The Colorado Court of Appeals rejected a challenge to the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act in August, concurring with arguments articulated by the Community Associations Institute's National Amicus Curiae Team. CAI filed a "friend of the court" brief to support Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association's right to adopt and enforce architectural regulations in a case with national significance for condominium, cooperative and homeowner associations.
Pagosa Lakes Property Owners Association filed for injunctive relief when homeowners, the Caywoods, installed a mobile home that violated architectural regulations enacted by the board and enforced by the Environmental Control Committee. After the trial court granted the injunction, the homeowners appealed, challenging the authority of the association's board of directors to adopt and enforce the regulation. The Colorado Court of Appeals rejected the homeowners' arguments and held that the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act authorized the association to enact and enforce architectural restrictions that did not conflict with the recorded restrictions and granted the association payment of attorney's fees.
"This decision unquestionably affirms community associations' right to adopt and enforce architectural guidelines, one of the foundations of community association living," said Jerry C.M. Orten of Orten & Hindman, P.C., Denver, one of the authors of the brief.
The brief, filed by CAI and its Rocky Mountain and Southern Colorado chapters, was drafted by Orten, Thomas J. Hindman and Laura J. Gibson, all of Orten & Hindman, with assistance from National Amicus Curiae Team members Robert M. Diamond, E. Richard Kennedy, Karyn A. Kennedy and Stephen M. Marcus. The Community Associations Institute is a nonprofit association created in 1973 to educate and represent the nation's 205,000 community associations—condominium associations, homeowner associations and cooperatives. CAI members include homeowners, associations and related professionals and service providers.