Developer responsibilities

What responsibilities does a developer have in a developer-controlled HOA in NM?

WRONG

The members are part of the Association.
There is no ownership, but if there was, by being an owner, they are partial owners of the Association.

The issue is control.

The developer typically has, per the governing documents, the voting power to name the board and (often) amend the governing documents. Procedures must still be followed and members of the Association get a vote. However, since the developer normally controls the voting power, they can basically do what they desire. At some point in time, as more units/properties are sold, that power will shift to the membership. When the tipping point is reached the control of the Association is transferred to the membership and there is typically a transition of all the records, etc.

LOL ... Like Tim I do not like individuals stating "whatever a developer wants". Sorry ... the Developer is required to follow the law! I do not understand why so many believe a developer can implement a contract and choose anything under the sun they want to have in that contract ... and then potentially VIOLATE both Homeowners and their Secured Creditors after they invest based on what had been implied and expressed.

Your NM HOA statutes can be found here:

http://law.justia.com/codes/new-mexico/2013/chapter-47/article-7e

Developer control of Board states:

2013 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 47 - Property Law
Article 7E - Homeowner Association
Section 47-7E-8 - Declarant control of board. (2013)

Universal Citation: NM Stat § 47-7E-8 (2013)

47-7E-8. Declarant control of board. (2013)
A. Subject to the provisions of this section, the declaration shall provide for a period of declarant control of the association, during which period a declarant, or persons designated by the declarant, may appoint and remove the officers and members of the board.
B. Regardless of the period provided in the declaration, the period of declarant control shall terminate no later than the earlier of:
(1) sixty days after conveyance of seventy-five percent of the lots that are part of the development and any additional lots that may be added to the development to lot owners other than a declarant;
(2) two years after all declarants have ceased to offer lots for sale in the ordinary course of business;
(3) two years after a development right to add new lots was last exercised; or
(4) the day that the declarant or the declarant's designee, after giving written notice to the association, records an instrument voluntarily terminating all rights to declarant control.
C. Subsection B of this section does not apply to a master planned community.
D. A declarant may voluntarily terminate the right to appoint and remove officers and members of the board before termination of the period of declarant control, but in that event, the declarant may require, for the duration of the period of declarant control, that specified actions of the association or board, as described in a recorded instrument executed by the declarant, be approved by the declarant or the declarant's designee before they become effective.
E. Not later than sixty days after conveyance of twenty-five percent of the lots that are part of the development, and any additional lots that may be added to the development, to lot owners other than a declarant, at least one member and not less than twenty-five percent of the members of the board shall be elected by lot owners.
F. Not later than sixty days after conveyance of fifty percent of the lots that are part of the development, and any additional lot that may be added to the development, to lot owners other than the declarant, no less than thirty-three percent of the members of the board shall be elected by lot owners other than the declarant.
G. Not later than the termination of a period of declarant control, the lot owners shall elect a board of at least three members, at least a majority of whom shall be lot owners. The board shall elect the officers. The board members and officers shall take office upon election.
H. No amendment to the declaration that would limit, prohibit or eliminate the exercise of a development right shall be effective without the concurrence of the declarant.
I. A declarant shall not utilize cumulative or class voting for the purpose of evading any limitation imposed on declarants by the Homeowner Association Act, nor shall lots constitute a class because they are owned by a declarant.
History: Laws 2013, ch. 122, § 8.

The above section (B)(3) is important as is similar to my state and I was in lawsuit with a developer on this issue and more. Essentially if your developer does not own other surrounding property where they can add new lots not already platted to the HOA (and reserved in the CCR's as a declarant / developer right), then potentially two years after the developer filed the final plat and CCR's he is supposed to release control of the HOA to the Owners.

As far as other developer responsibilities and rights those will be found in your CCR's and State Laws. I recommend printing extra copies of Governing Documents and your State Laws and put into a binder. Then read ... when you see the word Developer or Declarant take a highlighter (for mine I used orange highlighter) and highlight those words. That will help you in better seeing and understanding your developers rights vs owner rights. Keep in mind that is knowledge ... and "Knowledge is Power". When my last developer would try to pull any more trash after our lawsuit ... all I had to do was send an email with the CCR or Law violations to get them back on track. Initially they would have their attorney argue with me, but when I pushed back and said we can "again" have a Court of Law decide they would back down. After a while they finally stopped wasting their money on their idiot attorney.

Keep in mind your are from FL and the OP is from NM. Potentially you should not quote other State Laws to an OP from another state as that can confuse the issue. Also, keep in mind FL is a state which allows excessive developer controls which many other states would deem as illegal. My state HOA laws are derived from UCIOA (Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act) and therefore will be similar to other states who have also based theirs on the same. What I posted above to the OP is similar to my state. In states who utilize UCIOA the developer "MUST" reserve items they want to change and disclose to the Consumer and Secured Creditors. My state prohibits a Grantor (a.k.a. Developer) selling property to a Grantee (a.k.a. Consumer) from changing a Contract (a.k.a. CCR's) at "will". It potentially is a crime under "Real Estate Fraud". After all why should a developer "reel" in consumers and secured creditors to invest large sums of money to only turn around and "defraud" them by unilaterally changing a contract? I am in favor of states who utilize UCIOA because it tries damn hard to protect everyone equally ... Consumers, Developers, Secured Creditors, etc.

I don't know if there are an NM specific laws about this, but even under developer control, the HOA is generally responsible for these things. They developer controlled association typically collects assessments/dues from the owners and uses those to help defray the cost of meeting the association's responsibilities.

If you're suggesting that the developer should be paying entirely for common expenses with no contribution from the owners, that would be unusual, but I can't speak specifically about NM. Of the items you've listed above, I would expect snow removal and HOA insurance to be common expenses the owners would contribute to. I assume the developer owns the undeveloped properties, so the developer really should be paying for maintaining those.

John,

I'll take a stab. The HOA is responsible for plowing all streets. In the beginning, before any homes are sold, the only source of $$ for the association is the developer, and they will need to pay enough to plow all of the streets, assuming it's even needed. Plowing might not be the best example, as streets with no homes or construction activity might not need to be plowed. As homes are sold, an increasing amount of assessment revenue means the owners will be covering an increasing percentage of the costs. When the association is 50% sold (your case above), the collected dues might be enough to plow both streets, or possibly not enough to even plow one, it just depends on how the developer has set dues. If they are artificially low to attract buyers, then the developer might still be paying more than half the money the association requires to meet its needs. If the dues are higher than really needed, then the developer won't need to kick in as much.

You need to look at your State HOA laws (if have) and your Non-Profit laws (if your HOA is established as a non-profit). Some states will have HOA statutes while others might have laws noted as "horizontal property". Potentially what you have stated is how I personally would address the issue as long as you are following both your state laws and governing documents.