HOAs With Two Tier Fee System?

I had such high hopes for this years BOD but now they've gone and gotten greedy! Despite having a grandfather clause clearly written into the covenants when they (illegally) declared our neighborhood a mandatory HOA two years ago, they've now decided to reinterpret the covenants to say that anyone that doesn't join the association will be turned over to their attorney for collection efforts (take to court). Of course the need for money to fund our pool is behind all this greed.

Despite the BOD telling the neighborhood that we can't have a two tier fee system (one fee for HOA membership and an extra fee for pool membership) we've decided to run our own campaign to revise the covenants to go back to a two tier system.

I need your help in finding copies of covenants that use a similar two tier fee structure to use as a template for our revision. If you guys/gals could direct me to some neighborhoods and/or neighborhood websites that have this provision in their covenants it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for our help,

Randal

The HOA started out as a voluntary association about 25 years ago. Two years ago, after spending 18 months collecting signatures from ~52% of the neighborhood they declared us to be mandatory despite 6 attorneys telling them you couldn't transition to mandatory without 100% concurrence from the households. The Board decided to go with the 7th attorney that said he'd help them do whatever they wanted as long as he got paid.

But then there's that pesky grandfather clause in the covenants that essentially said mandatory would only apply to those households that transferred by deed after the revised covenants were filed with the register of deed. This is what was told to each household during the signing campaign. The Board is greedy because they're using their attorney to threaten the grandfathered households to try and squeeze whatever money they can out of them even though 220 of the 264 households are electing to join of their own accord.

The pool used to be self sufficient until some idiots formed a swim team which disrupted the income sources for the pool and it then became a money pit for the neighborhood. I disagree with you that a pool raises the property values for all homes. I can find just as many realtors that will tell you the opposite. Bottom line is that it all depends on what the buyer is shopping for. Why would a buyer want a house in a neighborhood where they have to support a pool that they'll never use? Even families with kids don't always opt for a neighborhood with a pool. It's all a balancing act.

If we go back to a two tier system then the pool would not be available to all homeowners, only those that want to use it enough to contribute towards its operating costs.

My understanding is that it is illegal to have different fees for homeowners. We tried that also. I plan to do some digging about work around to that but in your case it seems it would be reasonable to have an HOA fee and a Pool membership fee. If that doesn't pay for the pool then get a collection of signatures and have the dang thing paved over. I do not agree it raises HO value. The richest people have their own pools and generally do not share a common pool - at least not in Texas!