Voting to replace fence required by CCR's to maintain

Karen,

First, don't dismiss what people are saying. The idea of having a contingency fund to offset the lack of payments from delinquent accounts is a sound one.

Second, it sounds like your Board needs to communicate what is happening. Based on what you posted, I would draft a newsletter with the following items in it:

Fence Replacement: That the Association is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of common elements based on Article xxxxx of the {name of document]. Identify that the membership voted on mm/dd/yyyy with a vote of x yea to x nay to replace the fence. Due to available funds at the time and the desire not to impose a special assessment, only the front section of fence was replaced with plans to replace the remaining sections as funds became available. Those funds are now available and the Board intends to comply with the memberships vote of mm/dd/yyyy and live up to their responsibilities.

Contingency fund: Explain that the concern of some members to have a contingency funds in order to be able to address unexpected expenses, budget overages and cash flow issues that might be caused while waiting for scheduled assessment payments from members is an excellent idea. A rule of thumb is that contingency funds should equal 1/12 of the annual assessments. The Board will discuss creating such a fund and adjusting assessments as needed to properly fund it.

Reserve Funds: Explain that reserve funds are to pay for expected maintenance, repairs and replacements of capital components like the fence, roads, sidewalks, etc. That the Board will conduct a Reserve study to identify the annual amount needed to be set aside for the Reserves and hopefully prevent the need for special assessments. Once the study is completed, the Board will present the report to the membership along with recommendations on any adjustments that might be needed to the annual assessments to properly fund the reserves.

A Board of Directors Responsibilities: Explain that the Board has a duty to properly maintain the common area, to provide specific services (trash removal, plowing, etc. - list them), enforce the covenants and perform the day to day operations (collecting assessments, paying bills, etc.).

Elections - Explain that Board members serve at the pleasure of the membership. If any member believes that a specific member or members of the Board are not doing a satisfactory job that they are encouraged to submit their name to the nominations committee for the next election.

Hope this helps,

Tim

Tim,

Thank you so much for responding and your advice!

We have communicated and comunicated and communicated, the problem is the usual, no one wants to increase dues or have a special assessment period. They fight every decision we make on an increase in dues and the meetings will now have the Sheriff in attendance due to the language and volatile personalities!

We just rec'd our reserve study that shows the fence is 4 years beyond it's life expectancy and this has not been shared yet with the membership but will go out with the letter explaining that the balance of the fence will be replaced.

Thanks again!

The fence project was not so far off it's budget - we had no budget (membership voted to let BOD get best possible price). The bids we rec'd were in excess of $14,000 to replace the entire wood fence(with wood) and BOD opted to replace just the front section in vinyl for $7,000 so it would never have to be repainted or repaired, just replaced in 30+years, thus no need for immediate increase in dues for our reserve fund. This depleted our reserve so we could not finish the balance of the fence.

Yes, we had a reserve or contingency fund - those were the funds used for the front section of fence. The BOD has also used the reserve funds to seal coat our private road twice.

The whole issue is the majority of the membership are uneducated on the fact that the HOA is a "business" and even though the BOD has inundated them with information, the bottom line is they don't understand it, are not willing to understand it - even when the facts are presented over and over and over again. They just flat do not want to spend the money and fight us every time $$$ is involved because they don't want an increase in dues period!