December 2016

CAI-NJ WORKING FOR YOU By Jean Bestafka, Renaissance Homeowners Association

© iStockphoto.com

O n Thursday, October 20th, members of the Legislative Action Committee, CAI staff and our government relations firm traveled to Trenton to meet with our state legislators. We divided into groups and met with seven legislators and one staff member. We had two major goals for our meetings. Our first goal was to put a personal face on CAI and tell the story of who we are. Approximately 1,350,000 NJ citizens live in 519,000 homes in nearly 6,700 NJ community associations. We told personal stories about our experiences and the benefits to communities that CAI provides we also explained the support we can provide to our legislators. Residents of Community Associations pay $1.5 billion a year to maintain their communities. Homes in community associations are generally valued at five to six percent more than other homes. Our second goal was to solicit their support on two of the major bills we are working on. Bill S-1832/A3823 provides foreclosure relief to our

"As part of our legislative day we spent time walking the halls of the State House, visiting the Assembly and Senatorial wings of the building where legislators have offices."

Jean Bestafka

communities by allowing lenders who hold abandoned prop- erties three fair options; take advantage of NJ existing expe- dited foreclosure laws; pay monthly association fees; or allow community associations to provide temporary rent receivership to get homes occupied, maintained and fees paid. In general, the legislators we met with were aware of the problems with foreclosures in New Jersey and asked thoughtful questions about the bill S-1832 that CAI supports. We discussed the fact that the foreclosure crisis has a big- ger impact on common interest communities, as remaining neighbors have to pay higher assessments to make up for

16

D E C E M B E R , 2 0 1 6