HOA Fees May Rise

After staying flat for at least six years, our HOA fees may rise next year, and somewhat significantly. That's a major takeaway from tonight's HOA board meeting.

Thank a hike in the community's insurance premiums for a lot of that. And thank an examination of our budget that revealed that we don't contribute enough to our reserves for the rest.

The HOA had a reserve study done this summer. It looks at how much money we sock away for things like replacing the roofs of the buildings when they reach the end of their useful lives.  The board had been careful to fund the reserves at the levels recommended in our initial reserve study that our home builder, KB Home, had done when it first established St. Charles Place.

It wasn't enough.

The new reserve study recommends saving more. We could ignore that advice, but we'd expose ourselves to the risk of having to pay for a large repair all at once. Then we'd all get a giant bill, in addition to our regular dues, called an assessment to pay for it.

You can see why the board wants to avoid that possibility.

You might wonder where all the money currently pay goes. Our biggest expense is our water bill, followed by our property insurance, landscape maintenance, and building repair.

We also have coming expenses getting rid of dead trees so that they don't fall onto our homes, and removing those live oak trees that KB Home planted right next to our buildings that will eventually damage the foundations if left in place.

We also look for ways to better secure our community from crime. We've not had a lot of it, but some car break-ins a few weeks ago reignited discussion about possible ways to deter crime.

We plan to have a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy speak at our next meeting about what we can do. Ideas range from paying for patrols to installing security cameras. One board member favors installing a gate, though that doesn't seem popular on the board, and our bylaws would make it hard to get that done even if everyone favored a gate.

Whatever we do will cost money. My money. Your money.  So you should give some thought about what you'd like to see, and how much it's worth it to you to see it. The board wants to hear your thoughts.

The next meeting comes September 24 at the usual location, River of Life Christian Church on Krycul Ave. I'll post reminders as we get closer to the date.