Requesting Guidance as new member of HoA in PA

Hi Maria,

Welcome to the Forum and Thank you for caring enough to volunteer within your Association.
Let me try to answer your questions:

1. how do we increase the HoA dues. Dues are currently used for entrance maintenance and that's it.

Annual Assessments should only be enough to cover the maintenance of the common area, the administrative requirements of the Association (bookkeeping, mailings, taxes, etc.) and to properly fund the Associations reserves.

Your Association's governing documents should identify what procedures are required to increase assessments. If they do not address the issue, I would recommend a membership meeting to vote on increasing the dues. There should be minutes of various meetings (Board, membership, committee) that might explain how the fees were raised before.

2. how can we get everyone to pay their dues?

This will depend on your governing documents. Is membership mandatory or voluntary? If it's voluntary, you can not force anyone to pay the dues. If it's mandatory then you may be able to adopt an enforcement policy to include liens on the property.

3. what free email service do you recommend for communicating HoA news?

We don't use a free service. My Association pays for and maintains a website that provides e-mail availability. However, there are several services out there: gmail, hotmail and yahoo just to name a few.

4. how do you suggest I get community involvement to take care of the entrances, the directory, the calendar, etc.

That's a tough one. Everyone deals with membership apathy. You might try social events, newsletters, more meetings. I personally (not the Association) host a block party each year. Nothing special - I provide the paper goods and get people to volunteer tables and grills. Everyone brings their own drinks, meat and a dish to share.

5. best way to manage funds? currently done in excel.

My Association also uses excel. Some Associations just use the check book register and others purchase financial programs. The best one would be the one that is easiest to use, provides the information needed and one that others will use when you are no longer serving on the Board.

6. and, please help me to get them to stop saying "the way we use to do it" or "the way we've always done it"...

I haven't been able to get my own Association to stop saying that. This will change in time as homes are sold. Best advise I can offer is to stress the benefits and cite any legal requirements when ever you propose something new.

To offer better advise, I've got the following questions for you:

1. Is your Association Voluntary or Mandatory?
2. Is your Association incorporated?
3. If it is incorporated, is it considered a non-profit corporation?
4. What other common areas are there beside the entrance sign?

Tim

Marie,

Since you are a voluntary Association, you can not enforce any collection of fees, as these are also voluntary.

Does the Association have a tax id number? If not, I would suggest getting one.

You might also want to see if anyone has been filing for the Association.

Tim