Condo Media - March 2018 - 37

OWNERS COULD

NEW HAMPSHIRE
LAC Chair Gary Daddario, a partner in
Winer & Bennett, LLP, also reports a lull
in New Hampshire legislative activity,
"predictable," he says, after the sweeping
changes in the condominium statute
lawmakers enacted during the past two
years. "They need time to absorb what
they've done and assess what changes, if
any, are needed," Daddario said.
The permanent legislative subcommittee responsible for assessing laws affecting condominiums-both existing laws
and those that might be required-by
contrast, is working feverishly to address
an issue it has deemed an emergency,
stemming from a New Hampshire Supreme Court decision last year. In that
decision (Condominiums at Lilac Lane v.
Monument Garden, LLC), the court ruled
that a developer was not subject to statutory time limits on phased condominium
developments.
The condominium statute defines
two types of phased developments-
"expandable" and "convertible"-both
subject to different timetables for completion. The developer argued he had
not chosen either category and so was
not subject to any completion deadlines.
"Crazy as that argument is, it worked,"
Daddario says. The court sided with the
developer, and the legislative subcommittee is trying to craft a legislative fix
to what is a serious problem for condominium communities. If the court's
theory governs, Daddario explains, there
would be no limit to how long developers could wait before adding phases to
condominiums that owners assumed
were complete.
Although the deadline for submitting
legislation in the current term had ended
when we spoke with Daddario in January, he said the subcommittee was planning to request an extension. extension.
The subcommittee is also expected
to address a related but broader issue,
targeting developers who control the
governance of a condominium community by retaining ownership of enough
units to give them a perpetual majority of
the votes. If owners object to policies the
developers favor, Daddario says, "they

just outvote them." Owners who buy
units in these developments "end up living under a developer's thumb," Daddario
says, rather than in a community they
assumed would be governed democratically by the owners.
In addition to monitoring the ongoing
deliberations of the permanent subcommittee, the LAC is going to gear up for another effort to secure legislation allowing
condominium associations to foreclose
on delinquent owners to enforce their
priority lien. The committee won't be
proposing legislation this term, but it will
be meeting with lawmakers and representatives of the banking industry who
blocked the initiative in the past. "We
don't expect their support," Daddario
said, "but we're hoping if they have
enough input, and if we address enough
of their concerns, they won't actively
oppose it. We know if they continue to
oppose the bill," Daddario added, "the
legislature isn't going to approve it."

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March 2018

Condo Media - March 2018

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