Colorado § 38-33.3-315 - Assessments for common expenses.

§ 38-33.3-315. Assessments for common expenses.

(1) Until the association makes a common expense assessment, the declarant shall pay all common expenses. After any assessment has been made by the association, assessments shall be made no less frequently than annually and shall be based on a budget adopted no less frequently than annually by the association.

(2) Except for assessments under subsections (3) and (4) of this section and section 38-33.3-207 (4)(a)(IV), all common expenses shall be assessed against all the units in accordance with the allocations set forth in the declaration pursuant to section 38-33.3-207 (1) and (2). Any past-due common expense assessment or installment of a common expense assessment bears interest at the rate established by the association in an amount not to exceed eight percent per year.

(3) To the extent required by the declaration:

(a) Any common expense associated with the maintenance, repair, or replacement of a limited common element shall be assessed against the units to which that limited common element is assigned, equally, or in any other proportion the declaration provides;

(b) Any common expense or portion thereof benefiting fewer than all of the units shall be assessed exclusively against the units benefited; and

(c) The costs of insurance shall be assessed in proportion to risk, and the costs of utilities shall be assessed in proportion to usage.

(4) If any common expense is caused by the misconduct of any unit owner, the association may assess that expense exclusively against such owner's unit.

(5) If common expense liabilities are reallocated, common expense assessments and any installment thereof not yet due shall be recalculated in accordance with the reallocated common expense liabilities.

(6) Each unit owner is liable for assessments made against such owner's unit during the period of ownership of such unit. No unit owner may be exempt from liability for payment of the assessments by waiver of the use or enjoyment of any of the common elements or by abandonment of the unit against which the assessments are made.

(7) Unless otherwise specifically provided in the declaration or bylaws, the association may enter into an escrow agreement with the holder of a unit owner's mortgage so that assessments may be combined with the unit owner's mortgage payments and paid at the same time and in the same manner; except that any such escrow agreement shall comply with any applicable rules of the federal housing administration, department of housing and urban development, veterans' administration, or other government agency.

Source: L. 91: Entire article added, p. 1753, § 1, effective July 1, 1992. L. 93: (6) amended, p. 653, § 20, effective April 30. L. 94: (2) amended, p. 2849, § 6, effective July 1. L. 2005: (7) added, p. 1387, § 17, effective January 1, 2006. L. 2022: (2) amended, (HB 22-1137), ch. 367, p. 2616, § 3, effective August 10.

ANNOTATION

Summary judgment was not appropriate in an action brought by an association to collect unpaid association dues for a timeshare unit where the owner of the unit made a sufficient showing that the developer, in connection with a resale program, agreed to pay the dues, and the association and the developer were, for all practical purposes, one and the same. Club Telluride Owners Ass'n, Inc. v. Mitchell, 70 P.3d 502 (Colo. App. 2002).

Relieving the owner of a timeshare unit of an obligation to pay dues when the developer agreed to pay the dues in connection with a resale program was not void as against public policy. This section prohibits preferential assessments among units. It does not address agreements concerning how assessments will be paid. The statutory scheme would not be frustrated if the association accepted the developer and its successor as the primary obligors and looked to the owner as surety after exhausting collection efforts against the primary obligors. Club Telluride Owners Ass'n, Inc. v. Mitchell, 70 P.3d 502 (Colo. App. 2002).

Common law right to offset damages barred. The public policy of this act, including the liability of each unit owner for assessments set forth in subsection (6), bars a unit owner's common law right to use damages owed to him by a homeowners' association to offset his obligation to pay assessments. Briargate at Seventeenth Ave. v. Nelson, 2021 COA 78M, 494 P.3d 1149.