January Letter

We are writing to you earlier than usual this year. We want to make sure that everyone is informed about the things that we have made progress on this year as well as some of the issues that still require attention. Some of these will be best dealt with prior to the beginning of the year.

First, you may remember the issues we have been dealing with regarding funds to operate our Association. With the failure to pass an increase in the yearly Assessment amount, and a small number of members paying the special assessment (about one third of homeowners), we currently have about $2700 in our account to start out 2015. One major expense that we need to cover is our property insurance, which is billed in January. In order to make this payment on time we especially need homeowners to pay dues promptly.

The By-Laws instruct that the deadline to pay the Annual Assessment is January 1. The Board will be making an effort to more closely follow the procedures for dealing with late payments this year. The instructions are as follows:

If any member shall fail to make payment of any installment of an annual or special assessment within thirty (30) days of the due date, such installment shall bear interest from the due date at the rate of eighteen percent (18%) per annum until paid. In addition, the Trustees may assess a late fee for such delinquent installment of up to $10.00 per month until paid, and, upon thirty (30) days prior written notice, may accelerate the due date for all remaining annual assessment installments and all accrued but unpaid interest thereon.

This year we were able to collect $2200 in past-due payments from homeowners. Special thanks to Brandon for his efforts in this area. Our total amount of overdue payments has been cut by about half. We also received payments for dues on the current year from all but seven lots. Thank you for doing your part.

Having discussed the issue of commonly owned properties with several neighbors, we have heard concerns ranging from raising our standard of maintaining the detention basin to not maintaining it at all.  After reading through our responsibilities and meeting with city officials including those from the planning department, city council, and parks and rec, it has been determined that we do currently have an obligation to maintain the detention basin.  They are continuing to work with us to determine if changes in our responsibility can be shared with the city or given completely to the city, however, this process may take some time and there is no guaranteed outcome.  We plan to continue to work with city officials to try to come up with ideas that may lessen our burden, but for now, we need to continue to uphold our obligations.

The expenses for 2014 as reported by our bookkeeper are shown below, along with the proposed budget for 2015. Please note a few things about our expenses for the year. First, our bookkeeper delayed our bill from 2013 as a courtesy to us, and billed us during 2014 because our account did not have sufficient funds at the end of the year to cover that bill. Secondly, several houses were sold this year with extra paperwork for title companies, which also increased the workload of our bookkeeper, and therefore increased the bill. We also added to the workload with collecting on several past-due accounts which the bookkeeper helped to process and update. Finally, we had a sprinkler burst this summer, so the water bill was higher than usual and we had the extra expense of that repair.

2014	2015
Water: $2202.35	Water: 1700
Lawn Maintenance: $3157.55	Lawn Maintenance: 3000
Post Office Box Renewal: $100	PO Box, Postage and Paperwork supplies: 250
Insurance 2013: $1278	Insurance: 1400
Business Renewal: $20	Business Renewal: 20
Taxes: $125	Taxes: 150
Bookkeeping: $2656.68	Bookkeeping: 2000
	Snow removal: 700
	10% Reserve Fund: 1000
Total: 9539.58	Total: 10,200

You will notice that the total amount for the budget exceeds our maximum annual income. With our dues at $100 per lot, the most our income would be, with 100% of lots sending in their payments, is $8300. The annual assessment has been set at $100 for 11 years and has not changed since our neighborhood was developed in 2003. Those who follow a budget will know that expenses tend to increase over time.

At our annual meeting in May we will discuss again our annual assessment amount. As unpalatable as it may seem, our current rate of income is proving to be insufficient to meet our needs. One way to look at it is that if standard rates of inflation are usually calculated at about 3% per year. If we adjusted our amount of $100 as set in 2003 along with inflation, our dues would be $138 for the year 2015.

We are always willing to consider bids for any of the above categories. We have sought out bids for many of them with businesses who provide those services, especially with bookkeeping, lawn care and snow removal. If members in the neighborhood feel they have a connection or someone willing to provide one of these services, please contact a Board member so that we can discuss the services we need more specifically. We will review any bids we receive and make changes that prove beneficial.

Attached you will find your invoice for your next payment. If there are any outstanding balances on your property, those will be listed along with the yearly dues for 2015. Please send in your check to our Post Office Box, hand deliver to a Board Member, or use the PayPal button found on our blog page.

Finally, please mark your calendar and reserve the afternoon of the first Saturday in May for our Annual Meeting. We will have a more specific time and place as we get closer. If you believe you are not on our email list, please contact us via hoa.foothill@gmail.com to have your contact information added.