condo board adopted budget

hello,

Our condomimnium board had not adopted a budget for 2022. I sent notice in mid april to all board members informingh them of the obligation to adopt a budget.

At the april meeting, the board acknowledged they needed to adopt a budget. At the meeting last month, I requested a copy of proposed budget before it was going to be adopted at the next meeting.

It was agreed that i would be provided a copy.

When i requested via email a copy, the property manager refused and told the board he was not going to provide me a copy. Noone on the board responded to the email.

At the meeting last night. The property manager announced that the budget had already been reviewed and approved via unanimous board email. No budget was presented. nothing was discussed.
The meeting was via zoom.

The budget should have been created at the end of the year, and then if the board reviewed previous years financials and was working on the budget, decided we needed an increase in maintenance fees based on actual investigation of the numbers. SO bet it.

That's not what happened, the board literally prediscussed raising the rates, at the meeting via zoom, the president announced that the association was considering raising maitnenacne fees by 10%. her reasoning, inflation and we haven't raised them in a long time. I was not allowed to speak up at this time.
None of the other board members have taken the time to look at the financials in the way necessary to determine how operations are going and future needs. etc.

anyway, Is a budget only available to people who are considering buying a unit?

Not by my reading, per the instructions in the earlier thread at https://www.hoatalk.com/Search/ForumSearch/tabid/87/forumid/1/postid/324624/view/topic/Default.aspx, make a formal records request for the approved budget.

LaskaS, you can go scour the statutes for whether the Board could lawfully take this action without a meeting.

Laska

The declaration of your association may contain specific language regarding preparation of the annual budget, what happens if a new budget is not prepared, and language regarding how much percentage increase may be approved by the board alone without owner approval.

I agree it is a good idea if the board discusses, or at least communicates, the budget to the owners, probably in the late fall for the upcoming year. I am not aware there is an absolute requirement to do so. There is no such requirement in the documents of our clients or in Chapters 81 and 82 that I am aware of. Not doing so lacks transparency of course, and is not the right thing to do but, based on your posts, your board does not seem to follow the usual conventions.

I personally think entirely too much 'fuss' takes place over the budget preparation process. Our management company has been in operation since 2009, we have prepared scores of budgets for clients and have participated as directors (not serving at the same time, of course) in the preparation of budgets for the 2 associations in which we have resided since coming to Texas in 1997.

In our experience, 98%+ of the budgets we prepare use the current year budget, the current year run-rate, apply "Kentucky windage" to adjust for known or suspected changes and variables and that is it. Our clients have no discretionary line items in the budgets, such as for social activities.

Typically, we recommend the board implement an increase within the allowed percentage (or not) and that is it. For 2023 there will be significant adjustments to insurance expenses and anything else in which petroleum products are used--a pest control contractor just increased his rate as the products he uses are increasing in cost.

For our current client portfolio, we prepare a draft budget with explanations of the changes over the current year, present it to the Board for review and occasional adjustments. The budget is approved in a board meeting, sent to the owners with a cover letter with an explanation of the changes from the previous year, and that is it.

bill, you are correct, there is no absolute requirement for our condominium board to keep owners informed about the budget. However, combine that with, raising maintenance fees without any explanation and after years of gross underallocation of the maintenance fees for what they were intended, it's just insulting.

combine that with the board takes minutes, but the minutes are never actually finalized or made available to owners. requests are ignored.