Happy Monday to the whole of Bridgeberry! Nothing says that better than a letter from your HOA telling you that they are raising your membership dues. What better way to confer appreciation than helping yourself to another “Benjamin Franklin” in legal tender? Add to that, no attempt to spell out additional increased value for what our money is buying, but only a feeble attempt to justify the increase in the name of inflation. Yes it’s 2022 and some things have gotten noticeably more expensive but the US Department of Labor and Statistics recorded only an 8.6% increase in the Consumer Price Index as of late (2021-2022).
More than one resident was told by Katelyn Bachman of Elite Management in 2021 that it would not be expected to increase our dues by saying:
“The Board is hopeful, yet confident, that the current due rate will stay in effect for years“
Elite Management is the contracted management company that Taylor Morrison has hired to operate the HOA. Note that in the linked document referenced above, the resident recipient has been redacted to protect the identity of the person who shared the above information.
Delivered to us today was this letter from Candice Blakeslee (a Taylor Morrison employee who is the President of the Bridgeberry HOA) informing us of a 100% INCREASE in our monthly membership dues for the next FIVE YEARS! 100 PERCENT!!!!! Yup you read that right, in January, your HOA dues will go from $100/mo to $200/month!! In addition, we had no warning that this was coming. No mention of it in meeting minutes, no budget for 2023 detailing the projected costs for next year (how about sharing that with us Bridgeberry HOA Board???), nor a revised budget or even current financials! The last financials I see are back from JUNE 2022 (at the time of this writing) – How can this be fair?:
Not to mention NO MEETING MINUTES posted since April (and the April meeting minutes didn’t actually get posted until JULY!!!:
Again, our HOA Board is posting this information LATE! I recently wrote about the Bridgeberry HOA (which is run by Taylor Morrison, and not by Bridgeberry homeowners) closing access to the shared clubhouse with no warning or notice – it was in the April minutes, but homeowners didn’t see any of it until MONTHS later! I believe NC State Law requires HOAs to post meeting minutes in a TIMELY fashion, as well as financials. It seems that the Taylor Morrison run HOA (bridgeberry HOA) is failing to do that, and maybe their compliance with the law should be checked to ensure they are meeting the state requirement to provide timely reports and meeting minutes discussing policy change to home owners when it comes to withdrawal of amenities against the ENTIRETY of the community.
For the simplicity of referrals in this article, I’ll refer to Bridgeberry HOA as Taylor Morrison – as that’s who’s really pulling the puppet strings here. Taylor Morrison has come to us asking for a DOUBLING (from $100/mo – $200/mo) over the next 5 years, of our HOA dues without providing:
- An updated budget
- Meeting minutes in which this (and possibly other) change was discussed
- Hard data on the forecast of costs necessitating this increase, projected over the next FIVE YEARS
- Evidence that the HOA (Taylor Morrison, or Elite Management) has attempted to shop around for competitive pricing
- An opportunity for homeowners to be informed & heard, and to vote on some of the items that are represented in these costs
Not ONE SHRED OF VERIFIABLE DATA was offered in the letter detailing the DOUBLING of our dues! This is wholly unacceptable, and as homeowners, we have the right to KNOW what we’re being asked to pay for! We’ve been given NOTHING! Saying “due to the costs of the pool” etc, is not justification enough. The pool represents a fraction of the total costs for that the entire operating budget, yet in the letter that’s the “cost” that’s tossed around a lot. Bridgeberry HOA Board, you did a crap job of justifying a doubling of dues! Show us the DATA!!!!
If we take an exercise of reasonable guessing of most of these costs, this feels like a cash shakedown by Taylor Morrison-run HOA (dare I say a fleecing). We DESERVE to know why we are being asked to pay 100% more and given a report on each line item, with an opportunity to be heard. Taylor Morrison: You are messing with families and people’s lives – some who may now have to decide “do I spend the $100 on my kid’s math tutor or give the extra $100 to the HOA and forego the math tutor and hope for the best?” –SHAME ON YOU! We could understand a 20%, maybe even a 30% increase during a time of inflation, but seriously, 100% increase? What are you guys smoking? If this were a homeowner-run HOA, I doubt a 100% increase would ever get passed. It’s only happening because HOA POWER IS LARGELY UNCHECKED! Maybe it’s time to start talking to elected officials and/or running a political campaign to reform HOA power in NC! There’s a thought! No doubt some elected officials may be getting their pockets lined by HOAs/developers, but I say remind them of your vote come election time!
We pay our HOA dues ON TIME, on top of the large money-grab (aka capital contribution) they got from us when we closed:
For those who may wish to air their disapproval to the Board directly, please feel free to email and let them know your strong disapproval and feelings on the matter. You can reach the HOA President (Candice) at:
Candice Blakeslee – President – Bridgeberry HOA (also a Taylor Morrison employee)
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]
Phone: (828) 281-2100
Lastly, if I may air my own sentiment, I would encourage any prospective new Bridgeberry homeowners to NOT buy a Taylor Morrison built home, nor a home in Bridgeberry due to this seemingly predatory “bait and switch” move. We moved in on March 1 2022 expecting (and budgeted) to pay a $100/mo HOA dues, not double that! A $200/mo HOA dues would have had an impact on our buying decision. Lockridge (just down the road by comparison, with more expensive homes, larger lots, and a pool) only around $67/mo by comparison. Taylor Morrison, WHAT ARE YOU ASKING US TO PAY FOR at the tune of $200/mo?!?!
UPDATE – A REPLY FROM CANDICE:
Thank you for your inquiry on the Annual Dues increase.
Unfortunately, the Board’s hope that pricing would resort back to 2019-2020 costs has not come to fruition. It is best that the HOA stay financially in keeping with the rising costs for all services and merchandise necessary to maintain our community, as well as the anticipated future costs. The increase was inevitable. It is best practice to make the increase at this time versus a slow increase for the next 5 years. Additionally, due to the increase of costs, the funds needed to be in deposited into our Reserve Accounts must be budgeted at a higher rate starting in 2023 so that in 2030 when the HOA might begin the major expenses related to the repair and/or replacement of larger cost items, pool furniture, roofing, asphalt, or fitness equipment for example, on the HOA’s property, sufficient funding is in the Reserve Accounts.
As you may be aware, the initial funding of the Reserve Accounts is collected at the time of the Closing of each home lot in the form of the “Capital Contribution.” This Capital Contribution is deposited directly into the HOA’s Reserve Accounts. The rate determined to be collected as the Capital Contribution was calculated before the first Sale with the intent that this amount would have a significant impact on the funding needed for this account up until the time of the final Closing. The ongoing budget line item for Reserve Funding alone has taken a drastic turn as a based on the current and anticipated expenses for both labor and materials. Upon the final Closing, Capital Contribution funding can no longer be added to Reserves, thus relying solely on the Annual Dues paid by the HOA Membership. If prices have increased and continue to increase, the cost of the major repairs/replacements are directly impacted. Additionally, the Bridgeberry HOA Board has seen firsthand, by comparing other HOAs of similar size and with similar amenities the actual costs per home lot to help maintain a balanced annual budget. It is standard that a community of a larger size and/or with less amenities, the annual dues rates is less.
The Board has completed the process of binding out all of our service vendors by obtaining bids from no less than 3 vendors in that category.
The inflation rate link provide is to help show the foundation of how the HOA’s budget will be affected. This increase for Bridgeberry is across the board for the budget line items and, in some cases, closer to 100% to the 2021 annual budget. Mulch this year, for example was a vast and unpredicted amount. In 2023, additional Common Areas in the community will require a mulch refresh. The addition of more homeowners alone will not be able to fund that additional expense.
Thank you again for your inquiry,
Candice Blakeslee
Community Management Manager/Land Project Manager
MY RESPONSE BACK
Dear Candice,
Thank you for your reply. This would have been better received if there were some upfront transparency and an opportunity for owners to be heard before decisions being finalized. You are potentially asking some families to stretch household budgets by an additional $100/month in an area where similar communities are well under that. That $100 has the potential to pay for a kid’s tutoring, or be put away for higher education, home repair (of which we are all on the hook for to be in full compliance with HOA requirements), etc. For some households, this is a large difference, especially in an economy where so many are living paycheck to paycheck.
We would prefer to have some input into the evaluation of costs – like maybe could the common areas forego some plants in favor of grass? ie. looking for areas to trim costs, but not affect “services” all too much. I know from being a frugal person myself that there is value in re-assessing what one is paying for and devciding “do we really need this?, can we do without in exchange for…” It’s not just families who have to struggle with those decisions, HOAs should consider owner input on these things as well.
This is not something we intend to take lying down, but given the chance to work it out, we’d prefer that instead.
Regards,
John Rogers, LOT 14
Pathetic management by TM
Extremely upsetting! How do us voters find out when there are meetings in order to attend? I am very willing to join an organized push against this and TM running the HOA. Absolutely this was always planned, in my opinion.
Extremely disappointed with the recent HOA fee increase without any advance notice or communication with residents.
Without statistics, you can’t achieve a 100% increase and accept that no question will be asked. In fact, a 100% increase is out of the question.
UNACCEPTABLE.
This is absolutely outrageous. I am so disappointed with TM Management- poor quality houses, barely basic amenities with no maintenance. And now doubling the cost of HOA without any proper notification/justification. Never recommending TM houses to anyone.
$200 is for worst ever property management. It’s insane and TM found a way to rob the home owners after closing!!!
A $200 HOA in this part of the country is outrageous and unacceptable, especially with the amenities we have.
I have paid the earnest deposit back in Jan 2022 and waiting on my closing date, I’m really afraid to move forward with my purchase because of the predatory practices by Taylor Morrison.
Now I’m weighing down my options to lose my deposit and look for other homes in the near by communities.
Lest we forget, the April minutes were only shared AFTER we lost access to parts of the amenity center for Taylor Morrison to use it for their own purposes!
No Tennis Court, no proper residential playground, no recreation space. All lots converted to homes just to sell and make money.. This commercial management has made a joke of a leading builder like TM. It’s like they are gathering food prior to hibernation like winter animals do. This is totally unacceptable unless amenities and other living condition including fencing of the entire property is done by TM.
This is completely insane!!
Justification for increase in HOA dues by TM shows the monopoly in everything they manage starting with pre-purchase appointments followed by purchase process, construction, closing and the most recent HOA rip-off.
There is no medium for feedback from residents and all meeting decisions are always back-dated making poor residents realize that they have skipped the meeting, while actually there was no such meeting that happened and all these are just cooked up for the sake of documentation.
TAYLOR MORRISON deserves a new rating trend called negative rating and this should definitely be on public forum.
That’s a robbery, no joke. No details, no explanation…
HOA dues increased from $67 to $100 on 1st Jan 2021, with a promise that it won’t be increased further next few more years. It didn’t last longer. We expect a detailed justification from HOA with actual numbers that lead such increase.
As a homeowner, everytime I think this is a new low – nopes. They keep going lower. Even giving benefit of doubt in all possible scenarios , this new 100% increase in HOA is truly disappointing at best and fleecing at worst. With no reasoning divulged, no data and absolutely no consultation with homeowners on how they arrived at the number $200, TM along with “elite management ” company that runs HOA at this point is acting very unfairly. Because control doesn’t exist in books for homeowners at this point, TM is misusing their assumed authority. There will be a cost for these punitive and opaque practices that TM should pay.
Really Frustrating, we need stop this, time to join hand’s.
Increase of HOA from $100 to $200 is too much. Not sure what this new hike of $200 fee accounts for. Swimming pool is just like other communities have and big thing there is NO KIDS PARK.On top of this Clubhouse is not free. One of the worst HOA I have ever seen and TM is misusing and taking advantage of homeowner’s goodwill.
With the minimal duration of our stay we hear .. wood being patched..roof needing repair.. electrical wires being missed.. and many many more.. increase in HOA with basic minimal facilities within like 6 months or even less of stay WOW .. this is ridiculous…
The association’s (TM) move to increase the HOA by 100% is absurd. No reason would justify this upsetting move. Had I known that I need to pay 200$ towards the HOA, my Home Buying decision would’ve changed during my initial sigining with TM.
Bait and switch is what I see and I didn’t expect this low blow from TM !!!
The 100% rate hike seems to be arbitrary and without any logic, we will have to find avenues to address this and not let TM run HOA take us for granted.
HOA dues of $200 is really outrageous. In the name of facilities there is a pool that operates 4 to 5 months outdoor and a small gym. The clubhouse is there as a facility however you will have to pay to use the clubhouse. There are no other facilities or amenities besides these. The $200 HOA does not cover any other charges that the homeowners must take care by themselves such as lawn mowing, utilities and taking care of the home maintenance general. In summary $200 HOA amounts to $2400 annual charges that’s almost equivalent to a month of EMI. There must be some way to reduce the unnecessary maintenance cost maybe even find an alternative to the current vendors, find alternative ways to optimize cost may be replace some of the grassy areas with the the lower maintenance lawn options but whatever it is there has to be alternative ways. We are barely into three or four months into the homeownership just to hear the doubling of the HOA it’s unbelievable.
When we bought back in 2021, we were told the HOA dues were $200 and all yard maintenance included. The HOA (TM) then decided to not continue, so we got cut to $100/mo because of having to now do our own lawn maintenance.
So now I am back to $200/mo, no lawn maintenance and no annual budget to defend this increase.
TM has the HOA until they sell the number of homes stipulated by the bylaws to transfer to owners. I can’t remember what that is. But this is the first time I have received any HOA increase without a budget being presented and at the annual meeting. Which I have not seen any notice of.
You should review your covenants! There may be a cap on how much they can raise dues year-over-year. As an example, our HOA cannot increase dues more than 10% year-over-year, and that’s defined by the neighborhood covenant and NOT the HOA board.
Such a disappointing and unfortunate decision by the HOA board. During a time where economic uncertainties are impacting many families, bridgeberry HOA has decided to take advantage of its homeowners. As mentioned in John’s article, a reasonable increase would have been understandable but a 100% increase is unacceptable.
Even more disappointing is the email sent by Candice Blakeslee and the rest of the Board of Directors which reads more like a slap in the face. It was very generous of them to “anticipate” questions and provide us answers which in summary can be described as “we have a right to do whatever it is that we want”. If as much time and effort was spent involving homeowners in a two way-process this is not where we would have been. Surely the HOA and the board would have “anticipated” this.
They even included a link to the inflation calculator. Their own inflation calculator indicates an increase in inflation of 8.3% since August of 2021 yet we see a 100% increase in our due’s? Yes the cost of things have gone up. I am sure most of us have seen increases in premiums of insurances and other monthly expenses but how many of those rose 100%? Additionally they mention in the same Q/A item that “numerous HOAs in the country are raising their Dues in response to the increase in expenses that they have incurred in 2022 and/or anticipated to incur going forward”. Can we see data that shows other neighborhood increasing dues by 100%? Having been part of several neighborhoods with HOA’s in the past and speaking with other residents in our own holly springs community this is an unprecedented increase.
The icing on the cake is the disclaimer at the end that “A homeowners association has the legal right to raise regular Annual Assessment Dues”. We have already seen as mentioned in this article a resident was told “The Board is hopeful, yet confident, that the current due rate will stay in effect for years”. This was just last year. What is to keep the HOA and the board from, arbitrarily increased dues next year? They have already stated they have a right to do it and at this point have shown us their word is not worth a lot.
I hope all homeowners will take the time to email the HOA president and other member and to continue to voice their concerns.
Thanks John Rogers for your effort for putting everything in this page.
HOA dues increased from $67 to $100 one and half years ago. Now another 100% increase in HOA due is absurd and unacceptable.
This rate increase is unacceptable and causing undue stress on homeowners in an incredibly uncertain times. Not only are we putting more money out for basic necessities, due to inflation, but now we are being asked to pull another $100 dollars out of our monthly budget?! That is absurd to pay $200 a month for an HOA with bare amenities. A $200 a month HOA fee would be acceptable if it included landscaping of each home, but not what we are getting now. We need to cut the budget to avoid this, as the increases will only get worse in the future. We will not stand for being taken advantage of by Taylor Morrison. It seems that TM is trying to abuse their HOA power for their bottom line benefit and have the homeowners absorb their costs. We need to look at the pool for starters. We live right there and it is barely used in early May and September. Once school started there was very little activity there. A few people in the weekend. We could save an enormous amount of costs by making it Memorial Day – Labor Day, like every other neighborhood around here. We are wasting money for electricity, chemicals, pool cleaning weekly, and daily chemical checks for close to two months where the pool gets minimal use. That would save a lot of money from the budget! We need to also look at the type of flowers and plants being used and try to have more perennial options, so we aren’t buying new each year. There are other options with landscapers and negotiations to save money there. We, the homeowners, cannot afford this ridiculous price hike. It’s unacceptable and tone deaf in a time of desperation for so many.
Hi Mary, I appreciate your feedback. The pool is actually a very small portion of the total operating budget for Bridgeberry. Cutting the pool open season will not trim much off the budget. (considering dollar/benefit) Rather, the folks who end up serving on the budget committee need to identify and propose more sustainable choices that significantly add to the cost (like in plant quantity and type, grass or other material instead of mulch which has to be refreshed every year), as well as other areas of waste. It’s about efficiency and sustainability in costs for sure.
Are any of the homeowners on your HOA Board at this time? As soon as the last house is built, organize and take control of your Board. Get a NEW management company!!! Often times, developers/builders and HOA Management Companies are “bed fellows”!!!
So sorry your community is dealing with such! Stay strong and unite!!!
Hi Kathryn, thank you for your comment. Our HOA is developer-run at this time. The project is only about 30% built so we’ve got a ways to go. As such, there are no homeowners on our HOA board.
I don’t know much about HOA laws, but perhaps there’s a way to ask for control to be turned over to residents before they meet their sales quota? What drove that clause? Who did it intend to benefit/protect? It sounds like there are enough residents here sufficiently interested in leading the community already. It might be too early to start a second, resident-comprised HOA LLC, but it’s not too early to commit to learning what to do and to step up.
When made up of residents, I’m not aware of any HOAs that pay their members out of the dues collected (maybe some do? doubtful), but with this being run by a company (the developer’s no less), a paycheck to themselves is probably a line item in there somewhere. If so, that’d be the FIRST budget item I’d slash!! Sure, reserves are important, and there should be a plan to build them up, but the community is still new; if the developers intended to build something new, it should have been done and paid for already! Not expecting the residents to foot that bill separately later!
Every HOA has to have governing documents called CCR’s or Covenants. These are the rules and procedures the HOA HAS to follow. Each homeowner should have received this document when you purchased a home. In this “doc” it lists page after page of what has to be followed by the HOA. Plus the State of NC has laws that apply to HOA’s. I think the office of Secretary of State is the office I would contact first with your many complaints and questions. If this isn’t the right one, ask them to refer you to the right one.
I will tell you right now I do not believe that
It is legal to increase dues by %100 in a year, without a vote by residents. Even a Special Assessment has to be voted on by
the residents. Every HOA has to have a
Annual Meeting and all residents have to be notified. NC has lots of regulations for HOA’s so check that out first and foremost. Also, all residents need to be
involved and persistent. Don’t slack off and expect your neighbor to do the work for you. Good luck!
Susan is correct. Most covenants only allow a percentage per year. I’ve never seen dues double. The developer being in control may be the catch but they should be carrying the weight of the beauty of the neighborhood so they can sell them… check your docs!
Late to the game yet deep into the documents…..
Disappointed to note that the 3-person, TM appointed, Board of Directors (BOD) have total control based on what is currently in place. Our avenue for affect is a to motion to fill the two optional (up to 5 total per by-laws) remaining spots on the BOD which again must be allowed by 3 current members. Although I do not see that as unreasonable, we must have TM agree to the Homeowners participation.