When Homeowners Association Meetings Go Wrong
Maybe I am not the best neighbor. Sometimes, I leave my trash bins out too long. Sometimes, when I am doing yard work, I leave my tools and things right where I was using them. Sometimes, I cut my grass at 8 or 9 in the morning. Sometimes, I play thumping music. But more than that, I have only been to one HOA meeting in my entirety of living here. And I don’t even remember what year that was.
The HOA meeting I attended was when—and don’t quote me because I did not, and have not tried to understand the details—wait, I really don’t know how to explain this:
Okay like our HOA fee that used to be about $50 per month a decade ago, we also had another fee we had to pay: a monthly $50 CDD fee. So, we were paying an additional $100 per month on top of our mortgages. I cannot explain what a CDD is other than that it stands for Community Development District and that that fee was used to maintain the clubhouse.
Our clubhouse has the following:
- a gym with a variety of equipment and a tv
- bathrooms with showers
- a room with a pool table, mini kitchen, couches, and a big tv (can be rented for events)
- a zero-entry pool
- a kiddie pool/splashpad with some kiddie fixtures
- a jacuzzi
- an array of lounge chairs with some of them being covered by tents
- a fob entry
So, considering all this and that it was free to “rent” the clubhouse room, $50 per month was not a bad deal.
That HOA meeting was about…I don’t know…I just know the result was the CDD fee increased and was moved to our property taxes (instead of monthly)—exactly what the neighbors did not want. And the neighbors showed their asses during that meeting. It was my first 3-D experience watching white people (both non-Hispanic and Hispanic) get crunk af. It was kinda fun. Maybe I did go the next meeting after that as it was determined that it didn’t matter what the community members said, the shit was going to happen. I probably should have moved then.