Refund of homeowner fees

i wouldn't even allow him to get by with one payment in the future, let alone back/regressive.

He owns two lots. he has two votes in the HOA. he pays two annual assessments. It doesn't matter what he does with the lots, he owns two, he pays two, he gets two votes.

why should his neighbors pay more because he wants to pay less?

Alan, what do your CC&Rs say on the topic? Ours state that if Owners combine condos, they still must pay HOA fees for each "lot." We're a high rise, but of 200+ units, there are four that have combined units; they pay two sets of HOA dues, and have two votes each

This is from the CCR:

NOW, THEREFORE, KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that the Developers have agreed upon, fixed, attached to and imposed upon, and do hereby agree upon, affix, attach to and impose upon, each and every lot hereinafter described and upon each and every grantee of any such lot, their heirs and assigns, the following protective covenants, restrictions and conditions, to-wit:

and:

Said Association shall be responsible for common area maintenance special assessments for capital improvements, and operation and control of subdivision amenities. Each lot owner shall be required to pay annual dues for these costs.

It appears all assessments are on a "per lot" basis regardless of adjoining lots would be my interpretation.

What do you think?

It appears so. You still need to do more digging, but you may need to asses back dues on all the combined lots done years ago, and bill out per "original" lot. So if someone had 2 lots combined as 1, they still owe for two lots.

Side note.....

Dont try and waive all the past dues for those combined lots. Because the board does not have the legal authority to waive dues, no one does, a savvy new president/board 8 years from now could foreclose on those homes for non payment of dues including interest, lawyer fees, etc. They must be paid.

Statute of Limitations may prevent that from happening. You will need to research the issue, but I would recommend making an attempt to recover the fees back to the time that the SOL kicks in.

Another problem, however, is that the association, acting on behalf of all homeowners, assessed one fee when two were due and the owners of the combined lots relied on that. It would be a hard sell to convince a judge that those owners should be penalized now because at some time in the past they paid the exact amount the HOA asked for.

A better approach may be to request voluntary payments for the fees from the owners of the combined lots and take no further action if the owners do not pay up. Let sleeping dogs lie. Technically they may owe the money but the association has a lot of discretion in how much of its resources to consume in trying to collect.

My association is made up of parcels that were originally 36 acres or larger. We have many owners who purchased adjoining parcels but, because we assess per acre, there is no advantage to combine parcels. A single 80-acre parcel owes the same assessment as two 40-acre parcels. Out of 1600 parcels, I know of none where the parcels have been legally joined to form just one.

Typically abutters are always notified of someone who wishes to subdivide a lot, and a public hearing takes place. But abutters are typically never notified of combining a lot.