To better understand the issue of HOA cost and fees, you might find the following Las Vegas Review Journal column informative.
The increase of resale fees and costs the was passed at the last board meeting was done for two primary reasons:
- Our existing fees were very low as they had not been changed for at least the past seven years.
- The fees that were passed by the action of the board bring us to being what is comparable in the HOA industry today. Please also note that these fees are regulated by law and we cannot just set them at any level.
Yes, the recent fee schedule was a big increase from the past. Ideally these fees and costs should have been adjusted periodically to reflect current HOA business practices. If this action had been done in the past the current increase would have been much smaller. Part of exercising the fiduciary responsibility of the board is to not kick the can down the road and to not deal with issues. Whether the issue is one dealing with assessments, the restaurant, the rechartering of clubs and committees, etc. this board operates on the belief that by ignoring issues and not dealing with them only create complications and the need to catch up in the future. There were too many years of keeping assessments the same or of then have a small increase and again keeping them the same for a few years. Then we had the smoke and mirrors of having a surplus and refunding it back to the residents as a way to again reduce their assessments. Common sense tells you that due to inflation and increases in costs and labor that you should have increases of 2 to 5% a year. Had past boards done this we would not have needed to carry out the larger increases of the past year. You may feel that we are wrong in what we have done. My view is that the Board has made the tough decisions to take fiduciary responsibility to bring us current with where we need to be. Inaction over the past years has finally caught up with us.
SCA adopted this policy within the year after the law changed. Unfortunately, the homeowners were not notified last year in accordance with the law’s notice requirement. Therefore, the Board re-adopted the document and it is being distributed to the homeowners in accordance with the law.