Proposed 2025 HOA budget distribution and approval unexpectedly conducted Aug 29 in unusual manner
The Civano HOA (Tucson, District 17) has year after year distributed the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year (Jan 1-Dec 31) late. We were lucky if we received the information in early December with less than 30 days for review. This year, some owners, finance committee members and at least one board member convened a meeting August 29th, distributed the proposed 2025 budget. The board subsequently approved that budget. The budget distribution and discussion meeting was mysteriously advertised on the HOA web site as a Town Hall 4 months earlier than expected and completely separate from regularly scheduled member and board meetings posted for alternate months July, September and November. Talk about seeding important issues in to ad hoc meetings to suppress owner discussion! Here in Arizona a large percentage of owners are not even present on site during August but are physically elsewhere living in cooler climates. I never received a copy of the proposed budget by mail or other means of distribution. I’ve requested access to the books and records but am not holding my breath as the board has not yet cooperated in my request for access to the 2023 board audit. I’ve been a member of this homeowners coalition long enough that I shouldn’t be surprised by outrageous conduct, This rag tag group of Town Hall people have also ‘projected” a 10% increase in assessments every year for the next 5 years. I am posting here to add yet another example of what goes on in Arizona planned communities.
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Lora,
Thank you for your post, I hear similar stories across this state and we have to find a way to stop this madness and abuse of power. The projected 10% increase every year is a ploy being pushed by association attorneies and community managers for fund projects that should be processed as a special assessment. The problem is special assessment typically require 67% of the community to approve so rather than do that they take advantage of the fact that state law allows an assessment increase of up to 20% without approval. We absolutely need to change this law. My second priority legislation this session from my last coalition wide communication is a budget ratification proposal.
Please write your direct legislative representatives Cory Mcgarr’s and Rachel Jones’ office and ask them to help their constituents from this abuse of power by sponsoring my proposal. I’ve already contacted both of them and will be working on sponsorship possibilities after the election. It would also help if you and everyone in your community actually voted for both of them and helped to get them elected. As their constituents they need to hear from you directly. It is up to all of you to make HOA a priority for your legislators if you ever hope for any change.
Dennis
I have to respectfully disagree with your post regarding the 20% “cap” in the state’s statutes for HOA’s. It says the CCR’s limits will prevail if lower than the statue. Most CCRs use the CPI index determined end of October.
A. Unless limitations in the community documents would result in a lower limit for the assessment, the association shall not impose a regular assessment that is more than twenty percent greater than the immediately preceding fiscal year’s assessment without the approval of the majority of the members of the association.
Darlene,
Read your Cc&Rs again, most of them talk about a maximum assessment that increases by either the CPI or 5% each year automatically. There is a difference between the actual assessment and the maximum assessment that is calculated this way. Most associations will never exceed the annually escalated maximum assessment leaving only the 20% limit to apply.
Dennis
Dennis
Thank you for explaining the 10% ploy to evade the 67% requirement. I wrote to Mr. McGarr and Ms. Jones’ emails about nearly every bill last session. We also had Justine Wadsack sponsor the bill to prevent HOAs from taking over public streets. Unfortunately we lost Ms. Wadsack in the primaries. I will continue to email McGarr and Jones and spread the word among neighbors.
Your documents should make this clear. Regular Annual Assessments up to your document’s specified limits (usually less than 20%) can be approved by the board. Any other assessments would have to follow the rules in your documents for
Special Assessments that are subject to the approval of 67% of all the members. This is usually done when there is a large expenditure and reserves are not sufficient to handle it without risking being seriously underfunded for future capital repairs too,
Darlene
This is all true but while I have no idea what your documents say, all I can do is replay based on the hundreds of CC&R’s that I read from across the state and very few would actually limit any assessment at all.
Dennis