Assessments- how divided

Our Association is having a $2200 assessment due to necessary repair work. The Board currently holds 5 proxies for the common areas of the association and there are 104 unit owners eligible to vote. The Association recently approved the assessment. Should the assessment be divided by 104 unit owners or by 109? Each unit pays the same common charge since the Association when formed did not base it upon square footage. I believe that $11,000 should come out of the general reserve for the Association's share of the assessment since the Association has 5 votes.

I may be selling this year so it would be a savings of a few hundred dollars.

Thanks

Cost/104

That does sound strange – all the homeowners co-own the common areas and assessments pay for their care, so using proxies would be unnecessary to me. Do the sidewalks or clubhouse pay regular assessments? How do they vote in board elections?? Check your documents again (maybe the board has been misinterpreting the language all along?) If this is the way they’re written, the homeowners should consider amending them to remove that language and then all HOMEOWNERS can vote for special assessments as usual. In the meantime, I would assume you and your neighbors will have to pony up $2200 each to get this done.

Reserves are supposed to be used to pay for major repair and replacement of the common areas, so the bigger question is whether your reserves are large enough to pay for the entire project WITHOUT a special assessment. If not, you may have trouble selling your home because no one wants to buy a house and then get hit with a special assessment to pay for common areas he/she didn’t use up. Even though you’re selling, it may be helpful to ask the board what’s going on regarding reserves and why they aren’t sufficient enough to pay for all repairs. When was the last time a reserve study was done and has the board followed its funding recommendations? If not, why not?

That sounds likely to me too. Were the 5 common area proxies enough to make a difference in the vote? If so then it could have been an invalid vote.

The Association is under reserved and mismanaged. There has never been a reserve study. They refuse to spend the money or make improvements. The property is dated but clean. We recently had an Association meeting and the Board obtained the majority of the proxies because most owners do not care. It is a property in a resort town so mostly second homeowners. A few on the Board have their own agenda since they live there year round.

I will check the bylaws regarding the proxy votes. There were two rental properties in the resort. One was converted to the game room and the other is a rental desk. There is also a health club which the Association eventually purchased. This may account for three of the proxies.

What is the exact verbiage in your CCR's regarding Assessments. Same as others I have never heard of an HOA where the "Common Area" which is maintained via all other owners assessments as having any vote. I would find it hard to believe your CCR's would make such statement.

From what I'm understanding,

The Association obtained (bought, foreclosed) units within the condominium that used to be residences. The Association turned those units into common elements (club house, party room, weight room, etc.).

However, I suspect, that the Association isn't billing itself for assessments on those units but desires to keep those units within the voting structure. Sounds shady and for that reason alone I would sell and move.