart thing to do is to ask for a citation to the statute number or some other source so that you can go look up the law yourself. As you might imagine, most people who say this sort of thing don't have a clue what they're talking about and are merely passing on second or third or forty-third-hand information that they got from some other unreliable source.

[Samsonn1]

Thanks a ton my friend! i will look check what you advised.

Sam

[Samsonn1]

Amd the person that told me this was a builder- certainly not an attorney. He just said he had heard this somewhere. He certainly didnt pretend to be any kind of authority on this kind of thing. Thats why i brought it to a seemingly more appropriate forum just to see if anyone had heard of this and had easy access to any information that might make this a little easier. I have about zero experience in this kind of thing so figured i would ask.

Sam

[adjusterjack]

You haven't said whether you are in a condo with shared wall, ceiling, or floors or in a free standing single family dwelling. Would help to know which as there are likely separate statutes for condo HOAs and other HOAs.

[Samsonn1]

Thank you Adjusterjack- again i am not familiar with this kind of thing so i really appreciate the interest in helping. Im not sure what all details are relevant to the situation so i appreciate you pointing out anything that could help figure this out.

Its a condo with shared walls. We have adjoining crawl space, but i think insulated theres no way you could hear very much from it because it is in the mountains, and while we share a wall- the level between the neighbors and me is several feet different.. IE theres a couple feet of earth between the crawl spaces except where there is a hole to access each others.

[Samsonn1]

One other probably important detail i dont think i mentioned- when i initially asked about installing AC they said no based on its community land outside of the condos. It IS community land, so i can understand them not wanting 36 AC units littering the landscape here. But when it became a question of the AC being in the crawl space they went to the noise issue. I really dont feel like 70 db would be audible outside or in the next unit that is several feet different (higher) in elevation, especially with the busses that almost constantly drive by with their exhaust brakes whining. I just get the feeling the HoA doesnt give people permission for the sake of being controlling. I guess that is initially why i was intrigued when hearing of some statute that might make HoAs allow people to cool their homes.

Sam

[FindLaw_AHK]

You may want to visit the Real Estate Law Center and read What Homeowners Associations May Regulate as a good resource to learn more about this subject matter.

[Samsonn1]

thanks much=)

S

[adjusterjack]

The first place you look is the CC&R (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) to see what the HOA can and cannot do when you want to change the structure of your condo or install equipment that wasn't there before.

The CC&R is a contract between you and the HOA that you agreed to be bound to simply by buying the condo.

Next you look at the statute which is called the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act (CCIOA).

The following website has a link to the statute in pdf form so you can save the whole statute to your computer for future reference.

http://www.hindmansa...rship-act-ccioa


If you want to consult an lawyer, make sure the lawyer you get is NOT associated with the Community Association Institute (CAI) or any of it's offshoots. They work for the boards and management companys against "owners". Their ads may state that they are, but if the ads do not state, ask. If they are affiliated, run.