r/HOA

I’m on the board of a HOA in the SF Bay Area. Does anyone know what the standard/average Mechanic Straight Time base rate per hour is for this area?

Thanks so much!

Morning everyone. I'm starting the 2027 budget preparation, and as usual, we are dealing with the quarterly dues question. We have 5 board members, so we vote on what the increase will be, if any, but my concern is separating the "Needs from the Wants". I am interested in how others have dealt with this situation. Also, do you think some things make sense, asking the community to vote on what they would like to spend their money on?

I recently moved into a condo complex managed by a large company. We're renting directly from the unit owner but the HOA is fully aware. When trying to get a resident parking pass, the HOA requires my car to be registered at this address. (Actual car registration, not registering my info with their database). I've rented for years and never had to do this. I don't see it necessary if I'm only planning to live here a year and they have all my car/personal info. I can write a letter explaining and ask the board for approval. Any suggestions on what to include/how to get around this?

I have lived in my condo for approximately 4 years. Never had any problems but the HOA left a note on my door stating that my front door was not in compliance because it has a window. The note states I need to take immediate action to replace the front door with a "6 panel door with no window."

They attached the by-law reference but it makes no sense. It states that following....

"Unit Owner shall not have any right to paint or otherwise decorate or change the appearance of any portion of the exterior of any building without prior written consent of the Association."

This door has probably been there for 30 years. I never changed it, never painted it, never touched it.

I looked through the massive handbook I was given when I moved in and cannot find anything about the Association not allowing windows on doors. Which again, apparently has not been a problem for decades and decades. We checked other units and they have windows on their doors.

Does anyone know if NJ has some grandfathered in rules? I don't feel like it is right for me to pay for something that was not installed by me and there are no rules against it that I can find.

Really appreciate any help

Curious to see what your buildings are paying your management company. Ours gets $1,650/month ($19,800/year). That seems extremely low compared with what I’m finding online, where management fees are often around $100–$150 per unit per month.

My building has 72 units.

How many units are in your building, and what do you pay? Does $1,650/month sound absurdly low for Westchester NY?

Hi hoping someone has an answer for me. i live in Santa Monica. My question is about what happens if 2 of the 3 board members have a conflict of interest regarding a voting issue. i read somewhere that if all 3 attend the meeting to create a voting quorum that the 2 can recuse themselves and the one remaining remember can make the decision? is this true? this is regarding a reimbursement for an HOA responsible mold remediation where they refused teh reimbursement however there is zero question whether this is legal. it isnt. we have endless evidence of why they are responsible to reimburse for the PRV testing. i am writing a demand letter and i am pointing out how two of the 3 board members cant even vote given one has displayed clear bias and breach of fiduciary duty (he based his initial refusal on his own past personal grievance and he articulated this clearly in multiple emails (saying he didnt get a PRV test and went on and on about how its unfair even thou he never asked for one) and the other member is the owner of the unit whose balcony leaked into our unit and it is still possible the HOA could go after him for responsibility so he has a vested interst in keeping costs low. what will happen if i point out both cant vote? can the one remaining memebr make the decison? do i need to read through the CC&Rs (waiting to ge them form property manager should have them today) to see what happens when there are not enough voting parties?

New to board so don't know how to handle this - please share if you have had similar experience. Lately, it seems our irrigation system is blowing up. We just spent $5K in repairs and they came out to do bi-monthly inspections and I see about 25 red flags (broken sprinklers). My suspicion is that the lawn crew are running over them but can't explain why the spike in repairs. I know there are sprinkler protectors you can install but I worry the mowers would just destroy them. Any advice?

Insurance renewal time for our association. Historically we have been insured by State Farm but last year our management company came to us with a seemingly identical policy for slightly cheaper. We passed because the carrier was non-admitted and didn't seem worth the risk. This year we got our State Farm renewal close to what we paid last year but the non-admitted policy is basically half the cost. It is Alliant backed by Lloyds of London which seems like plenty of backing. Our management company has worked with Alliant before and has not had issues processing claims.

Anyone here had issues with non-admitted carriers in general or good/bad experiences with Alliant specifically?