Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Aging cohousing communities: deferred maintenance, accessibility, and financial strains

[Katie Henry (katie-henry]

These are difficult and important questions. I'm very sorry you're in this 
situation.

We are a two-year-old 55+ community. We were under construction in 2021 when 
the Surfside condominium collapse took place. There were many news stories at 
the time about under-funded, poorly maintained condo communities with aging 
residents and deteriorating infrastructure. It's a nationwide problem. You are 
not alone.

Because this tragedy was fresh in our minds, we scheduled a reserve study 
shortly after move-in and have been aggressively funding our replacement 
reserves, even though our HOA dues are uncomfortably high.

OP, I realize this is not helpful to you, but I encourage other communities to 
stop procrastinating and get that reserve study. It's not fair that early 
members get a free ride and later members have to bear the cost of deferred 
maintenance and special accommodations.


The Community Associations Institute might have useful information. They have a 
page dedicated to Aging Infrastructure in Community Associations with some case 
studies.

I'll bet there are people with opinions and experiences they'd rather not post 
here. Fred, can you forward private messages to the OP?

Katie Henry
Heartwood Commons - Tulsa (Oklahoma)
https://www.heartwoodcommonstulsa.com/