Assessment for plumbing common element or??

This 1963 property has 28 units in two buildings one first floor unit had an underground pipe leak, they had to brake open her cement floor to replace a rusted pipe, at that time the new B President decided to replace All the plumbing, but building 525 was not having any issues, and the association does not have the funds some of us suggested fixing the building with the issue and wait longer to replace the second one, but they voted to fix both now with the economy and virus many lost jobs and there is tension between the have and have not, I say this is a replacement maintenance expense since if if you closed the water it would leave the whole building without water. Now they are assessing according to the square footage when most of think is a common element as the roof, we paid for the new roof from the hoa funds, has any one heard of a similar situation.

You are right but the most important question is that yes we pay monthly fees according to square footage, so the amount of money to repair or replace the buildings pluming is approximate 200K and we just had the new roof, so they are asking every owner to pay for the plumbing according to the square footage? They are going by this:

HE BOARD OF GOVERNORS SHALL HAVE POWER:
1. To levy monthly assessments payable in advance, which monthly assessments
shall be based upon the square footage of each apartment. By majority vote the Board of
Governors may increase the monthly assessments or vote a special assessment, if required to
meet any necessary additional expenses, but said increase can only be made in direct
proportion that the assessment shown bears to the square footage of said apartment.

Further, Articles of Incorporation, Article II (1)
1 To levy a monthly assessment, payable in advance, against each unit of the members hereof.
Said assessments shall be determined in the manner indicated by the Amended and Restated
Management and Operating Agreement.

What am confused is the Dissociation we all paid for the roof no matter apartments size now that we don't have the money they apply this? When the plumbing is the same as the roof expense?

We have a similar situation. Our reserves are low because of some very unexpected events, and now we have two balconies which are failing, which need to be fixed ASAP. It's going to cost $50k, and we only have 15 units. It's a bad time to do the assessment, but we don't have a choice. We're giving everyone 3 months to pay it (a slight gamble, as we'll be dipping into reserves to pay it).

To be blunt, this just sounds like a downside of living in an HOA. I doubt the board are doing this out of spite, and they're also all on the hook for the assessment too. I had an owner complaining to me about our upcoming assessment, and how the board were being unreasonable. I simply asked him 'How likely it is that I'm unnecessarily saddling myself with a $5k bill if I could avoid it?', which shut him up. It's unfortunate, but the board need to act in the best interest of the HOA.

PLEASE WRITE IN SMALLER PARAGRAPHS AND USE PERIODS – this was hard to read.

If I’m reading this correctly, you’re concerned about the cost of replacing all the plumbing in the building, which may require a special assessment. The board is trying to set the assessment based on the square footage of the units instead of charging everyone the same amount, similar to what would happen if the roof were replaced.

As others have said, this sounds like an unexpected expense, and since your property is 57 years old, I suspect the contractor told the board it may be best to replace all the plumbing because if you have a rusted pipe in one unit, problems are likely brewing elsewhere. Replacing plumbing for one unit isn’t cheap and so it may be a good idea to prevent potential problems (and even more expense) by biting the bullet and replacing everything now.
As far as plumbing being the same as the roof as a common element, you’ll need to check your documents to see what it says. If they’re going by square footage, it may be some units have more plumbing than others – if the work in those units will take more time and money, those homeowners would have to pay more.

I agree with Paul this sounds like your reserve funds are really low – assuming you have one. If so, you may want to take a look at the last reserve study. If that’s over 5 years old, that’s another problem because preparing the budget wouldn’t reflect the study recommendations. Considering the economy’s going into freefall, this probably isn’t a good time to do a major project, but given the age of your building, you may not have any other choice.

What would you do if several pipes failed at the same time – you’d still have to pay for the work and if you wait, the cost may be higher. I don’t like special assessments, but sometimes you can’t avoid them and I’d rather pay once and get it over with than having to pay two or three more in the next five years or so. You can still prioritize the work by repairing the building in most need of repair first, and I would suggest a payment plan for everyone.