Assessment Increase is different for SF vs TH

Since 1989 our HOA has raised assesments by a percentage of whatever the current assessment was. The percentage increase was the same for everyone and it didn't matter if you lived in a single family home or townhome. If the Single Family residents were paying $150 per quarter and the townhomes were paying $200 per quarter, the 5% assessment was applied in each case, so the new assessment for the singles would be $157.50 and $210 for the single family homes. Now it appears that the Board is considering raising the assessments (HOA fees) for the single family homes by a lessor percentage. IE - Perhaps the singles my get a 4.7 percent increase and the townhome owners may bet a 7.6 percent increase. It's never been done that way and I've dug all through the docs for an answer on this. The single family homes on are state maintained roads while the townhomes are mostly private roads and parking lots. Both sections benefit by common area maintenance (perhaps more so for the townhomes). Both sections get trash removal, they both have access to the trails, tennis courts and swimming pool. We have an offsite professional management company, and of course General liability, Board and Directors D&O etc. Now unless your accounting methods are so exotically accurate that you can tell for sure where the money is going, this really seems unfair and it almost seems like a bad precedent. If the board is comprised primarily one group or another, they could certainly favor lessor increases for there section. It's just one HOA and it's very difficult to account for the money in terms of who is benefiting. Does this sound fair and is this a standard practice? Now I could see this if there was one master association with two sub clusters; but THAT'S NOT the case. What are your thoughts on this?

Mike,

Just because something is being done diffently than it's been done in the past doesn't mean it's being done wrong! It appears to me the townhomes generate more expense to maintain than the single family homes. Besides maint. on the individual units there are also the private roads which are very costly to maintain. Unless your CCRs explicitly say the assessment for both types of housing must be uniform, IMO, the board has the authority to set the assessment for each type of housing as they deem necessary. I think Roger has a good idea in suggesting separate accounting for each. That way the board can more easily justify the assessment, and any increase, set for each.

If the HOA is responsible for maintaining the exterior of the townhomes and the townhome sections has private roads as opposed to the single family section not having these requirements, COMMON SENSE tells me the costs to maintain the townhome sections is higher than that of the single family section. The monthly expenses for each section may not vary that much, but where the higher cost comes into play is in the funding for the reserves. The townhome section would require a much high reserve fund than the single family section.