A homeowners association cannot stop a homeowner from displaying a “for sale” sign on his or her property, says a bill that advanced in the Senate on May 8.
The bill, S1062 sponsored by Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-21, awaited final action by the House at press time May 10.
The measure underwent revisions as it moved from one chamber to the other, but the version that senators approved was the one Tibshraeny preferred.
As originally written, the bill authorizes a homeowner to display an indoor or outdoor “for sale” sign on the property. House amendments changed it doesn’t apply to gated or access-restricted communities and also specified sizes of signs in conformity to industry standards.
Tibshraeny had strongly objected to the exclusion of gated communities, saying the amendment essentially gutted the bill. He reasoned that gated communities appear to be the “biggest abusers,” in not allowing owners to put up “for sale” signs.
The senator succeeded in stripping this provision during a conference committee, where a small group of senators and representatives try to reconcile different versions of a bill, before sending it back to their respective chambers for acceptance or rejection.
Tibshraeny said exempting gated communities would “create different classes of people.” He was absent from the floor on the day his chamber approved the bill’s current version. It won the support of all 27 senators present.
One of those who initially opposed the bill was the Community Associations Institute, which represents homeowners associations in the state.
At the end it was “neutral” on the issue.
The bill is hardly their biggest worry, according to Ryan Anderson, a lobbyist for the group.
Lobbyist: ‘We have bigger problems to worry about…’
“In the grand scheme of things, this is not the end of the HOA (homeowners’ association) universe,” Anderson said. “We have bigger problems to worry about as far as the continued attack on HOAs here in the state by the Legislature.”
Anderson said their endorsement of the amendment to exclude gated or access-restricted communities stemmed from the fact that different communities have different needs. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to put up a sign up in a community where people can’t get into, he said. Supporters of the bill countered that people still drive into such neighborhoods, and letting neighbors know one is selling one’s house would help.
Then there was the matter of aesthetics, according to Anderson. People don’t want a bunch of “for sale” signs in their neighborhood. They knew what they were signing on for when they moved into the community, he said. “It tends to detract from property values,” Anderson said, calling the signs a “kind of eye sore for the neighbors.”
But Anderson said it was a “fair argument” to say between matters of aesthetics and increasing one’s ability to sell one’s house, the latter weighs heavier.
As originally drafted, the group found ambiguity in the bill as far as sizes of signs. The original bill did not stipulate specific sizes and stated when it got out of the Senate that the sizes conform to the industry standard.
That standard was open to interpretation, Anderson said.
Compromise reached
on ‘fine-tuned’ bill
This concern, however, was remedied. The House stipulated that the sign should not exceed 6 inches by 24 inches, and the “for sale” sign itself not exceed 18 inches by 24 inches.
“We felt that was a fair compromise,” he said.
“We’re happy with the bill now that it’s been fine tuned. There has been a little more clarity, putting into law a definition as far as what constitutes an industry size standard or what is acceptable,” he said. “The bill has been made better through the process. Our reservations have certainly — maybe not been completed mitigated — but certainly they have subsided.”
Early this session, Tibshraeny explained why he was pushing the bill. For many people, buying a home is their biggest investment. He said he felt that to be able to put up a sign is a homeowner’s “basic privilege.”
“It is very difficult to sell your house if nobody knows it is for sale,” he said. “It just helps you sell your house.”