Re: HOA Dues Structures | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com) | |
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2020 12:56:39 -0700 (PDT) |
> On Sep 1, 2020, at 11:34 AM, Mac Thomson via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] > cohousing.org> wrote: > > Our community (Heartwood Cohousing in rural SW Colorado), has an unusual HOA > dues structure. We collect 50% of our dues on a per household basis and 50% > on a per person basis. First this makes a huge difference depending on what the dues cover. Lot development or attached dwellings with no owned ground space. Internal roads? Internet and antennae? Water, gas, etc. We do 50% equal per unit and 50% variable based “sort of” on SF and Limited Common Elements (LCEs). I’ve given a lot of thought to this. A lot as in over 10 years. Looking more closely at how out condo fees were calculated we discovered that 23 of the 43 units didn’t follow the model we were told they did. Some people don’t pay extra for LCEs like backyards and others don’t pay less if they have no LCEs. Last spring we had to replace all our sprinkler heads. The number of sprinkler heads in units ranges from 6 to 21. if each sprinkler head cost $20 to replace, that means the cost per unit ranged from $120 to $420. Since only 50% of the fee varies by the size of the unit, that range is not reflected in the dues range. That means small units are subsidizing large units. We replaced our roof at ~$150,000. Since the large one household units are as tall as three stacked small units, the roof size is roughly the same. The replacement of the large unit’s roof costs the same amount as the roof of three smaller units. The cost for the smaller units should be 1/3 the cost of the large unit. The dues do not reflect that. Sometimes that has seemed fine, who cares? But it hasn’t been fine for everyone and as we get to 20 years with major replacements costing hundreds of thousands of dollars it less fine for others. Another reason I’ve been thinking about this is partly considering what is fair in low cost cohousing, and most important I’m reading Piketty’s latest book (over 1,000 pages) on the causes of inequality. Because he is an economist he is looking for the causes of inequality in our money flows. That is where inequality is clearly demonstrated and where it can be most easily stopped. What happens is that that wealth is hidden. No institution measures it. Tax rates and revenues for any strata are opaque. Banks and other financial institutions make rules based on no feedback about which rules work and which don’t. The information is just not available to make socioeconomic systems even close to equal. People with high incomes, accumulated wealth, and income from “financial instruments” like stocks and bonds do not pay taxes proportionate to people working minimum wage jobs. The effect of the high income people not carrying their weight, means they are taking out of the economy at a greater rate than they are putting back. That means the lower income people have to make up the difference. And the more money you have the more power you have, the more you can manipulate the system in your favor — the way Trump manipulates it to favor his chums in big business. He is very obvious about it with no concern for equality or justice or truth. Certainly not transparency. This inequality spiked beginning in 1980 with the Reagan revolution with deregulation and lower taxes on the most lucrative ways to acquire and keep money. Piketty's research is especially relevant to those of us in cohousing because he shows how liberalism and social Democracy have failed to enforce the equality they have fought for. They don’t pay attention to the details of money. Where is it going? Where is it? Who has it? Why do we allow layers of shell corporations to conceal ownership? Why do we conceal the real influences of the owners — there is no way to trace biases and undue influence from one sector. I have found that cohousing has functioned with the same blinders. We want everyone to be equal and to be treated equally so we think by setting an example, we are changing society. But the system we are in, the one that controls mortgages, taxes, is still allowing those with more money to reap greater benefits. Their units appreciate more, they occupy more space on the planet, they pay less proportionately. In no way am I criticizing those in cohousing who are still profiting from the system. Almost none will understand to what degree they are privileged. It’s just like being white — who feels privileged from being white? Life is still rough. The CEOs who “earn” more than a million dollars a month believe they are set upon in one way or another. One thing that looking at money honestly is that it is an objective measure. You can measure in context objectively. Piketty explains all the ways the data are adjusted according to geographical location, household size, etc. (Very complicated.) And still they data only indicate the direction, not the extent. Wealth is invisible. All we know is what is reported on tax returns — and tax returns are not public information. One thing this has done for me is bring back all the social change we expected cohousing to bring and represent. We have changed housing, condos in particular, and created wonderful communities for more people. But the financial system as Piketty says is untouched. And not just. Sharon ——— Sharon Villines http://sustainablecohousing.org sustainablecohousing [at] groups.io To subscribe: sustainablecohousing+subscribe [at] groups.io
-
HOA Dues Structures Mac Thomson, September 1 2020
- Re: HOA Dues Structures Muriel Kranowski, September 1 2020
- Re: HOA Dues Structures Noel Rosenberg, September 1 2020
- Re: HOA Dues Structures Sharon Villines, September 1 2020
- Re: HOA Dues Structures Sharon Villines, September 1 2020
-
Re: HOA Dues Structures Linda Hobbet, September 1 2020
- Piketty [was HOA Dues Structures Sharon Villines, September 6 2020
- Re: Piketty Brian Bartholomew, September 7 2020
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.