HOA dissolution in Colorado

We are a small 10-home HOA in Colorado. The HOA was constructed many years prior to the sale of the first lot and I found no by laws related to dissolution of the association other than the rights of the developer terminating when all the lots were sold. No one has paid dues in at least 3 years and new owners are apparently being told no HOA dues are necessary at closing because the association is “inactive” according to the Secretary of State. I know that we’d likely have an 80% majority to dissolve the association and it is my understanding that if that is the vote, then what needs to be done is to attend to sell the assets (if any) of the association, address the debt of the association (there’s none) and when that is completed file Articles of Dissolution with the State.. is this correct?

Or is it possible that when the developer no longer had an interest, it was his responsibility to dissolve the HOA and leave the organizing of a new HOA with the property owners assuming that was there desire?? Again, current by laws and covenants are not clear, nor are there instructions on how it should be dissolved

You need to read this section of the Colorado State Statutes: 38-33.3-218. Termination of common interest community

The one main hurdle is this section:

(1.5) No planned community that is required to exist pursuant to a development or site plan shall be terminated by agreement of unit owners, unless a copy of the termination agreement is sent by certified mail or hand delivered to the governing body of every municipality in which a portion of the planned community is situated or, if the planned community is situated in an unincorporated area, to the board of county commissioners for every county in which a portion of the planned community is situated.

You also need to read your CCR’s because most CO cities or counties require the developer to include verbiage that the HOA cannot terminate without the local government approval into the CCR’s.

And, covenants may still exist.

Also ... The Developer will not ... nor has any responsibility to dissolve an HOA. In most cases the Developer was required by the Local Government to implement the HOA and provide CCR’s as a requirement for his “site plan” submitted to obtain the permits to build. Depending on your answers you may have various options.

Important question. This will determine if you can dissolve or not.

With many HOA's the only asset is the road. You going to sell the road to your house and let someone else maintain it and charge you to use it? Give it to the homeowners who will not maintain it and then need to start dues to build up enough money to maintain or repave it.

Its complicated.......

Maybe your HOA owns nothing and is a volunteer HOA. These dont need to be dissolved per se, people can just stop participating. But it is cleaner to end it officially. If its volunteer membership, people dont "owe" anything. Its basically a donation.

For the person that posted that huge URL, have you seen the site tinyurl.com. You just put in the long url and it creates a short one for you.

Apparently Jerry does not want help ... If he wants info from me he needs to get on the ball to answer questions or give me a date to check back. The middle of this next week I am going on a nice long Caribbean vacation and may or may not respond.