Assessment Increase
Hi Dennis
I was reading a post from a member titled “Notification of increase in Assessments” posted November 29th, and your response to her. I am wondering if there is any means of requesting and holding a Board accountable to taking the common-sense approach to Assessment increases by approving budgets before determining Assessment levels? The Board in my community has a habit, at least for the three budget cycles I have experienced, of increasing Assessments prior to approving budgets. Often they are a blanket 10% increase without data-based justification to support the decision.
Thanks in advance for the clarity!!
About Post Author
4 Responses
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Rhonda,
This happens in many communities and reflects on a total misunderstanding of the boards duties to the association. The board is granted the power to assess the members to cover all anticipated expenses and provide for funding for reserves. They are not allowed to arbitrarily apply an assessment that is not based on anything. The budget must be developed first, and the assessment be directly based on that approved budget. Arbitrary and random assessment increases that are not based on a detailed budget will never stand up in court if challenged. Associations have also used the trick where they decide how much they want to raise assessment and then develop a budget that will result in that assessment increase. This is also wrong but more difficult to challenge in court.
I’ll be putting forward legislation this session that will require all condominium budget be ratified by vote of the unit owners prior to implementation. This cannot happen in planned communities based on the fact that the association holds title to all the common property. If I continue to see abuses of the budget process in planned communities, I may work on development of legislation to stop that abuse in the future.
Dennis
Very interesting, Dennis! While I have absolutely no desire to go to court over this issue at this point in time, I can see how that could be a path taken in the future if this misrepresentation of the process continues. Would that be an ADRE filing?
I no longer trust that any homeowner will get a fair and unbiased ruling by any ALJ. So no this would not be appropriate via the ADRE process.
Dennis
Amen to that!!!