This bill sets the process and threshold to amend the HOA declaration (CC&Rs) — the governing contract that binds every owner — which controls how easily community rules can be changed or locked in.
In short: Sets the process/threshold to amend the HOA declaration (CC&Rs).
Introduced — no action Pro-HOA industry
SB1806 changes how condominiums and planned communities amend their governing declarations and, for planned communities, how construction design review works. It creates an easier majority-vote amendment path once a community is at least 95 percent sold to non-declarants, with notice requirements and a one-year challenge window. For planned communities it also adds design review committee, deposit, and inspection rules.
For homeowners: It lets a bare majority of those voting amend the recorded declaration once a community is 95% sold, overriding the existing two-thirds supermajority and any higher threshold the declaration itself sets. Supermajority requirements exist to keep a slim, low-turnout faction from rewriting the covenants everyone bought into — the principle behind Kalway v. Calabria Ranch — so lowering that bar weakens a real owner protection. On the merits we read it as pro-industry, though owners who want easier amendments may weigh it differently.
What the bill actually does, point by point — from the Arizona Legislature’s official fact sheet.
- For condominiums (33-1227), allows amending the declaration by majority vote instead of 67 percent once 95 percent or more of units are sold to non-declarants.
- Requires 60 days' notice and availability of the amendment text before the vote, and sets a one-year statute of limitations to challenge an amendment's validity.
- For planned communities (33-1817), adds a parallel 95-percent-sold majority-vote amendment procedure with the same 60-day notice and text-availability requirement.
- Requires a planned community design review committee to include at least one member of the board of directors.
- Requires construction security deposits to be placed in trust accounts, with costs split equally between the association and the member.
- Requires final design approval meetings and at least two on-site formal reviews during construction, with written compliance reports within five business days of each formal review.
- Limits the deposit holding period to a maximum of 180 days after the second review before release.
The A.R.S. sections this bill amends, adds, or repeals — taken from the bill text. Click one to read the current law.
Organizations and industry insiders who registered a position on this bill through the Legislature’s public Request to Speak system — simply where each stood: For, Against, or Neutral. Individual homeowners are not listed. Whether this bill helps or hurts homeowners is our own read, shown by its label above — a group’s position doesn’t set our call. Each row links to that entity’s report card and to the source at azleg.gov.