Assessments on Patio and Single Homes Florida

BettyE1: It depends on what the 'assessment fee' is paying for. Normally the fee is to go for common area expenses (which are common to all...) of maintenance (lawn, pruning, fertilizer, snow removal, and for repair to streets, etc. from the capital reserve fund.

You also need to review your official documents to learn if there is any difference in fee between the patio and single homes OR, if its stated that all residents will pay equally. If there is a difference in payment to be made, it will be stated there.

Betty,
No, there is nothing "Law Wise" that can force your Board to rethink this matter. Your Board has the resonsibility to collect enough funds to meet your Budget. Only they vote to have enough money to pay the bills for your association. What your expenses are is your responsibility to find out and know by what the budget says. The Board is required by Florida Statutes to inform all of your membership 14 days prior to passing the Budget, what the Budget numbers are and when the vote will be for passing the Budget.

Now, somewhere in your documents, IF and I say IF there is an apportioning of assessments, then that will allow the smaller 2 units to pay less. If there is no specification for that, then they are treated just as a "UNIT" and pay equally as the other 4 . Don't forget that the majority of expenses are usually for common grounds and common elements which is equally shared by all of the units.

Usually in the documents, there is a formula by which assessments for specific units is layed out. Often, the formula is based on square footage (since these sound like site condos, not an HOA), sometimes on initial sale price, or some other factor. There is often a listing of all units with their "unit percentage value". The units are to be assessed according to the formula. It sounds like they have been in the past. The point is the board cannot arbitrarily ignore these percentages, if they are in the docs. They cannot change the assessment formula for any reason until, or unless, the docs are amended.

Joe

Donna, Joe and Betty,
My view:
The board cannot change the original assessment unless they are changed equally, The cost of roofing goes up proportionately to the amount of roofing used so therefore any increase has to be a equal increase and if Donna is saying the fees should be raised an equal precentage, I agree with her. I believe that is how Joe feels. I do know to change our apportionment we need a vote of 100%, you know how likely that is to happen. Donna is dead on about the importance of a Reserve Account. The squabble comes in determining how much to have and how to keep the Boards fingers out of it.

I also suspect very strongly, there is other problems in the association if this structure was turned over to the owners from the developer and they accepted it that way. Usually or nearly always an HOA has no concern for the owners roofs. If it is a Condo then I suspect there may be other units that would have different assessments (apportions).
It is common I believe to mix different type units in a condo and assign apportions, this sounds like amess that a developer dreamed up to get the smaller units fitted in somewhere in the Big Picture. You will need all the help you can get if your (whatever) association if going to be responsible for different of identical for the matter single family units.
That would mean someone is going to have to decide who gets what fixed when and who pays for what and who maintains what around the units. Townhouses you can do, single family homes is going to be trouble.