Jean Bestafka, Renaissance Homeowners Association
Legislative Action Committee Board Liaison
The Legislative Action Committee of the Community Associations Institute has been tracking and monitoring a number of bills to make sure the voice of the membership is heard in Trenton. We are currently monitoring more than 100 bills that may substantially affect how our communities are run.
We are happy to announce that Tim Martin, Paul Matacera, and Jim Magid attended a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee regarding our Bill S-1367 the “Common Interest Community Manager Licensing Act” and the Bill passed unanimously, with bi-partisan support. Tim Martin and Jim Magid testified before the committee. While there is still “concern” regarding the potential cost, we are working to lower the cost estimates substantially. This involves working with the Division of Community Affairs to determine how they arrived at the $1.2 million figure.
Another important bill that has been reintroduced for this legislative session is A-470 “New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act” which would provide an expedited process for foreclosing abandoned residential properties.
Along those same lines A-347 sponsored by Assemblymen Caputo, Prieto and Tucker has passed in the Assembly and has had a second reading in the Senate. This bill would Authorizes municipalities to impose penalties on creditors that fail to timely remedy code violations of certain properties in foreclosure.
We continue to monitor and oppose bills which would restrict the rights of homeowners and the operations of our communities and work to address problems that do affect communities.
The CAI website contains the complete list of bills we are monitoring as well as in depth information on the issues at www.cainj.org.
