Homeowners’ association given expanded powers

PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo has signed into law a bill laying down the guidelines on how homeowners’ associations should operate and settle conflicts and ensuring they receive community services.

Republic Act 9904, the Magna Carta of Homeowners and Homeowners’ Associations, covers people who own lots, those who rent or lease housing units, and squatters being awarded the plots of land they have been occupying illegally.

“It is hereby declared the policy of the State to uphold the rights of the people to form unions, associations or societies and to recognize and promote the rights and the roles of homeowners as individuals and as members of the society and of homeowners’ associations,” says the law’s declaration of policy.

The law empowers the members of homeowners’ associations to enjoy basic community services and facilities and to have access to their associations’ records.

But the same law now requires them to pay their dues and and to participate in their associations’ activities. It also requires homeowners’ associations to register with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board, the government agency tasked to oversee them and to mediate conflicts between homeowners’ associations and any of their members.

Lawmakers say the law was created in light of mounting cases before the courts involving homeowners and homeowners’ associations, which are difficult to settle in the absence of a Magna Carta covering them. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today