Someone posted pink notices on the dumpster doors asking about the proposed budget for 2022. It noted the increases for garbage pickup and disposal and "property budget," which I will take to mean the property insurance on our buildings, if only because that has suffered the steepest cost hike.
This concerned citizen did not provide a name so that I could ask what he or she meant. I do know that this person has not participated in any of our recent HOA meetings at which discussion of the budget in general and these issues in particular happened in detail. And since meetings for more than a year have happened virtually, any interested homeowner could have attended by undertaking no more effort than making a phone call.
Speaking of phone calls, if you ever have a question about the budget or anything else going on in the community, you can always contact Jennifer Robertson at Excelsior Community Management at either StCharlesPlaceHOAManagement@TampaBay.rr.com or by phone at (813) 349-6552.
In this case, she would tell you something like this:
The proposed budget for next year raises HOA dues to $293 per month. The 15% increase is the largest state law allows. And it won't cover all the higher costs the HOA faces.
That starts with the property insurance. The budget figure for this year was about $92,000. That shot up dramatically when our insurance carrier dropped us and - thanks to the construction defects in our buildings that we hurry to repair - the cheapest policy our insurance agent could find was nearly $500,000 a year.
As the construction project ongoing remedies the problems, we will be able to get better rates for the buildings as they get completed. Still, even when all 55 buildings meet the code that KB Home failed to build them to in the first place, which we hope happens by next spring, the insurance will still cost about $220,000 a year, well more than double what we used to pay.
Law requires the HOA to carry insurance (I asked), so going without it is not possible.
The garbage situation gives us better news. Yes, the HOA cost rises, but each owner's overall cost will go down. Here's how: This year, we paid for Waste Management to pick up the garbage from our dumpsters, but the cost to put it in landfills came out of taxes we paid to Hillsborough County.
The county changed that so that HOAs will pay for both pickup and disposal. But homeowners won't see a garbage disposal charge on their taxes. So the effective cost remains about the same.
But other costs will go up. Hillsborough County raised water rates (the HOA's second largest expense behind insurance) 4%. Tampa Electric will raise electricity rates for the street lights and pool equipment. The property manager proposes in increase in its fee. The HOA board has have resisted that one so it's TBD, but prices for many of our vendors will rise.
When people ask "for what?!" when asking what they get for their HOA fees, the biggest expenses are insurance, water, landscaping, electricity, trash removal and property management. If you have ideas on how to save money, your board members would like to hear them! But most of the fees go to things that the board has no control over.
