lawn mowing

All of Southern Walk get OpenBand, its part of the part and parcel of living in Southern Walk. The landscaping services are the same.


Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Interesting. I don't know why all of broadlands doesn't just have the same services available to them. I'd think it all should be on an opt out basis. Openband, the lawn mowing, etc. (I do understand the that broadlands north didn't get all the infrastructure for the openband service but still. It is possible to outfit all the homes with the service if they wanted to)

It is confusing having these 2 HOA's to write checks to that all go to the same company. You'd think they could figure out a way to tally the total amount and make you pay one check. Oh well

My 2 cents

 

There is all of this talk of $600-700 a month for lawn care services, but in fact isn't it a lot lower? I haven't looked in awhile but my recollection is that the HOA fee for regular single family homes was only $15-20 cheaper per month than for Courtyard homes. The HOA fee of $88 for Courtyard homes includes not only the lawn service, but the trash, recycling, plowing (as Courtyard homes are mostly on streets that will never be VDOT controlled) and the common areas (park areas, tennis courts, pools, etc.) Most of those services are also paid for by regular SFA residents.

Does anyone have the current difference between the normal SFH assessment and the Courtyard assessments. That</u> is the number to debate if you don't like the lawn services, not the full HOA fee.

 

jtarnow,

This is where the numbers come from:

So, this year we paid about $275 for the services. Next year, we will pay $420. Still pretty reasonable, IMO. Let's split the difference for 2006 and say the fee goes up by another</u> $25. Now we will pay $720 a year. This represents a 42% increase from 2005 to 2006, and a 160% increase over the 2-year period from 2004 to 2006. Check my math if you want, but IMO this just isn't right.

Again, why should the entire community have to suffer a 160% increase in lawn fees, when we could each independently contract for a more competitive</u> rate?

 

The Broadlands HOA had nothing to do with setting up the lawn mowing of the courtyard type homes, we just inherited it from the developer and builders, who marketed these homes as 'maintenance free'. You buy into that, you're going to have to pay the fee. Opt-ing out would actually cost more as they would have to maintain lists of who is, and who is not paying for this or that. That is why come summer next year, there will be a meeting to lay out the issue, and get some ideas of what those owners think.

FWIW ... I have neighbors who are paying $30 a cut for their lawn, twice or three times a month. With the cost of aeration an additional $50.00. Fertilizing is also additional. Figure two cuts a month from March thru November, thats $540. Add in aeration and fertilization, that's about $125. They do their own mulching. So they pay maybe $665 for 9 months of lawn work.

On the two HOAs. The two HOAs (Broadlands and Southern Walk) are entirely different entities. One takes care of the Southern Walk OpenBand contract, the other takes care of EVERYTHING else in the community.

While they may use the same management company to collect fees, and the developer members of each HOA may be the same, that is the only commonality between them. The Broadlands HOA has no say in the way the Southern Walk HOA does things.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

You can see next year's in December's Broadlands newsletter. This years single family dues are $54.00.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Please remember, any increase for 2006 will not only be for lawn services, we'll also be getting additional common areas from the developer which will be applied to all homeowners in Broadlands. While no one likes an increase, the fee was held artificially low by the developer from 1999 to 2003. There were no increases at that time, yet the HOA was taking on more and more infrastructure that required the building of reserve monies for repair/replacement. The developer was making up the difference. While this helped the builders sell homes (see how low the HOA fees are), this actually hurt the HOA in the long run, as the HOA will have to make up short falls after the developer leaves.

Right now the developer is picking up $50,000 in landscaping costs for the area of Claiborne from Waxpool south. This may will not be available in the future. Hopefully the additional houses and townhomes being built will help make up some of the costs, but have no doubts that HOA fees will rise in 2006 due to common landscaping costs and infrastructure reserve requirements if nothing else.

Also remember, that HOA fees go to help provide seed money for many of the community functions that are sponsored by HOA committees.





Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

So maybe it's not that much cheaper than what we will pay in 2006. It's still a lot of money for people who would rather spend $0 to do it themselves. I keep going back to my main point: give homeowners the choice to pay for these services if they so choose and don't impose them on everyone.

 

A few numbers to keep things in perspective:
The cost for the landscaping contract portion of the HOA fees for Courtyard Homes for next year is $35/mo. ($420/yr). If the service contract remains the same, it is expected to rise to around $50/mo ($600/yr) for 2006. In comparison, let's say you hired a contractor to just mow your lawn. A good deal would be $25/mow. A conservative guess is 30 mows/yr. That equals $750/yr. If you consider the mulching, fertilizing, seeding and aeration you're also getting, it seems to me to be quite a deal! If I could, I'd sign up for this in a minute! My concern isn't necessarily just the cost, I don't like the HOA being in charge of individual properties maintenance.

That being said, I am always concerned about increases in HOA fees. We are looking into what is required by law for the HOA to provide as services for the Courtyard Homes, and what we can legally change.
As mentioned, the HOA will set up a meeting with Courtyard residents to decide what they would like to see continued.

There are other costs associated with the Courtyard Homes that raise their fees above that of other single family homes. They are private streets which has another monthly contribution because the HOA is responsible for their maintenance.

I disagree with Neilz's assessment why the HOA fees are rising as much as they are now. He bought into Van Metre's argument that TaerraBrook was keeping them too low. In fact, Van Metre has made a number of assertions about TerraBrook that I simply do not believe.
I;m basing my beliefs on having worked with TerraBrook and Van Metre for a number of years. I believe that I know which one was most trustworthy.

The primary reason for the increase in the HOA fees throughout Broadlands was the unloading of almost all the common area expenses on the HOA this year and including services to those areas that the HOA does not need to have continued. TerraBrook had a plan of turning over the common areas on a schedule that the HOA could reasonably absorb. They had been doing this the past five years and I believe they would have continued that policy.
Secondarily, the turnover of the Nature Center 3 years earlier than expected was a big expense. Van Metre immediately turned it over to the HOA so they would no longer have to pay for it.

 

Maybe this should be a separate topic but since VM turned over the nature center to the HOA, what does this mean for the nature center? Has its purpose or funtionality changed?

 

This is my first time posting on this website. I was just complaining to my neighbor about the HOA increase, and she pointed me here to this forum.

I'm glad to hear that other neighbors within the Southern Walk/Courtyard community are against the rate increases. At first, my husband and I were attracted to the idea of someone else mowing our grass. But we've noticed that (especially this year) our yard maintenance has looked horrible. In the past, they have burnt our grass with fertilizer, not to mention surrounding flowers. And every year they continue to put down the shredded mulch on top of my wood chips. Causing me to scoup out the mulch they put down and relay my own. At this point, I wouldn't mind mowing my own yard, if it meant that my yard will look better and there would be cheaper HOA rates.

 

While that may be so, still there were no increases in the HOA fees from '99 to '03. That may have helped to sell houses, but it did not help the HOA finances. This has occurred in the past to other HOAs, and it will happen in the future.


Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

Nothing has been determined about it yet. We had a meeting in November for suggestions, and we're putting together some ideas. Look for additional information in January or February.



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

This is the second community I've lived in as the developer was turning over to the homeowners. The rates go up. I've also been told this by real estate agents when looking at home when the developments were getting close to done. THe developers can "take a loss" on the HOA, write it off, and sell more houses do to low rates. I haven't looked at all the books for terrabrook and van metre, but they wouldn't be unique if they took this approach. We've also had a lot of stuff turned over to the HOA this year, right? So we're maintaining alot of ground we didn't maintain before. Plus, costs go up. Those years where there were a lot of new homes, but not alot of common ground turned over made the HOA budget look good. The bill is coming due now.
Cliff is right, though, that we can look at some things that may not receive the same priority from the HOA that they did from the builder (BTW, the initial cost on perennials is roughly 2-3x the cost of annuals, and they only last years, not indefinately). And nobody has talked about the capital improvements fund we need to build and maintain for when something serious needs doing.

 

Without trying to scan 2 phone books full of HOA docs, does anyone know if there is a cap to the amount of increase the HOA fees can rise from year to year? Most HOAs put the limit of an annual increase at 10%.

 

Dutchml-
The "common area" expense, the expense shared by all owners, cannot go up more than 10% in a year.