What should I review before buying a home in an HOA in Colorado Springs?
Short answer: Read the governing documents, the budget and reserves, the recent minutes, the insurance summary, and the fee schedule. Colorado's standard contract requires the seller to deliver all of it at their expense and gives you the right to terminate if anything in it is unsatisfactory, in your sole subjective discretion. That's a genuine exit, but only if you use the window.
You have a real exit — if you use it
This is the part buyers underuse. Under Section 7 of Colorado's Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, the seller is obligated to provide the Association Documents at the seller's expense by the Association Documents Deadline. You then have the right to terminate by the Association Documents Termination Deadline based on any unsatisfactory provision in any of those documents, in your sole subjective discretion.
Sole subjective discretion means you don't have to justify it. If you read the rules and decide you don't want to live under them, that's sufficient.
Two protections worth knowing. If you receive the documents after the deadline, you generally have until the earlier of closing or ten days after you receive them. And if you never receive them at all, your notice to terminate must reach the seller on or before closing. But if the deadline passes without notice, you've accepted the documents as satisfactory and waived the right.
What the seller has to give you
The contract is specific about the package, which is useful — it means you can tell whether you actually got everything:
| Document | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Declarations, articles, bylaws, rules and regulations, party wall agreements, and responsible governance policies under § 38-33.3-209.5 | These are the rules you'll live under and how they're enforced |
| Minutes of the annual owners' meeting and any board or manager meetings | Where you learn what the community is actually arguing about |
| List of association insurance policies — companies, limits, deductibles, additional insureds, expiration dates | Tells you what the master policy covers and what your own policy must cover |
| Assessments by unit type, both regular and special | The real cost, not the advertised one |
| Operating budget, most recent annual financial statements including reserves, and the most recent audit or review | Whether the association can pay for what's coming |
| List of fees charged at closing, amounts due in advance, reserves or working capital, and the reserve study if one exists | What you'll owe on closing day |
| Any written notice from the association of a construction defect action within the past six months | A live construction defect claim changes everything |
That last one deserves attention in this market. Given the expansive soils common across the Front Range and our hail exposure, a construction defect action in a newer community is not a technicality. If the package contains one, read it carefully and ask what stage the claim is at.
How to actually get through it
You'll receive hundreds of pages and you won't read all of it with equal attention. Here's how I'd triage.
Read the rules first. You have to make sure you understand the rules you're going to be placed under, and the expectations. This is the part I tell every buyer to genuinely read, because what matters to me might not matter to you, and vice versa. Parking, pets, rentals, exterior changes, RVs and trailers, short-term rentals, home businesses, fencing, xeriscaping — the restriction that ends up mattering is the one that collides with how you actually live.
Then the money. The budget, the reserves, and the assessment history. A community with thin reserves and aging common elements is telling you a special assessment is coming. The financial side goes deeper for condos and townhomes: What should I look for in HOA financials before buying a condo or townhome?
Then the minutes. Minutes are where the real story lives. Budget fights, deferred maintenance, litigation, insurance trouble, a board that can't fill seats.
Then the insurance. Especially here. Hail losses have reshaped what master policies cover and what they deduct, and in an attached-housing community you need to know exactly where the association's coverage stops and yours begins.
The step I'd add that isn't in any document
One of the number one things I love telling buyers to do is to go knock on the neighbors' doors and get the ground truth for themselves.
The question to ask is simple: is there anything that bothers you about the HOA?
You'll learn more in ten minutes on a doorstep than in two hundred pages. People will tell you about the board, the enforcement, the assessment nobody saw coming, the thing that's been broken for two years.
At the end of the day the review is the buyer's responsibility. But if questions come up, I help track that information down and get an interpretation, whether that's from the management company or the board.
The five-minute check almost nobody does
Colorado requires nearly every association to register annually with the Division of Real Estate under § 38-33.3-401. Registration status is public.
Here's why it matters beyond bookkeeping. If an association fails to register, or lets its registration expire, its right to impose or enforce a lien for assessments under § 38-33.3-316, or to pursue enforcement mechanisms otherwise available under § 38-33.3-123, is suspended until it validly registers.
An association that can't keep a $44 annual renewal current is telling you something about how it's run. Look it up before you waive your objection deadline.
What Colorado law limits
Colorado has substantially reformed HOA enforcement since 2022, through HB22-1137 and later legislation including HB24-1337 and HB25-1043. Broadly, the reforms restrict foreclosure for fines alone, impose notice and cure requirements before enforcement, require payment plan offers before collections, and add transparency and reporting obligations.
The details have changed repeatedly and are still moving, so rather than repeat figures that may be stale by the time you read this, confirm the current rules with the HOA Information and Resource Center or an attorney. What's useful to take from it: an association's collections policy and enforcement practices are now heavily regulated, and a community whose documents haven't been updated to match current law is worth a second look.
Fees you'll owe at closing
Buyers are regularly surprised here. The contract allocates several association charges separately: the Status Letter fee, which is paid by the seller; the Record Change or ownership transfer fee; reserves or working capital due at closing; and any other fee listed in the Status Letter. Those last three are negotiable between buyer and seller and are set in the contract, so decide them when you write the offer.
Regular assessments paid in advance are credited to the seller at closing, and any special assessment levied before closing is allocated by the contract — with an exception that puts improvements installed before you signed on the seller unless you agree otherwise.
What could change the answer
- Your own deadlines. The Association Documents Deadline and Termination Deadline are whatever the two of you wrote into the contract. Build in enough time to actually read the package.
- Attached versus detached. A condo or townhome association carries far more of the building and insurance risk than a single-family covenant community.
- The age of the community. Newer communities carry construction defect and developer-control questions; older ones carry reserve and replacement questions.
- Whether a metro district is also involved. Many Colorado Springs communities have both. See What is a metro district, and how can it affect my monthly housing cost?
- Changes in the law. The HOA statutes have been amended repeatedly since 2022.
When to talk with a professional
The association's management company or board is who interprets the documents. The HOA Information and Resource Center, part of the Division of Real Estate at (303) 894-2166, publishes plain-language material on owner rights under CCIOA — though it states plainly that it does not mediate or arbitrate, cannot give legal advice, does not act as an advocate, and cannot assess fines. For a document you can't live with, a live defect claim, or a dispute that looks headed somewhere, that's a real estate attorney. Your insurance professional should review the master policy alongside your own coverage. I'm a real estate professional, not an attorney or an insurance agent.
If you're under contract and the association package just landed, send it over and let's go through it together before the objection deadline passes. Knowing which three sections actually matter for your situation is usually the difference between reading it and skimming it.
About the author
Weldon Hobbs is a Colorado Springs REALTOR® and co-founder of Team Hobbs Realty. He is a member of The Platinum Group, REALTORS®, Colorado Springs' #1 independent brokerage, which pairs deep local expertise with premium marketing exposure. A U.S. Air Force Academy graduate and retired Air Force veteran, he and his family made more than 10 military moves. Since 2006, he and his wife, Kristen, have bought and sold their own homes, managed a portfolio of rental properties, and guided others through their own real estate decisions. He has also helped both family members and clients downsize, where the decisions are often complex and the process can feel overwhelming. Drawing on his background as a PMP® (Project Management Professional), he helps people break those decisions into clear, manageable steps.
Since beginning his real estate career, he has ranked in the top 7% by sales volume among the more than 4,000 members of the Pikes Peak Association of REALTORS®. He works with military families, seniors and downsizing clients, luxury and premium home sellers, and people relocating to Colorado Springs. He developed the Life → Wealth → Real Estate™ method, hosts the national YouTube channel Life & Real Estate Without Regret, and holds an MBA along with the SRES® (Seniors Real Estate Specialist®), MRP (Military Relocation Professional), and Certified Financial Coach credentials. More about Weldon
Sources
- Colorado Real Estate Commission, Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate (Residential) (CBS1), § 7 (Association Documents, the required document list, and the right to terminate), § 15.3 (association fees and disbursements at closing) and § 16.2 (association assessments and special assessments), mandatory use January 1, 2026. dre.colorado.gov
- Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act, C.R.S. § 38-33.3-101 et seq. — including § 38-33.3-209.5 (responsible governance policies), § 38-33.3-303.5 (construction defect actions), § 38-33.3-316 and § 38-33.3-123 (assessment liens and enforcement), and § 38-33.3-401 (registration).
- Colorado Division of Real Estate, HOA Center Advisory: Understanding the HOA Registration Requirement — suspension of lien and enforcement rights while an association is unregistered. dre.colorado.gov
- Colorado Division of Real Estate, About the HOA Center — the Center's role and its stated limits. dre.colorado.gov
- Colorado Division of Real Estate, HOA Registration Services — annual registration and fees. dre.colorado.gov
- Colorado General Assembly, HB22-1137 — HOA board accountability and transparency. leg.colorado.gov