HOA provided lawn service issue..

I live in a community in Texas that contains both gated and non gated sections. As part of the bylaws, and in order for both gated and non gated residents to pay the same in HOA dues, the Association pays a landscaper to mow the front lawns of all non gated residents. However, each resident is still responsible for the maintenance of their back yard, and all flower beds, including the front yard.

The problem is that the HOA is paying $7.35/lawn, and a $7 cut is what you get. There have been numerous complaints by several residents regarding the quality of the service, and now 30 residents out of 318 in the non gated sections have discontinued the use of the lawn service. However, we are all expected to continue paying the same in HOA dues, while the HOA is putting the money for each lawn that it is not having to pay the landscaper to mow back in to the HOA. According to my research, the HOA is spending $301.35/year per lawn on mowing. Our HOA dues are $877/year, so the non gated residents could have their dues lowered to approx. $576/year by doing away with the lawn service. It's my understanding that in order to do away with the service, it would require a vote by the entire community, including the gated sections.

However, I cannot get the BOD to address this issue. The President of the board lives in the gated section, and has made it clear that he has his own agenda. When I questioned him about doing away with the lawn service, he stated that if this was done, then the non gated residents would no longer be able to use the gates as a way to enter and exit the subdivision. This would leave the non gated residents with only one entrance/exit to the community. The bylaws state the following: "The purpose of the Front Lawn Service is to provide an additional service to the Owners in Ungated Sections due to the fact that the Association bears no expenses for gate maintenance in the Ungated Sections". Reading this, I see no connection between the lawn service and the ability of the non gated residents to continue using the gates to enter and exit the community.

My question is this: How do I go about getting the Board to address this issue? I feel very certain that if the non gated residents were told that they would have their dues lowered by $300/year, and they would have control over their own lawn, that getting a majority of them to vote to do away with it would be no problem. The issue with the Board seems to be that they do not want to lose out on keeping the money from the residents that are not using the service and spending it on other things. The more people that cancel the service, the more money for them.

Thanks.

Bryan

GeraldT1,

Thanks for the response and information.

The landscaper is contracted to mow each lawn 41 times a year.

41x7.35=$301.35/per lawn, per year. That equates to over $95K in a year being spent on something that most people don't want.

I understand your comparison to the snow removal service, however, the difference is that the lawn service is not offered to the gated residents, therefore, is not considered an amenity. That's where I see the difference with the pool, which is offered to all residents. The lawn is only provided as a means to offset not having gates. My problem with the Board is that they refuse to even put this out for a vote by the residents. If the residents vote against doing away with it, then it's no longer an issue to me. I've spoken to many residents (roughly 50 out of 318) at this time who are more than willing to give up the lawn service. As a matter of fact, I haven't spoken to a single resident yet that would vote against it if it meant saving that much in hoa dues.

Again, this wouldn't be an near the issue if it wasn't for the fact that the lawn service does such a horrible job (they use commercial mowers which scalp and rip up the grass), in addition to the fact that each resident still has to either own lawn equipment to do their backyard, or pay a landscaper to do it for them. And as for switching landscapers, we are on our 3rd in 2 1/2 years. In order for the landscaper to be able to do it for that price, they have to do it quick, which means we ultimately pay the price with horrible looking front yards.

Bryan

If you cannot change the documents to get rid of the front lawn mowing, I would ask the board to put the landscaping company on notice (meaning they have 30 days to improve). If the quality of the mowing isn't improved, then bid for a new company and let this one go.