Fee for Street Lights

Jennifer,

Unless there is some wierd language in your documents this is not fair. Dues are to be assessed evenly among all the homeowners. It would be the same thing as assessing extra dues to homeowners whose land borders a common area. Again, unless there is something weird about the streetlights (like you had one put in specially for your lot), they would be considered common property and the fees associated with them should be evenly divided amongst all the homeowners.

JenniferW3,

Very interesting post. It is unfair and I believe illegal for you to be solely responsible for the cost of the streetlight. That is of course if the other owners did not receive a bill as you did and that $30.00 is more than each of their proportionate share. What state are you in? Depending upon the laws on your states books, your HOA may be entitled to reimbursement from the borough. If not, your HOA should lobby your state to do as New Jersey has regarding municipal services reimbursment.

The HOA should either be billed for all street lighting in the subdivision and seek reimbursement from the town, or negotiate with the borough to cover the cost of street lighting and never receive a bill. The reason for reimbursement from the borough is because the residents of your subdivision pay taxes to the borough and municipal services (street lighting, snow removal from streets, etc.) are part of those taxes.

Logic dictates the HOA is being double taxed for having to pay for street lighting. The same logic should apply to all other services the borough provides the residents outside of your subdivision. Such as reimbursement for the borough's cost to remove snow from the length and width of your roadways. That or provide the service as it does every other resident in your borough.

HOA negotiations will need probably need an attorney but should be started with an invitation to your Mayor to discuss reimbursement first. In New Jersey, the Municipal Services Reimbursement Act is the law. Paste the following link below into your web browser for details on New Jersey law.

http://www.njlawblog.com/community-associations-
is-your-association-receiving-the-benefits-of-the-
municipal-services-act.html

Best of success,
GeraldT1
NNJ

JenniferW3,

I don’t really have an answer to your situation but from what I have read (previous posts) it sounds as if what you are being charged with is indeed illegal, and besides being illegal it sounds to me to be a bit high as well. I have a friend, who lives in Georgia and his HOA divides the expenses among the entire association. Each HO is required to pay something like ($3.00 something minimal) I can see this. I had perused it myself, but got no where. I’m the VP of my HOA and we have to budget for this expense yearly. I thought it would be best if the electric company just billed the HO this small price, along with their utility bill.

The advice GeraldT1 had given you seems to be very helpful. I too would question if it’s not applied to all then you would like it turned off and if it is applied to all, I would then question the cost ($30.00 seems rather high)

Keep us posted
Chuck W.

Before we get this lady foreclosed on for failing to pay an assessment, lets look at a few possibilities. First, she may be in a state that has no HOA/POA law, which means that whatever the developer slipped into the documents is probably enforceable. Check the documents to see if they address streetlights at all. Second, the developer may have installed them which means the municipality has nothing to do with them. If the streets are private, then it is likely that the street lights are also.

Next, the documents may have a clause that says if something is on your property then you pay for its upkeep. This is not unusual. The key is the association billing for it. If the association owns and maintains it, then the cost should be shared by all owners, unless there is something specific in the documents saying otherwise. A policy passed by a board wouldn't qualify. It would need to be in the docs.

Pay the fee and continue to investigate and question, until you get some solid answers, in writing, that you can evaluate. (Don't ever withhold assessments from an association, even if you aren't sure what they're for, or if you have a beef with them - nasty things begin to happen). Like taxes, pay and then argue.

Joe