Great article on the issues of condos in Florida

Lori,
Interested in reading it but it appears like it is behind a pay wall. Any change you can cut and paste or did the link get messed up?

That was a great article - thanks for sharing. The NY Times does have a paywall unfortunately ( I'm a subscriber) so I hope local newspapers can rerun a condensed version.

For those of you who may think this isn't your issue because you don't get hurricanes, read and ponder this:
https://www.propublica.org/article/climate-change-migration-hurricane-helene. EVERYONE will have to deal with climate change, no matter where you live, meaning HOA boards and homeowners will need to think more about what type of repairs and replacements they may need. Maybe it would be a good idea to encourage planting of more native plants that are more drought resistant or stick rain barrels on downspouts that could reduce flooding and help eith a drought problem.

As for Lori's article, fingers can be pointed everywhere: developers who built on the cheap, didn't establish reserves, train the first board to at least start the HOA on a good foot, local and state governments who let the developers build everywhere and to hell with the environment, and passed laws that allowed HOAs to ignore math and reality by waiving reserves, and finally the homeowners themselves who had the notion nothing would ever break down - arptvleast mot until after they were gone (having moved elsewhere or to the great beyond- whichever one that is).

Fixing this will take decades and I think developers will likely buy the property for $1.98 and build more of these things. In the meantime, I suppose DeSatan figures the cities can move all the homeless in these buildings - I saw that new state law making it illegal for the homeless to camp out in public places. I understand why, but where are the resources to help the cities - who can now be sued if residents ir businesses don't think enough is being done? They have three months to come up with something because thus takes effect in January.

Finally, here are a few comments on the Times article from various readers (sometimes the comments are more interesting!)

You don't get what you don't pay for

If you're buying (a condo), ask for the financials, look at reserves and if the HOA fees seem too low,they probably are.

If you own a car, it'll need repair and replacement. You don't point to an 18 year old car and say "but no one told me!" Why should it be different for a building?

In a condo situation, there are always intergenerational equity issues, particularly with a retired demographic that wants to avoid long term planning and decision making to save a few bucks today,

It's difficult to predict when a building will suffer a major problem that simply must be fixed even if reserves are inadequate

The average citizen doesn't realize how much lack of regulations impact your life until something terrible happens and you're left with no recourse- where's the "no regulations" crowd?

One bit of advice from the article is do not but a condo in FL taller then 3 stories.

Those are great comments! I bet some of them find their way into what I'll be telling the membership when we discuss our 2025 budget. The "you don't get what you don't pay for" is on point. Unfortunately far too many board members don't understand this.

While you're preparing your presentation, here's another quote - not from the article, but I read it somewhere and it basically sums up everything that goes sideways in HOAs (and everywhere else):

This country was founded on a principle of individualism and many Americans have difficulty dealing with any notion of community or common goal.

Put another way, we think we're the shit, and forget we wouldn't be where we are if someone, somewhere didn't give us the opportunity, whether it was getting a new job, moving to a new city, getting accepted in a certain school or even earning the lead in the school play. And if it wasn't for our co-workers and/or a great supervisor, neighbors who stepped up to help us get acquainted with the neighborhood, or college alumni who gave us the 411 on the school (the stuff they don't discuss in the student catalog), where would we be?

We all buy houses or condos to live in, and of course, we want to live in clean, safe, attractive communities where property values (whatever those are) increase steadily so we'll get more money when the house or condo is sold. Nothing wrong with that, but people forget when it comes to HOAs, it's not just about your home, it's EVERYONE's home. It's not just your budget that's affected by assessments, it's EVERYONE's budget. It's true some incomes are more fixed than others, but when roofs need replacing, the shingles don't give a damn about your wallet and neither does the wind that blows them away. Many people (including me) moved into HOA communities in part because we wanted to take advantage of economies of scale by spreading around the expense. If that's going to work, people have to be willing to work together and remember basic math, inflation and old-fashioned wear and tear. Nothing lasts forever.

Unfortunately, people living in HOAs only think of their individual situation and nothing else because the developer, realtor, and other folk kept saying "the association will take care of X and you don't have to worry about a thing." Some people took that to mean pay your assessments and keep it moving and not pay attention to where the money was going or if you were getting a decent bang for the buck It's easier to bleat about "Mah reights are being violated because I got a letter saying I have to cut my lawn because it's up to my knees" as opposed to taking a good look at the budget and asking questions, and no one wants to stand up in front of the neighbors and get cussed out by everyone when they're told the reserves need X amount of money and it still won't be enough, so a special assessment will be necessary.

When I did my presentations on the budget during annual meetings (I was board treasurer), people always complained about not wanting assessments to increase because "they're already too high" (whatever that means.) I would ask them to define "too high" asked people to define "too high" and no one spoke up. Some looked as if they didn't understand the question and others gave me the stink eye, but I got used to that. It's to be expected that you have to consider your situation first, but as treasurer, I realized the best approach for me was to consider my situation and extrapolate that to the rest of the community. Everyone had a different take on the budget - some were retirees, some were single parents, some were first time homeowners (as I was when I moved here), young couples in their first home or with a young child, so they were thinking of moving to a larger place eventually. And then there are the owner-landlords - some recognize they are neighbors although they might not live in the community full time, and then there are....the others. The challenge was to find a way to reach evryone, but eventually I learned I had to emphasize different things to different people. At first I tried scaring them with gloom and doom, but ended up emphasizing pay a little more now so we don't have to pay through the nose a few years from now - especially since we don't know when the next tornado might come through (before i moved here, there was one that put a major hurt on the community). Even then, some people still didn't agree, but at least they understood where the board were coming from.