HOA fees

[jcwade]

Our HOA/POA raised our annual assessment again this year. It is now $1928 per year.
A lot of us were upset about this. Particularly the ones living on a fixed income.

Then I talked to a friend who lives in a retirement village that he refers to as seizure world. He told me his assessment is $550 per month.

Damn, I feel better but feel worse for my friend.

I have not lived in a place governed by an POA before so I have no point of reference.

Are my fees low or are his the norm?
We both live in SoCal.

[masraum]

Yep, I've heard of some crazy HOA fees.

We looked at houses in the nicer, but still middle class part of Houston. It was weird, you might find a 400-500k home with HOA of $1000-3000/yr. And then on the same block you could see a 40 year old townhouse (that looked like it was 40 years old) with HOA fees from 4000-9000/yr.

And the crazy thing is that the home owners could dissolve the HOA or reduce the fees, but somehow that pretty much never seems to occur.

Our old home was $75/yr. I think it may have been $50 when we moved in. 17 years between moving in and leaving.

[id10t]

Out of curiosity, what does your $2k/year cover OP? My escrow payments for insurance and property taxes on 1.5 rural acres 2k sqft 3/2 aren't much more...

[RNajarian]

Pftttt. Our place out in Oxnard is $640 A MONTH.

. . . and that is not including the additional assessments. (Earthquake, Alien invasion, etc)

The HOA fees were “only” $390 a month in 2018.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by jcwade

Then I talked to a friend who lives in a retirement village that he refers to as seizure world. He told me his assessment is $550 per month.

This could be read either of two ways ...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

Pftttt. Our place out in Oxnard is $640 A MONTH.

. . . and that is not including the additional assessments. (Earthquake, Alien invasion, etc)

The HOA fees were “only” $390 a month in 2018.

I had a friend that lived in Oxnard. I think you're paying extra to smell the chicken guano.

[stomachmonkey]

I’m around $300 per month but have a separate additional EMS fee that will be going up because the Chief had been cooking the books and embezzled like $1.5M from the pension fund so now the station is under funded by a couple million and our guys are at risk of not being paid.

We wrote them a $300k check out of discretionary funds to keep them afloat until the surrounding towns who also rely on them step the F up and help out.

The county, whose problem this really is, so far has not indicated they’ll do a thing.

Sounds strange to say but we get more out of our HOA than we do paying county taxes.

It’s one of the reasons we have no intention of ever paying off our bonds because they are the one thing preventing us from being annexed. No one wants to take on our debt. But as soon as it’s gone they’ll swoop in and then we are ****ed because instead of us paying for our own infrastructure upkeep we will then have to fight for allocation from the three towns that can annex us and the county.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

It’s one of the reasons we have no intention of ever paying off our bonds because they are the one thing preventing us from being annexed. No one wants to take on our debt. But as soon as it’s gone they’ll swoop in and then we are ****ed because instead of us paying for our own infrastructure upkeep we will then have to fight for allocation from the three towns that can annex us and the county.

Wow, that's a really interesting perspective.

If it makes you feel any better, OP, I was browsing a condo/townhouse in the Sherwood Country Club (Lake Sherwood) neighborhood (over by Westlake). I think the HOA was something ridiculous like $2000...per month! I can't imagine being so rich I could afford to spend that kind of money on just HOA fees.

[wdfifteen]

I thought Texas was all about freedom. This thread really opens my eyes. I live in Ohio, I don't pay any fees to anyone and nobody tells me what to do with my property. I put a swimming pool in my front yard and built my garage 3 feet off my property line and the only permits required was for the electric meter. Property tax on 5 acres with a 6000 sq foot house and two out buildings is $4500 a year. I assume there are places with HOAs out here, and I feel sorry for the folks stuck in them.

[GH85Carrera]

My business partner lives in a gated community. The roads are private, so the HOA maintains the roads, they also mow all the yards of the home owners, take care of the flower beds, bushes and trees so it looks really nice. They have a community pool, and any resident can swim there, and they can reserve it for a day for a birthday party or whatever. It is mostly retired residents, and my business partner is one of the younger residents.

The residents are 100% responsible for the maintenance of the house. They are brick houses, but some paint on the soffits and garage doors. It has to look nice.

He likes the area, as he is on the road a lot, and his yard is maintained for him, and it is a secure neighborhood with no random drivers looking for an easy score.

Each resident has a personal code for visitors to come visit.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Wow, that's a really interesting perspective.

The land the community sits on technically spans 4 jurisdictions, 3 cities and some county boundaries.

While the 3 cities are in the county they each have their own regulations so what is now one contiguous community could end up over time changing depending one which jurisdiction you are annexed into.

For example we have some covenants specific to lighting. The community has a low light vibe. Fewer street lights at lower wattages than you normally see to preserve the country feel which some owners complain about. We prohibit Jellyfish lighting since they fit the “permanent holiday light” category. Some residents want them.

Splitting us into 4 jurisdictions could lead to a breakdown in the overall aesthetic which I have to say is currently pretty special.

Nevermind the problem with their PDs now having jurisdictions to restart revenue generation and potentially inconsistent infrastructure because, again, we won’t control our budget allocation.

Happened to a community down the road a couple years back. They woke up one morning and found themselves annexed. Property values took a big hit.

[David]

My annual HOA fee is $85. Yep $85. It hasn't increased since the neighborhood was developed in the 60's.

The development was one of the first for the company and they didn't write the bylaws correctly. In order to change the bylaws or increase the HOA fees, we need over 50% of the owners to vote in favor of the change. Not 50% of the voters but 50% of the owners. Try getting even 50% to vote much less 50% to vote in favor of the same thing.

It's quite a problem since we have to have the state and governor approve a change to the bylaws to correct the vote issue. We almost got it introduced for a vote 2 years ago by the Texas congress but our state representative decided at the last minute that it looked too much like a tax increase and he didn't want to be associated with that.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by David

In order to change the bylaws ......, we need over 50% of the owners to vote in favor of the change. Not 50% of the voters but 50% of the owners. Try getting even 50% to vote much less 50% to vote in favor of the same thing.

We have the same challenge which is the really frustrating thing about this upcoming change over from developer to resident controlled HOA.

Everyone has something they want to ***** about and there are multiple initiatives to hold town halls so they can find out what the candidates "will change and what our vision for the future is"

Well newsflash folks, HOA board can't just unilaterally decide to change bylaws as they see fit.

It doesn't matter what a candidate may promise to change, it ain't happenin.

The job, and the best we can do, is be good stewards.

One thing I've learned from living in an HOA, how many stupid people there are in the world.

And these are successful educated people who can't seem to grasp simple concepts.

As part of my HOA fees I pay for front yard maintenance. We have a large landscaping company that provides the service. It was a spinoff of a commercial landscaper down in Dallas. It's been doing the maintenance 20 years now so grew in proportion to the needs of the community.

Currently they service 4,000+ homes as well as all the green public spaces which includes things like maintaining all the trees on the public property, all the irrigation, fertilizing, everything.

For homeowners its cutting lawns weekly, fall cleanup, spring fertilizing, edging, weeding, trimming shrubs even fixing broken sprinkler heads for free. I have one of the larger lots and it costs me like $10-15 a month. If I were to hire someone to do what they do it's $30 a week.

But we get residents who piss and moan that they did a ****ty job trimming a bush and scream we should be putting the service out to bid and yeah ok, we should make sure we are getting the best price.

The company is owned by a friend of mine, dudes got 30+ trucks, 150 workers, nursery where he grows plants and trees to replace stuff as needed, yard for equipment storage and repairs all on a property bordering the community dedicated solely to us.

So a very vocal group think we should bid it out every year. ???????

No one has that kind of infrastructure just sitting around ready to place into service at the drop of a hat. The capital investment someone would need to make is in the millions. Ain't no one doing that for a 1 year contract. You'd have to give them at minimum 7-10 year contract and they could end up sucking.

No we are not getting white glove service but the place looks great, well kept and maintained and yeah sometimes they **** **** up but it's 4,000 homes and 2 sq miles of green space. It's a production line, no other way to do it efficiently or economically without some screw ups here and there but these people expect perfection.

How in the world did these people make enough money to buy their McMansions but yet you can't seem to grasp the basics of this?

FWIW, we have floated bids a few times just for a gut check. No one, not one single company would touch it. They come out, see the scope of the work and nope right on outa here.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I assume there are places with HOAs out here, and I feel sorry for the folks stuck in them.

Not all HOA's are bad. It seems the size of the community is proportional to how much they do or don't suck.

The smaller the community the higher likelihood of a draconian HOA.

While I throw rocks at them sometimes I'm generally pleased with mine. Yeah we have some stupid rules that maybe made sense 15 years ago but less so today and we will figure out a way to deal with them in due time. But the community looks great. There is tons of stuff that make it a desirable place to live. We have great facilities and quality of life is good.

We get a lot of bang for our buck and the occasional letter about my garbage bins being visible from the street are just the price of admission.

[Rick Lee]

I read horror stories about our HOA on Nextdoor.com, but they have never contacted me in 13 yrs here. I know some of my yard is out of compliance wrt number of trees and bushes, etc. And I recently added a steel security door without submitting an app to the arch. committee. And every house around me has been painted twice in the time we've lived here, never had to paint ours. Somehow the HOA just doesn't know we exist and I'm fine with that.

[KFC911]

^^^^ You won't answer the door and they know you murdered yer neighbor's cactus .

Other than this board, I've never known anyone who has lived within a HOA. They are around here, but folks who live in them aren't from around here .

Different strokes....

[Vipergrün]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

Pftttt. Our place out in Oxnard is $640 A MONTH.

. . . and that is not including the additional assessments. (Earthquake, Alien invasion, etc)

The HOA fees were “only” $390 a month in 2018.

Another SA voted in during the BOD meeting last week.... At least there's some value in the monthly dues, but dwindling. Very poor management and deferred maintenance over the years. I'm looking to bounce out of here :--)

[jcwade]

Originally Posted by id10t

Out of curiosity, what does your $2k/year cover OP?

It covers street maintenance, snow plowing, club house, swimming pool, golf course and equestrian center maintenance. This includes the wages of the 70 or so employees.

Most of these amenities do not incur much expense except for the equestrian center.

It's not too much to spend compared to what others on this board pay, but this is a vacation community of about 2900 people. A lot of us are part timers and/or retired and on fixed incomes.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by masraum

I had a friend that lived in Oxnard. I think you're paying extra to smell the chicken guano.

No I’m lucky, we’re on the Harbor

[A930Rocket]

We are in a townhome and pay $350 a month. They take care of everything including yard maintenance, pine straw twice a year, exterior paint every so many years, etc. There's also a biannual fee of $150.

Edit. It has gone up $25 per year over the past two years. I hope that's not a future trend