Quarterly maintenance

Can you provide a little more detail?

Is the Maintenance a fee (maintenance fee)?
Is the Maintenance a physical task (maintenance of dryer vents)?
Is the requirement of "monthly" in a document? If yes, which one?

Do you want the change to be a request to the board OR something the board has to do?

This is not a reasonable request AFAIC.

You can certainly throw together a petition and present it during the open forum session of a board meeting, or mail it to the management with a request for the board to consider it. But this petition will have no legal force.

A lot of owners might argue that only quarterly works better for them.

You do understand that one of the reasons for collecting quarterly is to save administrative fees, right? You claim these owners are better off financially when they pay monthly. But the HOA is better off collecting only quarterly, meaning owners' assessments will be a bit lower because of collecting quarterly. Undertand?

If owners cannot set aside a little money each month in anticipation of the coming quarterly payment, then they need to listen to Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Ben Stein and the like.

why can't you just log into your bank and send out 1/3 of your quarterly bill every month so after 3 months/a quarter you have paid it all off when it is due.

you want the HOA to spend more money collecting monthly because you can't plan your finances appropriately? lame.

Say, Natty, did the HOA increase the maintenance fees a lot for 2024? (Maybe big insurance premium increase?) So, though, quarterly was OK for most folks last year, it's a pretty large chunk to come up with 4x a year for some?

What size is your HOA?

To Cathy's point about your CC&Rs possibly stating when the maintenance fees are due. Here's what our declaration (also known as CC&Rs, covenants) says: "Regular Assessments shall be due and payable in monthly installments on the first day of each month during the term of this Declaration."

If yours say something like this, i.e., that assessments are due quarterly, the CC&Rs would have to be amended (changed), which is very expensive and usually requires approval of a super majority of owners (67%; 75%).

One downside to paying monthly is that if you are late in paying, you most likely will have to pay a late fee and interest. If you pay quarterly, that's a max of 4 late fees per year. If you pay monthly, that's potentially 12 late fees. At $25 or $30 each plus 18% interest (max allowed in Florida) that can be a lot of money.

It's cheaper in the long run for everyone to pay quarterly instead of monthly. However, if you are sending in physical checks, no one can say that an owner can't send a check for 1/3 of the quarterly fee every month if that's what they want to do. By the third check, you will have paid the full amount.

then they can mail in a check every month. no one is forcing them to wait 3 months and make one quarterly payment instead of 3 smaller payments.

Natty

A petition is a "suggestion". The BOD makes decisions, not owners via a petition.

Unless the petition is to call a special meeting of the membership for the purpose of xyz.

Natty simply didn't share enough info to assist beyond generalities.

I appreciate Lori's detail about real life in FL today for seniors on fixed incomes.

Having lived a few times "paycheck to paycheck" including a LOT of my childhood, it's easy to see that "saving up" for the quarterly fee can be very difficult. Something always unexpectedly "comes up"-- even a flat tire; a broken tooth, an appliance needs service, the toilet clogs, where that money must be used for a different necessity.

I wonder if those who pay quarterly could pay less, while those who can pay monthly are changed extra for the extra cost to the HOA for monthly service. I do see it being pretty messy, though.

Why would you need a petition to do this? Just pay your assessments monthly like any bill.
Don't be late because you will be charged a late fee.

My HOA billing runs quarterly like everyone else. The billing system sees your account once per quarter. You could almost pay weekly
and the HOA won't know you're paying daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly, unless you are late. I hope your board or PMC doesn't make a fuss about this, it
is that simple.