The Commissioners shall be appointed by the County Executive and confirmed by the County Council in accordance with the provisions of Sections 322 and 402 of the Charter for Prince George's County, Maryland. The Commission shall consist of fifteen voting members: Eight members shall be selected from unit or lot owners or residents of self-managed and professionally managed condominiums, self-managed and professionally managed cooperative housing corporations, and self-managed and professionally managed homeowner associations, and may include members or former members of governing boards; and Seven members should be selected from persons who are members of professions associated with common ownership communities (such as a person involved in housing development and real estate sales and attorneys who represent community associations, developers, housing management or tenants), including at least one person who is a professional community association manager. One designee of each of the following entities are ex-officio nonvoting members of the Commission: County Council (if the Council selects a designee); Planning Board, Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement, Inspection and Enforcement; Department of Transportation; Department of Housing and Community Development; Office of the Attorney General; and the Office of the County Attorney. Each voting member serves a three (3) year term. Of the members first appointed, one-third must be appointed for one (1) year terms, one-third must be appointed for two (2) year terms, and one-third must be appointed for three (3) year terms. Upon expansion of the Commission, the appointments shall be staggered so that one-third must be appointed for one (1) year terms, one-third must be appointed for two (2) year terms, and one-third must be appointed for three (3) year terms. The appointment of voting members shall be such as to obtain a geographical distribution of voting members throughout the County in so far as practicable and consistent with the purpose of the Commission on Common Ownership Communities. A member shall not serve more than two consecutive full terms. A member appointed to fill a vacancy serves the rest of the unexpired term. Members continue in office until their successors are appointed and qualified. The County Executive may remove a voting member of the Commission for neglect of or inability to perform the duties of the office, misconduct in office, or serious violation of law. Before the County Executive removes a member, the County Executive must give the member notice of the reason for removal and a fair opportunity to reply. Section 13-314.04(d) applies only to voting members of the Commission. A majority of the voting members of the Commission shall elect one voting member as Chair and another as Vice Chair, to serve at the pleasure of the Commission, and may select other officers as it determines. Voting members of the Commission receive no compensation for their services. The Commission meets at the call of the Chair as often as required to perform its duties, but at least once each month. A majority of the voting members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and a majority of the voting members present at any meeting may take any official action.

The Commission shall: adopt rules and procedures as necessary to carry out the purposes of this Division; keep a record of its activities and minutes of all meetings, which shall be kept on file and open to the public at reasonable business hours upon request; cooperate with the County Executive and all government agencies concerned with matters within the jurisdiction of the Commission; examine by means of meetings, subject to the Maryland Open Meetings Act, conferences, and public hearings, conditions in common ownership communities which may result in unmet community, resident or public needs; and advise the citizens of the County, the County Council, the County Executive, and County, State, and Federal agencies on matters involving common ownership communities, and recommend such programs, training, procedures or legislation as it finds necessary.

The Office of Community Relations shall provide the Commission with staff, offices and supplies as are appropriate. In selecting staff to carry out the Commission's responsibilities under this Division, the Director shall consider the recommendations of the Commission.

The Commission for Common Ownership Communities is provided the following additional powers to accomplish the intent of this Division: The Commission shall review and evaluate the alternative dispute resolution process, pursuant to its authority set forth in Sections 13-319 through 13-326 of this Division.

The Commission for Common Ownership Communities shall refer matters, as appropriate for further civil, criminal, and administrative action to appropriate administrative and prosecutorial agencies.

The Commission shall keep a record of its activities and minutes of all meetings, which must be kept on file and open to the public at reasonable business hours upon request.

The Commission shall submit an annual report by September 1 to the County Executive and the County Council summarizing its activities, needs, and recommendations, and the extent to which the goals of this Division are being met.

Commission activities shall be subject to quality assurance reviews by an appropriate professional, non-partisan, objective group every three to five years. A copy of the written report resulting from this review shall be furnished to the County Executive and the County Council, and shall be made available to the public.

There is hereby established a Common Ownership Communities Program. The Common Ownership Communities Program shall be administered by the Director of the Office of Community Relations. Rules and regulations, consistent with the purpose and spirit of the Common Ownership Communities Program, shall be promulgated by the County Executive or the County Council and then adopted by resolution. Said rules and regulations shall govern the implementation and administration of the Common Ownership Communities Program.

As used in this Division: Association Document means: The master deeds, declaration, incorporation documents, bylaws, and rules of any common ownership community; Any written private agreement between any parties concerning the operation of the community or maintenance or control of common or limited common property; and Any similar document concerning the operation or governance of a common ownership community. Common area includes: in a homeowners association, any real estate which is owned or leased by a homeowners association. Common element includes: in a condominium, all portions of the condominium except the units. Cooperative project includes: in a cooperative all the real and personal property in the State of Maryland owned or leased by the cooperative housing corporation for the primary purpose of residential use. Common Ownership Community means: A condominium, as defined pursuant to state law; A cooperative housing corporation, as defined pursuant to state law; or A homeowners association, as defined pursuant to state law. Community Association means the legal entity, incorporated or unincorporated, that is responsible for the governance or common property of a common ownership community. Director means the Director of the Office of Community Relations. Dispute means any disagreement between two (2) or more parties that involves: The authority of a governing body, under any law or association document, to: Require any person to take any action, or not to take any action, involving a unit or common element; Require any person to pay a fine related to a violation of the governing documents; Spend association funds; or Alter or add to a common element; or The failure of a governing body, when required by law or an association document, to: (A) Properly conduct an election; Give adequate notice of a meeting or other action;(C)Properly conduct a meeting; Properly adopt a budget or rules; Maintain or audit books and records; Allow inspection of books and records; Maintain or repair a common element if the failure results in significant personal injury or property damage; or Exercise its judgment in good faith concerning the enforcement of the association documents against any person that is subject to those documents. Dispute does not include any disagreement that only involves: Title to any unit or any common areas and/or common element; The percentage interest or vote allocable to a unit; The interpretation or enforcement of any warranty; The collection of an assessment validly levied against a party; or The exercise of a governing body's judgment or discretion in taking or deciding not to take any legally authorized action. Governing body of a community association means the council of unit owners, board of directors, or any other body authorized by an association document to adopt binding rules or regulations. Notice means a hearing examiner or the Director has provided the parties with the date, place and nature of the hearing; the right of a party to be represented, at the party's own expense, by an attorney or, if permitted by law, another representative; the right of a party to seek discovery; the right of a party to call witnesses and submit documents or other evidence; and, that failure to appear for the scheduled hearing may result in an adverse action against the party. Office means the Office of Community Relations. Owner includes: A unit owner in a condominium; A lot owner in a homeowners association; and A member of a cooperative housing corporation. Party includes: An Owner; A Governing body; and An occupant of a dwelling unit in a common ownership community. Unit or Lot includes: Any physical portion of a common ownership community with distinct property boundaries that: Provides complete, independent living facilities for one or more individuals; Contains permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation; and Is designated for exclusive ownership, control, or occupancy by those individuals; and All legally enforceable rights and interests incidental to individual ownership of real property in a common ownership community.

The Director shall have operational responsibility for carrying out the duties prescribed in this Division and for enforcing the provisions of this Division. The Director is authorized to: research, assemble, analyze and disseminate pertinent data and educational materials about activities and programs which assist Common Ownership Communities; plan and conduct educational and other programs, meetings and conferences to promote the operation of Common Ownership Communities; maintain a master roster of Common Ownership Communities, their leadership, and their professional management companies if applicable; develop and maintain an information, assistance and referral system for all services in the County related directly to Common Ownership Communities, and recommend other services when needed; maintain a collection of Common Ownership Community association documents for use as a model and for reference; develop an education program for residents in a Common Ownership Community that includes but is not limited to governance of a Common Ownership Community, rights and duties of residents in a Common Ownership Community, and dispute resolution; develop an education program for Common Ownership Community governing bodies that includes but is not limited to adoption and enforcement of rules, transition from developer control, conduct of elections, and selection of community management and other professional services; and operate a dispute mediation process.

A Common Ownership Community shall register with the Office on or before December 31 of each year, and identify its elected leadership, managing agents, appointed officers, fidelity insurance information, dates of reserve studies, current reserve balances, contact numbers for the association's officers, management companies and/or legal counsel on a form provided by the Office. The Common Ownership Community shall disclose its grievance procedure. Any Common Ownership Community that does not comply with requirements of this Section shall be deemed to have committed a civil violation subject to temporary suspension of a Common Ownership Community Association's registration status and a suspension of a Common Ownership Community Association's right to file legal actions in Prince George's County. The governing body of a community association is responsible for compliance with this subsection. By Ordinance, the County may impose a fee to provide administrative hearing services for the resolution of disputes involving Common Ownership Communities located in the County.

The Commission may hear any dispute between or among parties. A party must not file a dispute with the Commission until the party makes a good faith attempt to exhaust all procedures or remedies provided in the association documents. After a community association finds that a dispute exists, the association must notify the other parties of their rights to file the dispute with the Commission. The association must not take any action to enforce or implement its decision for 14 days after it notifies the other parties of their rights. Except as provided in Section 13-320, when a dispute is filed with the Commission, a community association must not take any action to enforce or implement the association's decision, other than filing a civil action under subsection (f), until the process under this Division is completed. Any party may file a civil action arising out of an association document or a law regulating the association's powers and procedures at any time. The court may stay all proceedings for at least 90 days after the court is notified that a dispute has been properly filed under this Division so that a hearing under Section 13-325 may be completed. Whether or not a stay is issued, the court may hear the action de novo only if a hearing panel assigned to the dispute has not issued a decision under Section 13-325.

At any time after a dispute is filed under Section 13-319, a party to the dispute may submit a request to lift the automatic stay required under Section 13-319(e) to a hearing panel appointed under Section 13-324, or if no hearing panel has been appointed, a special standing panel authorized to consider requests for relief from stays. The special panel must consist of three voting members of the Commission designated by the chair and must include at least one representative of each membership category. A party that requests relief from a stay must serve a copy of its request on any other party named in the dispute by certified mail or personal service. A certificate of service must accompany any request submitted under this Section. A party served with a copy of the request must file its opposition, if any, within 14 days after receiving service. If a request for relief from a stay which states facts sufficient to show a need for immediate action is not granted or denied within 21 days after the request was filed, the request must be treated as granted. Except as provided in subsection (d), a request for relief from stay may only be granted if the assigned panel finds that: enforcing the stay would result in undue harm to a party; and lifting the stay would not result in undue harm to the rights or interests of any opposing party.

If the Commission does not accept jurisdiction of a complaint, the Director must notify the parties in writing of the decision and the reason for the Commission's denial of jurisdiction within 14 days after the decision. The Commission's decision not to accept jurisdiction of a complaint is not subject to judicial review.

The Commission may: compel the attendance at a hearing of witnesses and parties, administer oaths, take the testimony of any person under oath and, in connection with any dispute, require the production of any relevant evidence; and issue summonses to compel the attendance of witnesses and parties and the production of documents, records, and other evidence in any matter to which this Division applies. If any person does not comply with any summons issued under this Division to compel the attendance of persons or the production of documents, records, or other evidence in any matter to which this Division applies, the County Attorney, on behalf of the Commission, may enforce the summons in a court with jurisdiction. Any court with jurisdiction may, on request of the Commission, in accordance with state law and the Maryland Rules of Procedure: require compliance with a summons; require the attendance of a named person before the Commission at a specified time and place; require the production of records, documents, or other evidence; require the transfer of custody of records, documents, or other evidence to the court; or prohibit the destruction of any records, documents, or other evidence until a lawful investigation by the Commission is ended. A court may punish any disobedience of any order entered under this Section as a contempt of court.

The Director may investigate facts and assemble documents relevant to a dispute filed with the Commission and may summarize the issues in the dispute. The Director may notify a party if, in the Director's opinion, a dispute was not properly filed with the Commission, and may inform each party of the possible sanctions under Section 13-325(d). If the Director, after reviewing a dispute, finds that, assuming all facts alleged by the party that filed the dispute are true, there are no reasonable grounds to conclude that a violation of applicable law or any association document has occurred, the Director must so inform the Commission. The Commission must dismiss a dispute if it finds that there are no reasonable grounds to conclude that a violation of applicable law or any association document has occurred, or it may order the Director to investigate further. The Commission may reconsider the dismissal of a dispute under this subsection if any party, in a motion to reconsider filed within 60 days after the dispute is dismissed, shows that: the Commission erroneously interpreted or applied applicable law or an association document; or material issues of fact that are necessary to a fair resolution of the dispute remain unresolved. If the Director, after reviewing a dispute and any investigation, finds reasonable grounds to conclude that a violation of applicable law or an association document has occurred, the Director must attempt to resolve the matter through informal negotiation including, in the Director's discretion, mediation. Each party named in the dispute or its representative must attend any mediation conference scheduled by the Director under this Section unless excused by the Director. If the party that files the dispute refuses or fails to participate in the mediation, the Director must dismiss the dispute. If the party that is the subject of the dispute refuses or fails to participate in the mediation, the Director must refer the dispute to the Commission for dismissal. The party that is the subject of the dispute is not required to appear at the hearing, and the hearing panel may award relief to any party that the facts on the record warrant. Unless otherwise agreed to by the parties in writing, a mediation conference is informal and nothing said or done during a mediation conference is admissible in any subsequent hearing under this Division. The Commission must promptly schedule a hearing under Section 13-325 if either: mediation has not occurred within 90 days after the Director found reasonable grounds to believe a violation occurred; or the Director decides at any time that mediation would be fruitless. The Director may extend the mediation deadline by mutual consent of the parties. If a dispute is resolved by mediation, the terms of mediation agreed to by the parties must be reduced to writing and incorporated into a consent agreement to be signed by the parties. The agreement must be for mediation purposes only and is not an admission by any party that a violation of applicable law or an association document has occurred. In addition to any other penalty allowed by law, failure by a party to adhere to any provision of a consent agreement has committed a civil penalty with a maximum of $500 for an initial offense and $1,000 for each repeat offense. Each day that a person does not comply with a Commission order is a separate offense. Any failure by the Director to enforce any provision of a consent agreement does not waive any private right of action against the violating party.

If a hearing is scheduled, the Chair of the Commission must convene a 3-member panel to hear the dispute. The Chair must choose two members of the panel from the voting members of the Commission. The persons selected must represent the two different membership groups of the Commission. The Chair of the Commission must designate the third member from a list of volunteer arbitrators trained or experienced in common ownership community issues maintained by the Commission. The third member must Chair the panel. If a suitable arbitrator is not available, the Chair of the Commission must designate the third panelist from among the voting members of the Commission and must designate the Chair of the panel. Each panelist must not have any interest in the dispute to be heard. Each volunteer arbitrator must not represent any parties in disputes before other hearing panels convened under this Division. If the Commission Chair decides that a hearing should be held by a hearing examiner instead of a hearing panel, the Chair, with the approval of the Commission, may designate a hearing examiner to conduct the hearing.

A hearing panel appointed under Section 13-324 must hold a hearing on each dispute that is not resolved by mediation under Section 13-323 unless the Commission finds that: the dispute is essentially identical to another dispute between the same parties on which a hearing has already been held under this Section; or the dispute is clearly not within the jurisdiction of the Commission. The parties need not be given more than 15 days' notice before the hearing is held, if the Commission finds that an expedited hearing is necessary. At any hearing, a party or a witness may be advised by counsel. If any party, after proper notice, does not appear at the scheduled hearing, the hearing panel may order any relief to another party that the facts on record warrant. The hearing panel may award costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, to any party if the other party: filed or maintained a frivolous dispute, or filed or maintained a dispute in bad faith; refused to participate in mediation of a dispute, unreasonably withdrew from mediation; or substantially delayed or hindered the dispute resolution process without good cause. The hearing panel may also require the losing party in a dispute to pay all or part of the filing fee. The hearing panel must apply State and County laws and all relevant caselaw to the facts of the dispute and may order the payment of damages and any other relief that the law and the facts warrant. The decision of the hearing panel is binding on the parties, subject to judicial review. A party aggrieved by a final decision in a case governed by this Division may seek judicial review of the decision in the Circuit Court under the applicable Maryland Rules of Procedure governing judicial review of administrative agency decisions. A party aggrieved by the decision of the Circuit Court may appeal that decision to the Maryland Court of Appeals. Unless the court reviewing the decision of the hearing authority orders a stay, the hearing authority's decision remains in effect pending a final decision of the court. If the hearing has been held under Section 13-324(d), the hearing examiner must forward a recommended decision and an order to a Commission panel. The Commission panel may adopt, reverse, modify, or remand the recommended decision before issuing its final order as provided in this Section. An appeal of a decision under this Section must be consolidated with any case filed under Section 13-319 that arises out of the same facts. The court hearing an appeal must sustain the decision of the hearing panel unless the decision is: inconsistent with applicable law; not supported by substantial evidence on the record; or arbitrary and capricious, considering all facts before the hearing panel. The Commission, acting through the Office, and the County Attorney, may enforce a decision of the hearing panel by taking any appropriate legal action. In addition to any other penalty allowed by law, any person who does not comply with a final Commission order issued under this Division has committed a civil penalty with a maximum of a $500 fine for an initial offense and a $1,000 fine for each repeat offense. Each day that a person does not comply with a Commission order is a separate offense.

Settlement of a dispute by mediation agreed to by the parties is binding, has the force and effect of a contract, and may be enforced accordingly. The Director may inform any party who has settled a dispute by mediation, or any party who prevails in a hearing held under Section 13-325, about how the agreement or decision can be enforced.