by Beth Mulcahy, Esq.
It has been an exciting first week in the Arizona legislature and it is only Wednesday!
The Arizona Legislature has been in session for several days and a blizzard of 250 bills on various subjects have been introduced in the House and Senate as of Tuesday night.
Everyone in the legislature and Arizona media are “buzzing” about the new House and Senate bills creating a high school graduation requirement of passing a civics test (HB2064 and SB1029). The civics test will be based on 100 U.S. history and government questions. Governor Doug Ducey mentioned the importance of this high school civics test in his State of the State address on Monday and requested that the legislature work together to make this the very first bill he signs into law in 2015.
Two bills were introduced on Tuesday (January 13, 2015) that affect community associations (see below for brief descriptions). Our clients and friends are the first in the industry to know about these new community association bills!
HB 2084 (condominiums; planned communities; associations; disclosures): This bill requires condominiums and planned communities to provide contact information to the Arizona Corporation Commission as part of its yearly annual report (and deletes the requirement to record a notice of contact form with the county recorder’s office as previously required under the law).
SB 1048 (vexatious litigants; fees; costs; designation): Persons deemed “vexatious litigants” by the court must pay all their own court fees and costs; a person can be deemed a vexatious litigant at any time during litigation or even if there is not a pending case in the court. A court can revisit the issue of a vexatious litigant even if the person was previously determined not to be a vexatious litigant and the requesting party has new information that is relevant to the determination.
Please check the blog on Mondays during the legislative session so we can give you the 4-1-1 on the new 2015 legislation. Have a great rest of the week.
