On May 8, 2018, Brian Fellner, Esq. and Craig Zaller attended the CAI Advocacy Summit in Washington D.C., along with approximately 50 other CAI Members from across the Country. At the Summit, CAI representatives met with various politicians and/or their Legislative Correspondents to address three issues that affect our communities at the federal level.
It was a very interesting and exciting day. Both Brian and I were grouped with a few other local CAI Members. We were assigned to meet with Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen. In addition, we met personally with Representative John Sarbanes’ office as well. We were supporting House Bill 3283 which allows community associations to be eligible for federal assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Much to my surprise, FEMA does not currently provide assistance to community associations while those not living in a community association are eligible despite the fact that everyone pays the same taxes. We were also advocating for the preservation of funding for community association projects in general and to protect the “priority lien” statutes that exist in Maryland, DC, and over 20 other states. This protection is necessary as the banks are now trying to attack these statutes at the federal level.We were also advocating for reform of the National Flood Insurance Program to further protect homeowners.Finally, we were advocating for the reform of the Federal Housing Administration and the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act which required greater access to FHA insured Condominium unit mortgages for qualified borrowers.
