Cleaning up the Records Bill: Creation of a Homeowner Directory

The Colorado Legislature continues to correct and clean-up inconsistencies, oversights, and loopholes in the policies first required by SB05-100. Among other policies, SB05-100 required that each Association establish a records policy. The requirements of the record policy were expanded and clarified in HB12-1237 which, in part, formally defined what constitutes the records of the Association.

Through an oversight, however, HB12-1237 made it impossible for an Association to maintain a useful owner/membership directory, complete with emails and telephone numbers. On March 27, 2014, this oversight was reversed when Governor Hickenlooper signed HB14-1125 into law.

HB14-1125 states that a membership list, including email addresses and phone numbers, may be maintained if the members listed therein have given prior written consent to the distribution of their email address and/or telephone number to other members. Consent through email explicitly qualifies as “written consent.” If the Association does not have the prior written consent of a particular member, the Association cannot include that member’s email address or telephone number in the directory. A member who has previously consented to sharing their email address and/or telephone number may revoke such consent in writing.

The Association is required to maintain the consents of the members as part of its records.

To create a membership directory, a Board may wish to adhere to the following procedure:

1)      Solicit comment/state the Board’s intention of creating a membership directory at a meeting of the members or via a newsletter, community posting, etc. (This part is not required by the law, but will help avoid questions as to the purpose of future correspondence.)

2)      Solicit written consent from each member to share that member’s email address, phone, or both in a membership directory.

3)      Maintain such consent forms (whether physical or email), and any withdrawals of consent, as part of the records of the Association.

If a publication is disbursed with contact information for consenting members, and a member later withdraws their consent, the Association is NOT obligated to change, retrieve, or destroy any document or record published prior to notice of withdrawal.

HB14-1125 will go into effect on August 6, 2014. If you have any questions regarding HB14-1125, please do not hesitate to contact us.