The short answer: a Homeowners Association is essentially a private government — a nonprofit with the legal authority to assess “dues” (correctly, an assessment), created when a declaration of covenants and restrictions is recorded against the land. The ACC (Architectural Control Committee) is its design-review body; the CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions) are the rules you agree to by taking title. In Colorado, HOAs are also governed by state law — CCIOA, the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act.
When our clients look for land, questions about covenant-controlled communities come up constantly. The insight below comes from Chuck Fowler, who has helped create and manage several of Colorado Springs’ most prestigious covenant-protected communities — Flying Horse, Pine Creek, Cedar Heights, and Parkside at Mountain Shadows.
What an HOA actually is
Think of it as a private government. Just as a city elects a council, the owners in a community elect a Board of Directors. The board collects assessments and allocates the funds for the common good of the community. The HOA is incorporated as a nonprofit under state rules, subject to CCIOA — with one big difference from a real government: it’s usually run by unpaid volunteers.
Where its authority comes from
When the community is first developed, a declaration of covenants and restrictions is recorded. Written properly, it creates an assessment lien — a continuous lien on your property that gives the HOA legal authority to charge the assessment, and ultimately to foreclose on that lien if you don’t pay.
Worth knowing even if you avoid HOAs entirely: there is no such thing as truly “free and clear” private property. Somebody — a taxing authority, a water district, a utility easement, an HOA — always has some claim on your land. That’s not an HOA quirk; it’s how property works.
What the ACC does
The Architectural Control Committee is a standing committee, appointed by the HOA board, that reviews modifications owners want to make. Its criteria come from the covenants — uniformity of look, colors, building materials, and so on. The best HOAs publish design guidelines covering everything the ACC has authority over. In practice, 99% of ACC authority concerns the exterior of the home; interiors are almost never touched, with the occasional exception of window coverings.
What CC&Rs are
- Covenants — the constitution itself: the organization’s purpose, scope of authority, obligations, and each party’s responsibilities.
- Conditions — your agreement to abide: by taking title, you accept the obligations and authorities laid out in the declaration.
- Restrictions — the specific rules about what you can and can’t do with your property (roofing materials, for example). They’re mandatory.
Should you want an HOA?
It comes down to what kind of person you are. If nobody should ever tell you what to do with your own property — an RV out front, a pink house, a wood shop in the garage — a covenant-controlled community will chafe. If you’d rather not live where each neighbor decides all of that unilaterally, covenants protect you. Neither type is wrong; the point is to live among like-minded neighbors. On pure economics, the odds favor the covenant-controlled neighborhood for maintaining and increasing property values — that protection is what you’re buying with your dues.
How to vet an HOA before you buy
Under the Colorado-approved Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, the “Common Interest Community” section obligates the seller to provide the HOA’s documents — the declaration, financials, meeting minutes. That’s the mechanism. The catch: you actually have to read them, and a 70-page declaration is heavy going if you’ve never seen one. Many buyers (and frankly, many agents) don’t truly understand them — so if the stakes are high, get someone experienced to review them with you.
What dues cover
The assessment is derived from the HOA’s annual budget: services (in Colorado Springs there’s no city trash pickup, so coordinated trash collection is often the biggest one), maintenance and insurance of common areas (fencing, sidewalks, parks, pools, courts), and a replacement reserve — savings for the things that wear out. Unlike a city, an HOA can’t borrow or sell bonds; if the money isn’t in the budget, the project doesn’t happen. That’s also why two neighborhoods have different dues: the one with a pool and tennis courts costs more to run than the one without.
Common myths
- “All HOAs are the same.” They’re not — dues and rules reflect each community’s amenities and needs.
- “HOA boards are power-hungry.” Go to a few meetings — which every owner should — and you’ll usually find volunteers doing unglamorous work with the facts in front of them.
Red flags of a bad HOA
A good HOA does two things: maintains the property values of the people who invested in the community, and cultivates a place people actually want to live — enforcing covenants firmly but treating people the way the board would want to be treated. The warning signs are all about documents: an HOA that has no meeting minutes or financials (they’re required to), won’t hand them over, sends you three pages of a 70-page declaration, or charges an exorbitant fee for them. If they jerk you around before you’ve bought, believe them.
Covenants are one of the first things we check when a client is evaluating a lot — alongside soils, wells, and access. See the communities we build in or how lot due diligence fits our process.
