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Familiar with VA's POA? It requires HOAs to disclose any existing
violations to buyers. I got a disclosure packet today and the
association said it was "not aware" of any violations. I can understand
that the association may not want to go out and visit the property to
determine if any violations exist, but that is kind of the point, is not
it?
Interestingly enough this HOA is currently funding a campaign to
prevent the installation of power lines on an adjacent easement. I've
some doubts about funding such a campaign to begin with using
assessments, but even getting past that the HOA has another real
problem. They commissioned a study that showed how neighborhood
property values would be affected. The neighborhood was divided into
pink (6-12% loss of value) and orange (0-6% loss of value) zones. In
addition the majority of the neighborhood existed outside of both pink
and orange zones.
The end result of this is that one could argue the association should
be funding this campaign as a "limited common expense" and only billing
the affected neighbors, at least from the point where the report was
presented to the association. The term "limited common expense" was
defined in the associations CC&Rs, possibly because the association is
combined of town homes and single family homes with separate
assessments.
Finally I take issue with how the board is reporting the expenses
related to this campaign. They have their budget broken out into
sections labelled Administration, Committe Functions, Operations,
Swimming Pool and Communications. They distribute a nice pie chart to
show how the monthly assessment amount is spent. What they do not do is
show that the largest component of the budget, Administration, is
covering the campaign and in fact accounted for half of the
administration budget last year and at least a third of it this year.
Adding close to $10/month or 20% on to the assessments.
I'd like to be clear that I'm in alignment with the HOA's
position. I think a responsible HOA makes certain that members are
informed about the situation, but I think that when it comes to
spending other peoples' money for a cause like this, it is better left
to a separate group chartered for that purpose and funded by
volunteers.
My overall impression of the association is very positive. They appear
to be well managed, the reserves could be better, but they aren't bad,
and the issue at hand has certainly gotten people involved in the
association.
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New House, New HOA, New Issues
