Dear Evergreen HOA Members:
This fiscal year (July 2024 – June 2025), Evergreen will collect $343,000 in Homeowner Assessments. This is an eye-watering 47% increase from just 5 years ago.
Why have assessments increased so much? It’s all about the surge in inflation since Covid. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased from 1.2% in 2020 to 8.0% in 2022, and another 4.1% in 2023. This rise has had an outsized impact on our operating costs, especially for landscaping services (which is our #1 recurring expense).
This recent pop in inflation has also severely cut into the future buying power in terms of our reserves. For years, Evergreen operated close to 100% funding for reserves. Now our most recent Reserves Analysis shows that we are less than 70% funded. This is not sustainable.
To address this situation, the Board conducted a thorough examination of our operating expenses and reserve budget. We especially reviewed with legal Counsel the Association’s maintenance responsibilities under our CC&Rs and By-Laws. We discovered that over the years, prior Broads had interpreted some maintenance areas on homeowner lots as the responsibility of the Association.
Following Counsel’s opinion, the Board resolved to clarify certain maintenance areas. As such, the Board announced to Members this past summer that certain maintenance areas (i.e. replacement of garage doors) would become the homeowner’s responsibility. After the required 28 day Member review period, the Board voted in August to recognize these clarifications to our maintenance responsibilities.
Please review our revised Evergreen Community Association Responsibility Matrix.
These updates to our maintenance responsibilities are important because this allows the Board to better allocate reserves to only those areas that are the Association’s responsibility. This will strengthen our budget, increase our reserves funding, and ultimately help soften the rate of annual increase on your Association dues. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.
Sincerely,
Russell Droullard, President
Tom Levitt, Vice President
Clyde Roe, Secretary