Q: What is the Special Assessment?
A: If you are a homeowner you should have received a letter in the mail informing you that you must pay a special assessment to the Home Owner’s Association for $174.
Q: Why are we paying another assessment?
A: The HOA was continually denied their budget by the Metro District Board because it was running twice as high as the last year’s budget. After four mediations, the HOA refused to reduce their budget request. So, it is now looking to homeowners to foot the bill.
Q: Why is the assessment so high?
A: We wonder the same thing. Based on past budgets, it should cost approximately $54 a homeowner to fund covenant enforcement. This assessment fee would give the HOA a budget of $800,000. It should be noted that this is only for the remaining five months of the year.
Q: Why are people refusing to pay the assessment?
A: For several reasons: it’s much too high, it was not approved by HOA delegates, and the HOA has severe issues with budget disclosure and dishonest practices. The president was recently convicted on four counts of felony theft, the Board has refused to release its expenditures from last year and there have been numerous allegations of voter fraud in the recent elections.
Q: What will happen if I refuse to pay the assessment?
A: Firstly, you will send a strong message to the HOA that they cannot continue operating without the consent of the community.
The legal ramifications are:
- You have 30 days after the due date to pay, until then you are not charged any additional amount.
- After 30 days your assessment is declared “late,” and you are assessed an additional $10 fee
- After 60 days your account is considered “delinquent” and you are assessed an additonal $25.
The HOA can then turn this over to their attorneys where they can take either or both actions:
* send it to a collection agency
* place a lien on your house
We are working with attorneys to stop or overturn the assessment. If it is, you will not be penalized for your refusal to pay. Also, the more of us that stand together, the less likely the HOA will take action against you or that their actions will stand in the end.
We encourage people to at least put off paying the assessment until the end of August and attend a public demonstration on August 26th at the HOA Meeting demanding that the assessment be dropped.
September 25, 2009 at 6:39 am
Per state law, late fees cannot be forced upon homeowners if they request it be waived. Also, we only need a quorum, per our by-laws of 10% of homeowners to vote and do whatever needs to be done. This includes putting the management of the HOA into the hands of professionals, not crooks.
This also means getting rid of the District Delegates and just letting each homeowner vote on what should and shouldn’t be done within the confines of GVR.