"Equal" HOA Assessment fees

Have an issue I am hoping others may have dealt with that concerns equitable charges assessed to members of an HOA. Ours is a small, 18-home HOA with no common areas such as parks, clubhouses, pools etc. 12 of the 18 houses are located on a private road that the HOA must maintain. The other 6 are on main county roads, have no access to the private road from their lots, and are not even visible from the private road. Since there are no common areas other than that road for the 12, all HOA assessments effectively go to cover maintenance, snow clearing and landscaping for the road. The HOA Covenants say all homeowners must equally pay for the road. Virginia law, however, says a homeowner may not be charged fees that are not used for the common area, and the common area is not specifically defined to include the road in the Covenants. Question: should the 6 houses which have nothing to do with the road have to pay equal shares for its maintenance? My view is that they essentially are paying other people's bills for them.

Many thanks for any thoughts. This is a VERY contentious issue!

My personal view is expenses should be equally split among all owners. Kind of like saying well we do not use the common area park, or we only have one car so we create less wear and tear on the roads then those with more cars, etc. so we should be charged less.

I want one from Column A, two from Column B, and none from Column C.....LOL

Tim, I should also make clear that the roads in front of the 6 houses are NOT private roads, they are state roads that are main thoroughfares open to all the public.

Fred, I think it's clear legality is on the side of the road being a common area. No specific areas are identified as common area in the CCRs, just that they are all areas owned, leased or maintained by the HOA for common use and enjoyment for all. Since the road is specifically mentioned elsewhere that it must be maintained, I guess that qualifies it. I would question whether the road truly is for "common use and enjoyment" if it is completely irrelevant to some homeowners and provides them zero benefits or services, but that is getting into fairness vice legalities.

It looks like the consesus is that the HOA is already doing the assessment fairly and equally. Just because a few people don't like it doesn't mean it's not fair or equal. Half my membership never used the pool or clubhouse but it was covered in their dues.

How much difference would it make anyways if you subtracted the portion from the dues? You have to consider that if those 6 people subtract that cost from their dues then that amount will DOUBLE for those others who do live on the maintained road. Do you think that would be fair to those members?

A HOA is ONLY funded by it's members FOR it's members. Which means you all share the expenses equally (Unless dicated otherwise in the documents) no matter if you use them or not. Heck just drive up and down that road a few times to get your monies worth if it's just a use issue...Otherwise, it's just the way it works...

I love it......

Well, that explains a lot! First it was Roswell, then it was Kennedy, now another conspiracy! When will it all end?

Yep, doesn't look good for you, Parker, since revising your CC&Rs doesn't seem possible. Probably the developer should have set up those 12 as a "special benefit" area in your DRE docs and CC&Rs. They would've had their own reserve account for the road maintenance and replacement and an operating budget for snow removal, etc. The language may be different in your state, but too late now.

In our twin- high rise HOA, floors 3-25 are a "special benefit" area because there are certain services, reserve components, etc. that only we 3-25 folks "benefit from" and the other 17 res. units do not. Floors 1 & 2 residents sure can ride the elevator up to the 25th floor or walk on our carpeted corridors, but they have no reason to just as you have no reason to use that road. Similarly our two large commercial "lots" have a "special benefit" component to them too, e.g., residential owners don't pay into reserves for the two heat pumps that only they use.

melissa, with all due respect, I still think you don't understand the situation. Not all benefit or suffer from the road. only the 12 benefit, only the 12 would suffer if that road were just a dirt track. It doesn't affect the other 6 at all. The 12 are for all practical purposes a separate community, completely isolated physically from the other 6. This is not a question of all for one and one for all. this is not a community with multiple roads and there's just one some people don't use or want to pay for. there's 12 people who live on it, and 6 who live up to a mile away on totally separate public roads. I realize the law is on the 12's side due to the builder-created CCRs, but that does not make it fair, right or proper. This is why people hate HOAs. I've never lived in one before. Lesson learned.

Just a thought...

Have you looked into what it would take to get VDOT to take over for the road maintenance?

Seems odd that a third of the community is on public roads and two thirds are not...

Paul

Hope I do this right - its been a while:

Shu Bartholomew

Name the link There should be no spaces in the url.

Or if you are using Firefox all you need to do is highlight the link ex. http://privatopia.blogspot.com/ and right click to get three different options for opening it

Lets try it this way: click on quote to see how it is put together and substitute the url you want and the name you want.