Charging for water usage

Started by JohnN3 • 5 replies • 1295 views

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JohnN3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 6

Posted:

As a member of our BoD I'm thinking about bringing to the table a usage charge ($50.00 per season) for those that use our 7 lakes for lawn irrigation. Our annual assesments are very low, and I'd like to see these funds ear marked for improving the quality of the lakes and our beach/marina which are highly utilized, but receive little annual funding. These lakes are considered common property (North Carolina), what are your thoughts?

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

JohnN3,
If those lakes are common property, to the best of my knowledge, the Board can assess fees for the use of common property.
An example: We have underground parking, and nunerous storage sheds unassigned as limited common propert. The ones still unasssigned are common property and we rent them for folks to store golf carts and I know that is legal in SC.

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

John:

A better question is why did the board allow the homeowners to tap into the lakes for their water supply?

To answer your question it is the HOA's property they are on, you should have the right to charge, I wonder if there was a handshake agreement or something that allowed the homeowners to do this to being with.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Now days, water preservation is of utmost concern for all of us, especially in the southeast where we are still in a drought spell.. Are these natural lakes or are they retention ponds aka "lakes" per the developer?
They are common property no matter what they are called. As common property, they become sole responsibility of the association and B.O.D for their care and maintenance.Therefore, the B.O.D. can assess for their useage. "Handshakes" as you say, are a poor way to do county business
Do all of the residents have access to use them for irrigation or just those homesites on the water?
Did the developer allow the pumping from the lakes? Is there any covenant or ARC rule allowing or dissallowing pumping?
Usually these areas are also monitored by the County environmental depts. They may also have some rules about removing water

JohnN3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 6

Posted:

No handshakes that I'm aware of, but because we are in a severere drought here people served by the county can only water lawns once a week for a brief period. The lakes are man made, ranging from as little as 10-15 acres to 250 acres for our main lake. Only water front lots tap into them (and a Golf Course with deeded access). We do charge for marina slips, storage lot etc. as well. Thanks.

NancyD1 (Florida)
Posts: 447

Posted:

John. have you thought of using reclaimed water. We were using our retention ponds for years but then we started having problems because of droughts and water shortage. We changed our lawn water to reclaimed and we can continue watering even through droughts. It has worked out great because the county gives us the water at no charge.

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