Part of CAI’s mission is to provide legislative advocacy for our members on the federal and state level. Community associations are subject to state laws that control how associations are established, governed and managed. This state-based regulatory system has proven successful because it is predicated on the principle of local control over land-use and real estate decisions.

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CAI supports effective state regulation that ensures community association housing is developed, maintained, governed, and managed with sound public policy objectives and standards that protect homeowners, volunteer board members, management and the community association as a whole.
 

All states have laws governing condominiums or community associations. Many of these laws are modeled after the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (UCIOA) or previous versions of the uniform act. UICOA was drafted by The Uniform Law Commission. The Uniform Law Commission provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived, and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state law.

 

 

State Level Advocacy

​Community associations are subject to state laws that control how associations are established, governed and managed. This state-based regulatory system has proven successful because it is predicated on the principle of local control over land-use and real estate decisions.

CAI supports effective state regulation that ensures community association housing is developed, maintained, governed, and managed with sound public policy objectives and standards that protect homeowners, volunteer board members, management and the community association as a whole. State legislation should:

• Provide for full and fair protection of the consumer, including existing residents in conversion projects, through the disclosure of all material facts relating to the development, operation and ownership of such housing.

• Be comprehensive in its coverage of the material aspects of the development, governance, management, and operation of this housing form.

• Provide adequate standards to promote the viability and sustainability of the community association.

• Provide for flexibility for communities to develop rules for the common good. State legislation should not be used as a solution for individual constituent complaints.

CAI believes that these objectives are best achieved by state governments and not by or through legislative or regulatory procedures at the federal level or at the local government level. The likely diversity of legislative policies adopted by local (city and county) governments would unnecessarily inhibit the process across local jurisdictional lines, while enactments at the federal level would be too broad in scope to achieve these goals and fail to reflect and respond to the unique character and needs of local markets.
 

In order to accomplish this, CAI’s state Legislative Action Committees (LACs) and local chapters advocate on behalf of members’ interests before law and regulation makers closer to home.

LACs exist to represent the interests of, and to provide regular communications to, CAI members and chapters located within their boundaries with respect to state legislative, regulatory, and amicus curiae activities of relevance to the creation and operation of community associations. LAC delegates are nominated by the chapters and by the LAC itself, and volunteer their time and energy to benefit all CAI members.

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