Mostly the neighbors who don’t pay their dues or needlessly hold up needed improvements.
Our HOA board does a great job, they are volunteers who live in the neighborhood. Our dues used to be $100 a year, plus $150 if you wanted to use the pool. Then the pool needed to be replaced (it was 45 years old) and we didn’t have the money for it, so we changed the dues to $250 and everyone gets access to the pool. That still didn’t raise enough money, so they tried to get everyone to agree to a one-time assessment of $1000 but too many people complained. So they’ve now raised the dues to $350, likely going up to $450 soon.
The good thing about the higher dues is we will now be able to afford a lawyer to go after the 10% of the homes that aren’t paying their dues. And maybe even force the people who are hoarding cars in their yards to have to move them.
Edit to add from a follow up comment;
The change to the dues required a change to the bylaws, which required 100% participation in voting, and required 60% approval. The change passed with over 85% approval. Most HOA dues in our area are $600 - $1000 per year, and many of those don’t have a pool. There are also many places around that don’t have an HOA. The HOA was created at the same time the pool went in, anyone already living in the neighborhood who didn’t want to use the pool didn’t have to join the HOA, we still have a few ‘grandfathered’ homes and I have no issue with them, it’s the people who moved into the neighborhood knowing there’s an HOA and a pool and refuse to pay their share.
Wait so for the folks that didn’t care about the pool, their dues went up 3.5x so far, soon to be 4.5x, for something they didn’t want or use, and you’re surprised they’re not paying? That’s some entitlement right there…
If you don’t want to pay for a pool then don’t move into a neighbor that has a pool. If you don’t want to have an HOA, don’t move somewhere that has one. If you don’t like how the HOA is run, volunteer to help run it.
What you don’t do is hold up the rest of the neighborhood that actually wants to take care of things properly.
The change to the dues required a change to the bylaws, which required 100% participation in voting, and required 60% approval. The change passed with over 85% approval. Most HOA dues in our area are $600 - $1000 per year, and many of those don’t have a pool. There are also many places around that don’t have an HOA.
It sounds like they moved into a neighborhood with an HOA that had an opt in pool and a two tier fee based on usage, and y’all changed that after the fact and are holding the smaller percent who don’t care about the pool hostage. This is part of why no one likes HOAs.
Prior to the pool retrofit could folks still move in and choose whether or not to pay for/use the pool?
Them breathing all my air.
Whats an HOA?
I believe it is what Americans call what might be called an Owners Corporation / Body Corporate / Apartment Owners Association / Management Company in other parts of the English-speaking world.
Home owner’s association; when you buy a house and it is part of a HOA, you have to sign a contract to join the HOA as a requirement of buying, which means you have to pay dues and abide by the rules of the organization, and you have to require the next buyer to also join in order to sell your house.
Could you elaborate? Does HOA mean something different in other countries?
Had an tenant whose son was reportedly causing havoc around the complex. It was a case of my tenant (and me, as her landlord) vs the HOA and some statements that others had provided. My tenant denied the claims when I spoke to her about them. No evidence was given. I got pulled into a sham of a disciplinary meeting (which my tenant was not allowed to attend) and fined for not doing enough to control my tenant.
This wonderful service for $370/ month (and increasing each year).
It’s a duplex so the HOA only has two homes in it. The fees were designed to cover the water bill, master insurance policy, and slowly collect enough money to replace the roof every decade or two.
Unfortunately the other unit has no interest in even basic maintenance so unless we take care of everything the place slowly just falls apart. We’ve had to fight with them over every tiny repair from siding damage to a literal hole in the roof that a squirrel chewed out. They keep running an Airbnb with loud guests who throw parties despite it being against the HOA and unless we pay for our own lawyer there’s no way to actually enact the fines and stuff as laid out in the HOA rules.
We’re selling and never buying in a small HOA ever again
