People who live in the Feather Sound, Florida townhome community Villas of Carillon are trying to understand why their homeowners association board wants a $60,000 special tax.
In early June, the homeowners were sent a notice of the assessment. It explained that in the 20 years of the HOA, its reserves had never been fully funded, leaving the community with a “significant financial challenge moving forward.”
Each family was supposed to pay about $60,000, and on June 20, a vote would be held to decide the exact payment plan.
“A lot of people will lose their homes because they either have to sell or can’t pay their bills. “They’ll have a foreclosure lien put on their house,” an owner told WTSP at the time. “I worry about the community as a whole.”
At a special meeting, however, a huge group of owners showed up to try to persuade the board to put off making a choice.
People in the area need to work together to solve this problem, said Robert Regan. “And condos need to have a totally set aside fund.”
Then, after the vote on June 21, the whole board sent out an email saying they were quitting right away.
What is causing the ridiculously high special assessment fees?
After the 2021 Surfside collapse in Miami, which killed 98 people because of problems with the construction, condo buildings must now be inspected more often, and many condo groups are raising fees to build up a bigger fund for repairs.
Now, changes made by the Florida government require reserve and milestone studies and yearly contributions to reserves. But these rules only apply to buildings with three stories or more. The villa houses are not condos; they are only two stories high.
The HOA board said that the complex would lose its insurance in a few years if it didn’t have enough money saved to pay for new roofs.
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Not everyone thinks that it’s important.
But Patricia Staebler, a certified reserve specialist from Sarasota, says that the time-equivalent cost of a job should have been saved up before the renovation started if the association didn’t want to have to pay any extra fees.
For the next 30 years, Staebler says these studies of the reserves should help the board plan for the next fiscal year and the years after that, taking into account an annual rise. And while the reserves don’t need to be “fully funded,” it is very important that the annual assessments are met with the right amount of money.
“There is a difference between having all of your reserves met and being fully funded for the next fiscal year,” she says. “This is what I’ve done for 15 years.” In all the years I’ve been a reserve expert, I have never seen an organization that is completely self-funded.
At this point, the townhouse owners in the neighborhood hope that delaying the vote will give them more time to learn why the special assessment fee is so high.
“So that we can get more proof, look over all the finances, and figure out how they arrived at these numbers,” Rodeffer said.
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