I live in a gated community and the masonry wall around the perimeter of the community needs to be replaced.
As a result there is a conversation going on about whether everyone should pay equally.
I believe that everyone in the subdivision benefits from the fence, since it is a "gated community". There are some who believe that we should change the rules to make the fees higher for people on the perimeter.
I think that's BS.
What do y'all think?

HOA Board Pres here...share equally unless there are sections of the community that are not gated, then all those in the gated area would typically pay more. Common area fence is exactly that and shared by all in the community.

We have 18 sections in our community, 2 of which are gated seperately. I make sure and keep expenses that are the sole benefit of each individual gated section allocated to those sections. We have seperate accounts for those.

Our HOA wall maintenance comes out of everyone's dues. We are not a gated community and less than 1/5 of the neighborhood borders a wall. Virtually all of those homes are separated from the wall by an alley. We have relatively 'reasonable' dues for the area at $480 a year. It is my understanding that almost 1/4 of that goes into a permanent 'wall fund' dedicated to funding ongoing wall repairs and replacements along the masonry boundary wall. The walls are only about a mile in total length. We've spent over $200,000 maintaining it over the last 4-5 years. The walls are now over 20 years old.

agcivengineer said:

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HOA Board Pres here...share equally unless there are sections of the community that are not gated, then all those in the gated area would typically pay more. Common area fence is exactly that and shared by all in the community.

We have 18 sections in our community, 2 of which are gated seperately. I make sure and keep expenses that are the sole benefit of each individual gated section allocated to those sections. We have seperate accounts for those.

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Former HOA board member, and this is the right answer. You really can't break it down more than this because it just opens up a whole can of worms. Should some houses pay more because they get more benefit from having a street light out in front? Should corner houses be more responsible for sidewalk work because they have it on two sides? Nope, don't want to go down that road!

I'd tell them if those on the perimeter have to foot the whole bill for the wall, then you get to pick what kind of wall to build.

In our community, half the homes are built around the one water feature and part of the HOA dues go to maintain the fountains to keep the fish aerated and alive. Folks ***** every year about it but conveniently forget that the lots built on the water side cost a lot more up front and would take 20 years of HOA dues to make up the difference if the water side didn't also pay the same dues. The same people also ***** that they can't go through homeowners backyards to access the water due to fences, even though there is a fishing pier on the end.

AtlAg05 said:

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Mr jpd301, tear down that wall.

Sounds like it would be better to price a new wall.

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Whew, I'm old enough to get the tear down the wall joke

They definitely considered it but after like two years of hemming and hawing they moved forward with the maintenance. Some of the maintenance was complete footer up wall section rebuilds so its wasn't just 200k of new grout. I would have to dig back through newsletters, but I believe the remove and replace option was close to or over a million and presented major cash flow issues for the HOW absent a huge dues increase.

Masonry screening walls are a huge PITA for older communities. My neighborhood is one of the first in my city that has an HOA owned and maintained wall instead of a City owned screening wall. Yay us. The City rebuilds a few million worth of walls every year for the older neighborhoods but all the "newer" than late 90s neighborhoods have to rebuild them ourselves.

Funny. It's so nice to have these things until the future rolls around. What? You mean we're all living beyond our means as a group? Walls need maintenance, too? I didn't know that was part of the HOA!

I'm on my HOA board and we also have the beauty that we don't have an easement agreement to maintain the wall so currently homeowners are accountable. HOA wants to take it over but people won't grant us an easement. We are paying the legal fees to do so and will foot the bill for the wall maintenance. Can't even give people free stuff.

I was thinking maybe I would let them know that I don't feel like I benefit from the landscaping, or the little park benches, or the bus stop gazebo, so I should pay less.

I'm on the HOA for the condo/townhome neighborhood we live in. Our HOA fees are based on percentage of ownership, which is calculated by the square footage of your home against the sum of all the units in the complex. This arrangement works for us because units can't be added on or otherwise expanded, so the square footage of the entire complex is static. However, all dues go into the same pot and the Board decides what they get spent on. I don't think an arrangement like this could work for a regular neighborhood of single family homes unless you base it on lot size since the home size could be modified by adding on, remodeling, etc.

We have had some owners try and pull the same BS as the OP is dealing with. They claim they don't use the pools so they should be "refunded" the portion that goes to pool maintenance. Same for playgrounds and other amenities. The official response is that their property value benefits from the amenities existing and being well maintained. I finally did the math for one owner that wouldn't let it go and the "refund" for their portion of the pool maintenance amounted to less than $6/year. That made them realize their argument was petty and they finally dropped it.

This is exactly why what the homeowners in the OP want to do is stupid. They're just asking for everyone to start trying to split costs and get out of whatever they can. I'm sure they'd change their mind of all of a sudden their home wouldn't sell because the fence/wall looked like **** or the pool was drained for lack of maintenance or the park was falling apart.

Yea, i have been on a major effort the past year to make sure our community is saving enough so we never go below a certain amount of savings in any given year. We own about $1 million worth of fencing, plus other capital expenses. I put together a 30 year spending plan to make sure our reserves are funded appropriately. Everyone wants dues to go down, but being responsible is more important to me.

agcivengineer said:

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Yea, i have been on a major effort the past year to make sure our community is saving enough so we never go below a certain amount of savings in any given year. We own about $1 million worth of fencing, plus other capital expenses. I put together a 30 year spending plan to make sure our reserves are funded appropriately. Everyone wants dues to go down, but being responsible is more important to me.

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Based on your username, I'm guessing you have a better grasp of the hidden cost of infrastructure. Most people don't get that the things around them that bring water to them, takes sewage away, hold up their cars, and make them secure deteriorate and cost good money to repair.

agcivengineer said:

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Yea, i have been on a major effort the past year to make sure our community is saving enough so we never go below a certain amount of savings in any given year. We own about $1 million worth of fencing, plus other capital expenses. I put together a 30 year spending plan to make sure our reserves are funded appropriately. Everyone wants dues to go down, but being responsible is more important to me.

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We acted similarly though it was a much smaller neighborhood than what yours sounds like. Our biggest reserves were for the gates and roads since we owned those, and we didn't want to hit people with an assessment if something big came along or give up the gate and turn road ownership and maintenance to the city. We didn't have any fence issues but they were stone all the way around and built well.

Tell your neighbors to be glad there isn't a special assessment to fix the wall.

A neighborhood near me had exactly that when it came to replace the entire perimeter fence last year. The board was terrible at budgeting apparently and didn't have that in it. Couple hundred per house.

agcivengineer said:

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Yea, i have been on a major effort the past year to make sure our community is saving enough so we never go below a certain amount of savings in any given year. We own about $1 million worth of fencing, plus other capital expenses. I put together a 30 year spending plan to make sure our reserves are funded appropriately. Everyone wants dues to go down, but being responsible is more important to me.

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We have a reserve study that is updated every 5 years that examines the infrastructure owned by the HOA. Since we are a gated community we own the streets and the exterior walls. It is one of the drivers that determines any increases in dues each year if needed.

Yea we just updated ours as well. I find the reserve study to be a good starting place, but those are really just ballpark figures and arent all that accurate when you get into the details even after we gave them a bunch of edits. But, nonetheless, a good HOA will be using one of those to make decisions from. I have a good financial person on our board as well, so combined we have made a good team on this topic.

On second thought...

OP should acquiesce to his dumb*** neighbors and give those who don't live along the fence a discount. Then he should also hit them with a surcharge for the extra accounting involved that is equal to or greater than the discount.

62strat said:

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Tell your neighbors to be glad there isn't a special assessment to fix the wall.

A neighborhood near me had exactly that when it came to replace the entire perimeter fence last year. The board was terrible at budgeting apparently and didn't have that in it. Couple hundred per house.

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A guy at work years ago had a situation where one of the townhomes became condemned due to erosion near a cliff. The HOA was on the hook and had to raise dues to deal with it.