For the purposes of this article:

(1) "Board" means the representative body, regardless of name, designated in the governing documents to act on behalf of a homeowners association and govern the association.

(2) "Bylaws" means the document, and amendments to it, that contain the procedures for conducting the affairs of a homeowners association, regardless of the form of the association's legal entity or the name by which the document comprising the bylaws is identified.

(3) "Declarant" means a person or group of persons acting in concert who:

(a) as part of a common promotional plan, subdivide and offer to dispose of an interest the person or group has in a unit in real property; or

(b) reserve or succeed to a special declarant right, which means a right created under the declaration or bylaws for the person or group to retain or exercise authority in addition to regular declarant rights in a unit of real property.

(4) "Declaration" means the recorded instruments, however denominated, that create a homeowners association, including amendments to those instruments.

(5) "Department" means the Department of Consumer Affairs.

(6) "Homeowner" means a declarant or other person who owns a unit in a homeowners association, but does not include a person having an interest in such a unit solely as security for an obligation.

(7) "Homeowners association" or "association" means an entity developed to manage and maintain a planned community or horizontal property regime for which there is a declaration requiring a person, by virtue of his ownership of a separate property within the planned community or horizontal property regime, to pay assessments for a share of real estate taxes, insurance premiums, maintenance, or improvement of, or services or other expenses related to, common elements and other real estate described in that declaration. A "homeowners association" or "association" does not include a vacation timesharing plan organized and subject only to the provisions of Chapter 32.

(8) "Homeowners association management company" means a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, trust, association, sole proprietorship, or other similar organization engaging in the business of managing homeowners associations.

(9) "Unit" means an apartment in a horizontal property regime, or a lot in a subdivision.

HISTORY: 2018 Act No. 245 (H.3886), Section 1, eff May 17, 2018.