HOA Fees

Does anyone know of how to find a list or website of Florida communities for comparison to ours when it comes to number of units, fees, amenities, etc... We are trying to upgrade our community and would like to upgrade several areas. If you can help me that would very helpful. Thank you.

If you're on the board, I'm sure you know this. But looking at fees can be very misleading. Two apparently identical communities can require very different assessments for a host of reasons:

* the community's history of financial decisions, good or bad, including funding of reserves;

* the amount of deferred maintenance

* inclusion of utilities in assessments, which ones and what do they cost (water is expen$ive)

* extent of the infrastructure owned by the association (streets, water lines, etc.)

* presence of a special municipal taxing district

* pending litigation that will affect the community

You get the idea...

You do not compare yourself to other HOAs. EveryHOA is separate. You figure out the expenses your HOA has and budget from there.

Why are you trying to adequate your assessments to other properties around you? Your assessments should be a reflection of your reserve study.

Passing any type of dues increase by membership based on our reserve study would have been impossible. Our increases are maxed out to CPI for the previous year. We had a hard fight for less than $30.00 a month/unit increase. Our lawyer advised that for a Board approved assessment, the monies spent should be specific to a project. During that time we had so many it was hard to choose. Presenting a palatable dues increase allowed us to move forward.

We've done an outstanding job with our ability to maintain the integrity of the buildings and community elements with the exception of our community roads. We are looking at $1,250,000+ to dig up and relay all the roadways including curbing and such, due to years of no maintenance.

Sales price of our condos average $125,000 with dues averaging $200/month. An assessment for each unit to replace the roads will be $7,000.00 per unit setting us up for a mess of collection issues and where would we be if we can't collect the money besides filing foreclosure notices left and right? Wouldn't matter then because we would be in receivership because there wouldn't be a Board.

Every HOA community is different and I am only sharing what has worked for us to move forward. All of our previous volunteer boards have been so concerned with not spending any money and violations that they failed us completely.

This is what we have to work with. I post my experiences to assist anyone else in a similiar position to find ways to survive or overcome obstacles.

Whoever came up with the idea that volunteers could maintain HOA with over $15,000,000 in assets was crazy, but this is where we are. HOA's are not for profit, but not a non profit.

This is the kind of nonsense that makes me crazy (and FWIW, it would make more sense to peg increases to the PPI - who cares if the cost of food and clothing are rising, HOAs deal with things like raw materials and construction costs).

So what the heck happens when you're hit by the unexpectedly fast wear and tear, or inflation picks up and your last reserve study underestimated replacement costs - too bad, so sad, wait until the CPI catches up to the damaged property?

Anyway, requirements like this, and the one requiring homeowner approval for assessments increases, actually undermine well-being of the communities and homeowners that they're intended to protect:

* Board members have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their communities, and should be the final authority. This is what allows homeowners to hold the board accountable for their decisions. When the board does not control the decisions, accountability goes out the window.

* Homeowners have no fiduciary duty to the association and are free to act in their own self interest, even if that self interest is harmful to the association.

* Capping assessments at some arbitrary number will result in short-term thinking and kicking the can down the road. We saw in Surfside what can happen after 40 years of can kicking.

* Arbitrary caps do not force boards to live within their means. In reality the HOA will live beyond its means - but instead of overspending, it will burn through the useful life of components at an accelerated rate because these components are not being maintained properly.

* The cap hides the true cost of home ownership, as does allowing homeowners to keep assessments artificially low. This sets up future boards and homeowners for larger or even unmanageable expenses - and when it's finally time to pay the piper, homeowners will wail that they can't afford the assessment (as at the Surfside condo). Affordability is the sort of thing that's better to figure out sooner rather than later, ideally before you buy in the first place.

I swear, one of these days I'm gonna write an op-ed and send it out to everyone who will publish it.

*** off my soapbox now ***