We had an excellent HOA meeting last night. Despite the low turnout, we were able to get a great deal accomplished in a short amount of time.
Lee Mason gave an excellent presentation on the types of things that his company can do for us. Essentially, they have the resources to manage the daily administration of the HOA in accordance with our covenants and at the direction of our Board.
That means that CAM will send out official correspondence on behalf of the HOA, manage the finances and records of the Association, and enforce the collection of dues and the violations of the covenants.
All of that will be done for $400 a month and covers all 68 homes in the HOA. The only "additional" fees are $0.25 per page for photocopying and the fact that our HOA will have to pay upfront court costs for filing judgements against those who refuse to pay. Those costs are about $100 per filing and will be reimbursed to the HOA once the monies are collected.
After Mr. Mason spoke and left the clubhouse, those folks who were present had a 30 minute discussion on his proposal and our thoughts on hiring him and his company to manage us. There was overwhelming support for hiring Mr. Mason. There was also overwhelming support for seeking the collection of past unpaid dues. Mr. Mason had informed the HOA that he can collect up to 4 years of past dues.
The Board is currently reviewing Mr. Mason's draft agreement, which can be seen here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2-fYTPxyhVazlWV1pjdXdxYVE/edit?usp=sharing
I fully expect that the Board will decide to enter into a contract with Mr. Mason that shall begin May 1st. As such, Mr. Mason and CAM will be collecting dues this year. Typically, dues are due on April 1st. Due to our transition this year, we are not requiring that dues be paid on April 1st. CMA will establish a new due date for this year alone and make contact with residents soon.
Please know that the purpose of this decision to hire Mr. Mason is not to "get people." We are committed to building a community and maintaining/ improving property values. As such, it is important that we have mechanisms in place to engage residents, so that they feel that they are a part of Jasper Heights and so that we will all take ownership over keeping the neighborhood a great place to live.
Financially, we will not have to increase dues to accommodate this move to hire CAM. In fact, we can't. The covenants are clear that dues cannot exceed $250. In order to change that we would need a 2/3 vote by standing members with a 3 year implementation window. Therefore, we had to look at some numbers to determine how we could keep dues low and hire CAM.
Here is our latest draft budget for 2014 and 2015, slightly revised after Mr. Mason's talk with us last night. I anticipate higher income that projected in 2014 if we hire Mr. Mason and get him to work on collecting back dues. The consensus last night was that it would be worth taking a financial hit in 2014 net income to see the process of professional management begin.
We will post an update on the official decision by the board and we will keep everyone informed on the path forward.
Comments are welcome!
