MHA is a
non-profit, all-volunteer, statewide organization supported only by member contributions
that advocates, promotes, and supports good governance of community
associations. For over 25 years, MHA continues to encourage State
and local legislators to enact and enhance laws that protect the rights of
residents in condominiums, homeowner associations, and cooperatives.
MHA assists its
members with information, research, seminars, and guidance on a variety of
issues such as: dispute resolution methods; open elections; developer
control/turnover to owners; reserve funds; fair housing laws;
non-discrimination requirements; and reference guides for selecting an
attorney, management company, auditor and other services for associations.
MHA
communicates activities and legislative issues to its members through THE
COMMUNICATOR newsletter, the E-COMMUNICATOR internet memo, and
through open, monthly meetings. We welcome attendance at MHA meetings
where time is set aside for members to discuss their concerns and
questions. Another avenue for open communication is through the
e-mails and telephone calls MHA receives daily. Through this mechanism, MHA
answers homeowners’ questions regarding their rights and responsibilities as
residents in community associations.
MHA initiated
the Maryland Homeowner's Bill of Rights which grants homeowners basic
rights, i.e., speaking at board and committee meetings, assembling in common
areas to discuss association matters, distributing petitions or other condo/HOA
materials to members. These and other rights are now incorporated in the Maryland
Condominium Act and the Maryland Homeowners Association Act. (For
full text of these Acts, see "Laws" on this web site.)
MHA provided information and testimony to the 2006 Maryland Task Force on
Common Ownership Communities, a Task Force created by the
Governor and charged with evaluating HOA/Condo/Co-Op governance.
Through the years, many MHA-supported bills have become Maryland law and we continue to testify in
favor of homeowner-friendly bills.
MHA and a 1987 Montgomery County
Task Force successfully requested the establishment of the Montgomery County
Commission on Common Ownership Communities (CCOC) which provides technical
assistance and dispute resolution for residents in condominiums and homeowner
associations. The CCOC has become the model that other county officials look to
when discussing the establishment of a similar commission for their
communities.
MHA, in 2007,
supported and presented testimony in Annapolis to a bill that would add a
section the MD HOA Act which provided that violations of the MD Homeowner
Association Act be within the
enforcement powers of the Division of Consumer Protection of the Office of the
Attorney General. Previously, only violations of the MD Condominium Act were
covered by this office.
*MHA
was originally established and chartered in MD as “Maryland Condominium and Homeowner
Association” in 1982.