(1) In the State of Oregon there are hundreds of homeowners associations to which the Oregon Condominium Law (ORS chapter 100) does not apply.
(2) These homeowners associations have established a pattern of ownership in which ownership of a single unit makes the owner automatically a member of a homeowners association with responsibilities for management and maintenance.
(3) Many of these homeowners associations as associations and their members as individuals have experienced problems from the lack of statutory provisions. These problems which have arisen are usually the result of inexperience with this kind of ownership. This inexperience often leads to difficulties for the association when it assumes responsibility for the administration of the planned development because usually neither the developer who drafted the documents nor the local jurisdiction which may have reviewed them has realized the long term management implications of the restrictions imposed by the documents. The most serious and frequent error is imposing excessive voting requirements for any changes in the documents, a basic error that makes it and other errors unnecessarily difficult, if not impossible, to correct. Of almost equal importance is the lack of disclosure of significant differences this pattern of ownership imposes on the homeowner and the restrictions on choice that must be accepted.
(4) Oregon land conservation policies and the increasing cost of land will result in rapid growth of this kind of homeownership pattern.
(5) It is a matter of statewide concern that the Legislative Assembly address problems associated with homeowners associations in order to make this kind of homeownership pattern an acceptable choice and in order to assure proper maintenance of the projects so that the investment of the owners and the appearance of Oregon communities are protected.
(6) It is essential that the Legislative Assembly establish basic statutory requirements for disclosure to first and subsequent buyers, for the organization of the homeowners association, and for a process by which administrative responsibility for the planned community is transferred from the developer to the association of individual owners.
(7) ORS 94.550 to 94.783 are intended to make developers, their legal counsel and homeowners in Oregon homeowners associations the beneficiaries of experience accumulated under Oregon’s condominium law and gathered from members of existing Oregon homeowners associations and associations in parts of the country where the record of experience is longer than that in Oregon. [1981 c.782 §3a]