Special Assessment Letter from HOA

Oh ok, thanks for the clarification. Sorry I misunderstood. Glad privileges are being enforced with the pool card scanning. We are happy to chip in for the repairs needed as we did notice quite a bit of plowing damage and happy for the repairs. Sorry though to hear about all the bad debt. What a shame and still a pretty steep amount. Thanks again for all that you and the HOA board do to keep this a great place to live!

 

I'm interested in this too.

 

Looks like things are about right. We've got a healthy amount of folks complaining about the lack of service and another group complaining about having too much service. Looks like the sweet spot was hit dead on.

 

There is not a plow company out there that does anything other then man hours worked. Most of them have a minimum charge each year to have the supplies and men on staff and a min hours they will bill for any snow. The company we use has no minimums at all so it is a straight material used and man hour worked charges.
The reason that our company did so many passes through the community was actually to cut down on the amount of damage that is done to sidewalks, curbs and landscaping. The amount of "other" damage that occurred on HOA maintained streets was zero compared to that of VDOT streets. This was because the plow company was able to see where the road was vs the sidewalks because of the he was making more frequent trips. Ted the plow company owner was very conscience of what this was costing the HOA and therefore there were some places that he decided with the HOA just not to do (ie sidewalk areas that VDOT continued to plow over after they were cleared).

Staci

 

I had heard that those of us who live on streets that are still controlled by Van Metre and not the HOA would be charged a pro-rated amount for the special assessment. Is that the case and if yes, how would I find out the amount I owe?

 

Really!? Then maybe that's why Broadlands North townhouses didn't get plowed out for days! And when they finally came around they did a less than stellar job.

 

True, except people tend to realize they maybe don't need quite as much in the way of services as they originally thought when you tell them how much extra it will cost. Like how everybody complains about how much they pay in taxes yet refuse to accept any small cutback in government-funded programs

 

This makes a lot of sense. Thanks for explaining. There definitely was very little in the way of damage in our neck of the woods other than a few patch of grass torn up.

Again, not complaining. The plow company did a fantastic job and all of their employees were wonderful and courteous. Just asking questions, but the explanation of emergency vehicle access and damage prevention are certainly reasonable.

I'm glad Broadlands isn't facing the issues many communities out west are, with massive portions of neighborhoods in foreclosure. I can't imagine what their special assessments are like!

 

That is correct. The only street this would apply to is Thornblade Circle. It is a private street that is currently owned by Van Metre that will be turned over to the HOA. Residents there should only receive the $38 bill.

 

Quite frankly, I do not believe this statement. I toured all of our private streets after each storm, and at NO TIME did I see one that was not done "for days."
There may have been a delay between first, second, and third plowings, but it wasn't "days" in between.

 

The bad debt portion of the assessment, $54,000 is an accumulation over the past two years. It is actually surprisingly small compared to many other large associations.

 

As a comparison, Belmont Country Club levied a $200 assessment per home just for the snow removal deficit.

 

I am not sure where you heard this information - there is some truth to it but not totally. If you live on a street that is still under Van Metre control but it will be a VDOT street you pay the $38 dollars as that is paid by all residents. However if you live on Thornblade circle - which has the Single family private street designation - you will only pay the $38 as Van Metre did your plowing not the HOA contractor thus you will not have the additional snow removal amount added.
For every homeowner the exact amount that is owed for your property will come on the coupon that was mailed on Monday.

Staci

Staci

 

I think the board handled this poorly. Special Assessments are bad for property values and home sales and should be avoided if at all possible. Special Assessments signal potential buyers that the community is not managing its finances well. It makes the potential buyer think there is a risk that they will be hit with a S.A. again in the future for some unknown and possibly large amount. This can scare people away or make them demand lower prices.

The board should instead have taking money from the reserves to make up the difference then raised HOA fees for next year to replenish the reserves. This makes the finance look much more stable (less risk) and it also spreads the payments out over a year instead of hitting everyone with one big bill.

 

Thanks for sharing that info. It's great to have points of comparison. Considering that only accounts for their snow removal, it gives me confidence in how efficiently our HOA is being run compared to other communities and how accurate the budgeting process is.

 

That was what the HOA board originally thought and what we had planned to do. The problem with that is once you raise people's rates for a 1 once in a lifetime record snowfall it is much harder for future boards to reduce the amount they collect and easier to spend money that may not need to be spent since they just have it. Additionally we did a lot of research on this and a 1 time fee like this a once a century storm looks much better to potential buyers and mortgage companies then a huge raise in rates which raises other red flags. If we had done as you suggested for 2011 homeowner rates would have gone up a min of $3.25/month for SF and $12.50/ month for TH and SF private streets and that is assuming there would be no other increases to any other line item.
We did not jump into this lightly and have spent most of the 1st 6 months of the year trying to figure out the best way to cover the expenses with the least impact on all homeowners.

Staci

 

The letter does say "In addition, bad debt expenses related to delinquent accounts have also exceeded budget expectations".

Last sentence in the first paragraph.

 

Your correct my bad - I can see where the confusion was.

Staci