Small California HOA Needs Independent opinion

If everyone's relatively new, does anyone know where past board meeting minutes, budgets, and contracts are kept? Find them, divide up the paperwork - perhaps one year of paperwork for everyone - and start reading to identify questions that need answers and what the spending patterns have been. What's increased the most over the past five years and why? Could be insurance because that's increased for HOAs everywhere, so you might not be able to decrease that. Even so, it doesn't hurt to shop around and you can talk to your current agent to see where you could save - maybe you need a higher deductible.

Regarding utilities, Bryon talked about the phone bill, which is a start, so keep going with the rest of the utilities. For example, if the water and sewer bill reflects one line that serves the building, talk to a plumber about checking the lines to see if there are leaks that need to be addressed. Each homeowner can also do this for his/her unit to see where they could reduce usage. I'm on the budget plan for my townhome (all electric) where I pay a fixed rate for part of the year and then a balloon payment (sometimes a credit) at the end of the period. Your electricity costs may seem reasonable to you (whatever that means), but you might benefit from an energy audit to see where you can save money (and you should be trying to save as many dimes as possible - it can add up). In fact, ask about a budget plan for all the utilities.

For trash, do you have to get the service through the city or make arrangements with an independent company? If it's the latter, get some estimates. Also see if there's a recycling component - that can help reduce the amount of trash that gets picked up and you'll save the planet at the same time!

You can do several things at once if everyone divides the work, so in addition to the assessment increase (can't avoid it, sorry), get the past due bills current ast soon as possible. Start with insurance and utilities if necessary, followed by building repairs (because you don't want to worry about liens being filed against you.) Next up, a serious conversation with the management company - in fact, their contract is the first thing I'd look at. You may be paying for services you don't use, and whatever they've been doing doesn't sound efficient if your checking account has less than $1000 and past due bills of $1,619. There are five owners, so a bookkeeper may be more affordable to keep track of the finances.

I know everyone's working, but since it appears no one's kept track of what the property manager has done or not (otherwise you wouldn't be in this situation), everyone can take on something. Read your documents to see what the Association is supposed to pay for and you can go from there. One person reviews the utilities, someone else reconciles the bank account (get Quicken books or set up a spreadsheet that can do it automatically once you download the numbers), etc. When you divide the work, you get it done quicker. Consider you'd be doing all this yourself if you lived in a detatched single family home.

An audit may be helpful, but I don't know if you have the money to hire a professional right now. Between the five of you, you might be able to do this yourselves and once you get on financial solid ground, you can look into getting someone to look at the books once a year. After that, address the reserve fund - there are lots and lots of older conversations on this website about that and at least one person has posted how his community did their own reserve study. Bring your questions back to this conversation to get current information.

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Posted By JD5 on 07/12/2026, 2:41 AM

We are a 5-unit condominium HOA in Burbank, California, and we'd appreciate an independent opinion from experienced HOA board members, property managers, or HOA CPAs.Our Situation5 residential unitsBudget has reportedly not been updated since 2005Current HOA dues: $320/month per unitManagement company is recommending an immediate 25% dues increaseHOA has no reserve fundsHOA checking account has approximately $883HOA has approximately $1,619 in past-due bills2026 Financial Summary (First 6 Months)IncomeHOA dues collected: $9,600ExpensesInsurance: $2,152Water & Sewer: $1,792Landscaping: $1,350Financial Management: $1,350Telephone & Communications: $1,324Trash: $1,261Building Repairs: $875Electricity: $554Licenses/Permits: $467Net operating loss: -$3,474 for six months.What We've LearnedWe reviewed many of the invoices ourselves.TelephoneThe HOA pays approximately $220/month to AT&T for a legacy business telephone line supposedly enabling contact to fire department in case of alarms and fire We believe it may be connected to the fire alarm system, but we don't know whether:it is still required,or whether a modern cellular communicator would reduce costs.UtilitiesThe HOA pays approximately:$300/month for water & sewer$90/month for electricityElectricity appears reasonable.The property has:no pool,only a small landscaped area,one shared dumpster.TrashThe HOA pays for one commercial dumpster, which appears appropriate for the property.Our Questions1. Do these expenses look reasonable for a 5-unit California HOA?2. Which expenses would you investigate first?3. Would you recommend an independent HOA CPA, reserve consultant, or another professional before approving a permanent dues increase?4. Is a 25% dues increase reasonable based on these numbers, or would you first investigate opportunities to reduce recurring expenses?5. If you were serving on this HOA board, what would your first three priorities be?
We are all volunteers with full-time jobs. We are not looking for someone to solve every problem for us, but rather to help us identify whether there are obvious opportunities to improve the HOA's financial position before asking homeowners to pay substantially higher dues.