HOA fees

I am new to the HOA arena and would appreciate any advice you have for me. I have just started an HO Committee (HOC) in Georgia. Our HOA started assessing the community about 20 months ago - they assessed fees based on actual expenses. The total amount then changes based on actual expenses charged - this is okay but not consistent.

The HOA is one man: the owner & a builder for our community. He does not have a Board or rules other than the covenants. The HOC, which I formed, has no real authority (yet) and is a comunications and informational committee. I am structuring the HOC to eventually be the HOA with a Board & rules and such just no financial authority. Interest is HIGH here to stay involved & to coordinate any problem/questionable situations that arise. So far so good.

One area that I need help on is assessing the amount of dues for our area. I want to do a comparison study of our fees with other HOAs in the area. How or what is the best way to get this information?

To be honest I think our fee is acceptable and reasonable but it is worth doing a study to compare against others to give folks here a level set.

Please advise,
MG

Good luck in your endeavors. Hopefully most of your neighbors will agree in the need and appreciate the value in HOA dues.

The best way I researched other developments was to contact a real estate attorney or property management firm (preferrably one you are already dealing with) and ask for referrals to other developments with the similar parameters such as yours. Then I called 3 or 4 other developments and asked them to do me a favor and mail me a copy of their CC&R's (of course, I told them it was a referral from whomever) and if I could contact them to discuss some questions I had. Once I received a copy of their CC&R's (to help in amending of mine and to see what everyone else is doing); I called the person who sent it to pick their brain and find out about dues. Basically, we were charging almost a 1/3 of what everyone else was charging, etc. It was a real eye-opener and it helped to spread the word to the other owners that we had a great deal!!

My best advice: communicate your findings, research, needs, struggles, etc. as often as possible to your homeowners so they are not left in the dark. Then everyone feels like they helped in the process and understood the need for increased dues. Good luck!!

As the Board President of an 87 unit HOA I have often found comparing assessments between various HOAs to be a frustrating exercise because the services provided by the respective Associations can vary substantially - so you need to be sure you are comparing apples to apples.

I would be sure to include in any budget an operating contigency line item - maybe 5% or so of the operating budget. Most years some expense is going to materialize which you did not expect (or an expected expense or two will come in much higher than anticipated).

I second the advice to shower the owners with information. Our fiscal year is a calendar year. We do a preliminary budget in the fall - send it to all owners with an explanatory memo indicating what items are going up, what items are going down (doesn't happen too often, but it happens), by how much, and why - have a public meeting where owners can come and ask questions, make recommendations, etc. - then finalize the budget after that hearing process. The owners who are interested seem happy with this process - the owners who are not interested cannot complain they did not have an opportunity for input.