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tangy yet delightful posted:Hoping to piggy back on this thread to see if anyone has experience dealing with getting a car gate installed, or having one in your HOA neighborhood? Also similarly any of the camera systems that do the automatic license plate reading poo poo. We have a bunch of morons cheerleading the security camera and gated community movement in my condo neighborhood as well. We are 446 total units, split into 2 separate subdivisions. It's logistically impossible to do what these idiots want and they don't even consider how much it will inflate our already outrageous HOA fees. To sort of answer your question, I attended an open meeting back in August and these items were brought up, with the HOA lawyer present. The subject of cameras, gates and speed bumps/humps came up and the lawyer basically put his hand up and said it would cost in the hundreds of thousands to implement all of it before annual upkeep costs were even considered. Again, we have a much larger development than you but he indicated the costs would be incredibly high.
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Mar 15, 2021 19:49
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I'm on a condo board here and one tactic I have in my back pocket, at all times, supporting an issue or not is show the individual cost. Get a spreadsheet, list each by unit entitlement (aka cost share) and then divide up a given cost appropriately. You'll end up with "Unit 101 will pay $x and 102 $y" and so on. If something is absurdly expensive but being pushed forward by people who've not considered it beyond "good idea" then adding this into the mix can make people consider in more detail. I stress this can be used in both objection and support of a motion. For instance "$50/mo or $300/yr for cameras... No thanks" or "it's only $100/each average for a new boiler that lasts 15 years"
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Mar 15, 2021 21:40
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Some of the stuff we have to skirt around with our attorney panel is something else, a lot of it pool related. Which of course pool season is upon us along with waiting for new CDC guidelines on 4/1. Yeah, gotta imagine dealing with the cost of gates would be no fun. I gotta imagine a lot of times it is one of those be careful what you wish for.
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Mar 17, 2021 01:43
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C-Bangin' it 
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Colostomy Bag posted:Some of the stuff we have to skirt around with our attorney panel is something else, a lot of it pool related. Which of course pool season is upon us along with waiting for new CDC guidelines on 4/1. Oh man. Pool and landscaping. The 2 biggest issues people bitch about on a daily basis here. Our tennis courts, playground, basketball courts and pool have been shut down since last year. Even though NJ and my town have reopened parks, our board won't open the courts or playground as they wait to hear back from the attorney and insurance company. But holy poo poo people are already flipping out about the pool which wouldn't open until mid-May at the earliest anyway.
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Mar 17, 2021 13:07
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Colostomy Bag posted:Yeah, gotta imagine dealing with the cost of gates would be no fun. I gotta imagine a lot of times it is one of those be careful what you wish for.
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Mar 17, 2021 18:56
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tangy yet delightful posted:Hoping to piggy back on this thread to see if anyone has experience dealing with getting a car gate installed, or having one in your HOA neighborhood? just point out that every time someone gets something delivered, from pizza to amazon boxes, they're gonna have to get a call and buzz someone in fantasy: we'll be so much safer now that randos can't just drive into our neighborhood reality: within three months every food delivery joint in 10 miles has the gate code written down in their book of gate codes, and people are encouraging their guests to just follow people through the gate
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Mar 17, 2021 19:10
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Douchebag posted:Oh man. Pool and landscaping. The 2 biggest issues people bitch about on a daily basis here. Our tennis courts, playground, basketball courts and pool have been shut down since last year. Even though NJ and my town have reopened parks, our board won't open the courts or playground as they wait to hear back from the attorney and insurance company. But holy poo poo people are already flipping out about the pool which wouldn't open until mid-May at the earliest anyway. Our pool remained open on a limited basis but it was very labor intensive to keep it that way. We aren't in a super restrictive state to begin with. But christ almighty, we had a resident who was going to go ballistic on a couple of our pool policies and threatened us in various ways if we didn't change them. She got her way based on how another association got blasted.
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Mar 17, 2021 21:35
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Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhh. Now I think I’m in the position of questioning the rest of the boards willingness to conduct business according the covenants. (Someone built something, I’m certain they needed a permit, rest of board “shrug”)
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Apr 5, 2021 04:39
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Our Covenants say anything you build should be permitted if a permit is required. Homeowner put in a front patio with no notice, no plan submitted, and no permit. I got the board to ok asking our lawyers about it and they told us that it’s not up to the board to police whether or not they got a permit. (Ok, fine, whatever) They did tell us that we do have to enforce our 30 day notice before improvements covenant, and there’s a 1 year SOL before we can’t act on it. I’ll be off the board before then yay.
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Apr 17, 2021 00:02
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Another month another board meeting. Pool guidelines...basically no masks required outside, no special cleanings required. Kids stealing large rocks/boulders from golf course. Two neighbors feuding and keeps escalating. Fun never ends.  One thing that was interesting, was the number of leins for dues is down. We were worried last year that this year might be bad with people paying their dues due to covid. We are actually higher % paid than last year, and people with leins have been paying them off because of stimulus money I'm assuming.
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May 5, 2021 18:24
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Sounds like you need some large boulders that are the size of small boulders. Or perhaps the opposite.
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May 5, 2021 18:28
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So, we just received a proposed amendment in the mail from the HOA to increase the membership fees for new members (those purchasing a unit). Currently, it is a $150 membership fee and two months of association fees as a Contribution to Capital. They want to increase it to $450 for the membership fee and 3 months of HOA fees upon closing. This is a non-refundable contribution to capital of course, and their reasoning is the current fee structure has not changed since the association was founded. I am going to attempt to sell in the next 6-10 months, this concerns me greatly as I feel it would be a turn off to someone buying my unit, having to come up with an estimated $1300 extra in fees on top of closing costs. I certainly would not be happy to find out I owe that much extra. Do those of you on HOA boards now or previously have experience with this with your HOA? Am I right or wrong to be concerned? Here is what it would cost to move into my unit should I sell it: Membership Fee: $450 HOA Fee x3: $861 Total: $1311 Any amount not paid at closing would be considered and treated as a lien against the unit. I am going to submit the rejection letter for this, only 10 total rejects are needed and so far I know of at least 5 that are against it (we are all trying to sell or will be trying in the next year).
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Jun 29, 2021 18:37
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Douchebag posted:Am I right or wrong to be concerned? Yes, you are right to be concerned. For many reasons, but certainly as someone who is going to sell, but not just for the obvious reasons. If they are doing this is sounds like the are undercapitalized so any potential buyers with a head on their shoulders are going to scrutinize this. That's probably worse than the big bill just to move in. Sounds like everyone's HOA fees need to be increased or they need to spend less money. Have you looked at their financials recently?
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Jun 29, 2021 18:44
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Motronic posted:Yes, you are right to be concerned. For many reasons, but certainly as someone who is going to sell, but not just for the obvious reasons. If they are doing this is sounds like the are undercapitalized so any potential buyers with a head on their shoulders are going to scrutinize this. That's probably worse than the big bill just to move in. Absolutely, I read through the budget annually, and attend the annual meeting. There is some overspending, but as much as we voice concerns about it, they leave it in the budgets. My HOA has not had a surplus for over a decade. The housing bust in 2008 caused them to bleed money as people just walked away from their units or stopped paying, they couldn't recoup any of the money for such a long time that it caused a long term deficit. There are 446 units in my neighborhood, and we have a reserve of $453,225. This proposed amendment is to boost the reserves which should be around $2M based on the budget meetings I've attended. My HOA fee has increased a handful of times in the 13 years I've been here. It started at $185, it's now $287. It has not increased in 3 years (mostly due to very mild winters and a surplus in the budgeting for snow removal), but I expect if this amendment is rejected, fees are going up substantially.
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Jun 29, 2021 19:03
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Douchebag posted:I expect if this amendment is rejected, fees are going up substantially. They need to. Or the spending needs to be cut substantially. Or some blend of the two. So yeah, the up front cost is a red flag that may cause even the most novice of buyer to dig deeper.
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Jun 29, 2021 19:05
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Motronic posted:They need to. Or the spending needs to be cut substantially. Or some blend of the two. When I bought it cost me $520 to move in, or join the HOA. There is also a $500 move out fee I'd have to pay. At the time, $520 wasn't a big deal. Triple that and people are going to definitely look at this sideways.
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Jun 29, 2021 19:11
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$2 million in reserves is a somewhat fair number...perhaps a tad high. For comparison, our reserves are at about 100% of yearly dues. They are going to have a helluva time getting those to the level they want. I'm amazed people aren't having a stroke at that number since that is indeed sticker shock. I get that a lot, someone will ask me why we have so much reserve in the bank when we could be making things nicer. Not every year is going to be a good year! We were quite worried with the impact of Covid could have early on. Now with that said, it does sound like they are a little goosey with spending money and somewhat shortsighted. The hope of course is the homeowner eats it while trying to sell as just a cost of doing business for getting out of ones home. We have a particularly nasty resident who is behind tens of thousands in dues. Lien after lien has been filed. When he croaks or has to offload his house, either him or the estate is going to have a very nasty surprise when it comes to sell. It's not like the buyer is going to pay those directly when there are other properties around. Do they discuss long-term capital projects or a plan at all? They might feel noble in their intentions not increasing dues much over 13 years, but in reality that screws everyone over more. They should have consistent increases on a near yearly basis and when times are tough (hence the reserve) are able to afford to give residents a break. People will bitch and moan about it (hell I do, and I don't take pleasure when I need to slap my signature down on the letter that goes out). But look at the mess it has created now.
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Jun 30, 2021 13:24
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Yes, they discuss long term capital plans. Every year they target select buildings for roof replacements as well as other big fixes. This year they are doing select driveway repaving (mine was one of them which was nice). Covid shut down most of their planned items for 2020, so nothing really got done which was understandable. As I said, we have a reserve of around $450K. Our yearly dues totals out around $1.5M. So, we should probably be getting annual increases yes but have not for the past few years because they over budgeted for snow removal and 2021 is the first year we really needed any snow removal other than some salt/sand. I expect if the amendment is rejected we will see a decent increase in our monthly dues.
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Jun 30, 2021 14:31
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I am so, so glad that we only have a tiny common area up front for our neighborhood sign to deal with and that’s it. We pay the electrical for the street lamps, pay a landscape company to keep up the front island, and that’s about it. We replaced the original 25yo+ wood sign a couple of years ago with a nice stone one and that has been our only capital expense the entire time I’ve been on the board. Realtors are kind of shocked that our dues are only $50/yr and we discount it to $35 if you pay before April 1st to encourage payment. The town plows our streets. 
devmd01 fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Jun 30, 2021 |
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Jun 30, 2021 14:39
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Heh, last place we lived was like that. $100 a year to maintain the sign and mow a fairly large area around a common pond we had and a few other areas. Or in more accurate terms, a calculated flood basin. The city will plow our streets for free....days after it finished snowing. Not a pleasant experience, so it gets subbed out combined with our maintenance department when they can do it. Snow removal ain't cheap.
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Jun 30, 2021 21:12
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Douchebag posted:I am going to submit the rejection letter for this, only 10 total rejects are needed and so far I know of at least 5 that are against it (we are all trying to sell or will be trying in the next year). AFAIK, an association can't target members in this way (at least in CA). quote:There is some overspending, but as much as we voice concerns about it, they leave it in the budgets. Why do they keep overspending on poo poo? There's a lot of iffy stuff here.
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Jul 7, 2021 04:39
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I owned a home in a fancy gated community from '94 to '02. 70% retired, the rest families with young children (I was in the 2nd group). Joined the HOA to help solve a problem with heating the community pool. Then the president quit and I ended up with the job. HELL ON EARTH. Example? There were defects in the homes so we investigated going after the builders. Residents showed up at the meetings and yelled at us not to do it because they thought it would hurt resale values. The result? We did the suit, got $30k to most of the homeowners (including the screamers) but my place was a few years too old. And everything was like that.
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Jul 25, 2021 06:46
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We currently contract a company to "manage" our Condo association. They take care of dues collection and other minor stuff. My question is, is there a way to hire someone to run the board. The same people have been on the board for nearly a decade. ( My wife and I included) we got stuck being president nearly 2 years ago. Thanks covid. Since we rarely get enough people to hold an annual meeting, we can't elect new officers. At this point, I would rather pay someone to run the board. Is that possible?
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Aug 2, 2021 13:16
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joebuddah posted:We currently contract a company to "manage" our Condo association. They take care of dues collection and other minor stuff. Not in any state I'm aware of; the reality is that condo associations are viewed as quasi-governmental in a weird way, and hence the paid folks reporting to an elected condo board composed of owners is non-negotiable in any state I am aware of.
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Aug 2, 2021 14:39
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This:
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Aug 21, 2021 07:04
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joebuddah posted:Since we rarely get enough people to hold an annual meeting, we can't elect new officers. At this point, I would rather pay someone to run the board. Is that possible? And yeah, while you can get a property management company to handle some issues, the fiduciary duties fall to elected homeowner volunteers. FilthyImp fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Sep 20, 2021 |
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Sep 20, 2021 00:15
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Can a HOA dissolve itself? Curious if it ever happens.
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Sep 20, 2021 12:38
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Private Speech posted:Can a HOA dissolve itself? Curious if it ever happens. The bylaws for my condo association say the co-owners can decide not to rebuild after a catastrophic loss (e.g. tornado, earthquake) and dissolve the association but it'd require a nearly unanimous vote. If there was no loss to the common property and the co-owners wanted to dissolve the association then they'd at least have to figure out how to divvy it up. No idea what other legal issues there would be, ianal.
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Sep 20, 2021 13:39
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Private Speech posted:Can a HOA dissolve itself? Curious if it ever happens. In this area the answer is typically "no", because the HOA was created in order for the developer to get the zoning variance that turned a farm field into a bunch of lovely houses with bad grading and miles of asphalt streets, requiring retention ponds and street maintenance that the municipality didn't want to do, but still wanted to collect property tax money for. So essentially someone would have to figure out how to get the municipality to maintain all that stuff officially. In typical zoning variances I've seen locally the municipality can and will come in and maintain things like storm sewers and retention basins and bill the residents for it if they aren't being maintained properly by the HOA. Many variances also require insurance on these common areas, and can get their own policy and bill the homes in the neighborhood if it's not being properly maintained.
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Sep 20, 2021 16:01
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I see the agenda for this month's condo board meeting "Petition for parking rules changes for $MyStreet". I haven't seen any petition at all. Good thing I showed up, because the board was about to approve it until I interrupted them. It feels like everything is some kind of secret. E: Lol, the board got into a shouting match over zoom. Guy Axlerod fucked around with this message at 02:06 on Oct 14, 2021 |
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Oct 14, 2021 01:14
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The neighborhood that is south of and connects to ours is very large and more of a vinyl village type, large enough that they have a management company doing the work. They just had a vote this weekend to ban rental properties and I hope they succeed. Apparently over 10% of the properties are rentals with most of them held by American homes for rent. One of my coworkers lives across town and their neighborhood has five units all owned by AHR. It’s easy as hell to pick them out because they all look like poo poo. This makes me very, very glad that we immediately enacted a rental ban in our covenants over five years ago when AHR stupidly picked up a property directly across from two HOA officers, lmao.
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Nov 8, 2021 15:14
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My HOA currently charges a initiation fee of 1x the monthly HOA dues. They are proposing to amend that to 6x. They say that this discourages investor purchases, but feels like a FYGM move to me. If they really want to discourage rentals, they should be putting a cap on the number of rentals, or have a no-rental covenant. They could also raise the "lease processing" fee, which is also 1x monthly HOA dues. Put that up to 6x (excepting any continuously rented property) and that's much more damaging to investors looking to rent out.
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Nov 8, 2021 15:31
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