HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - April 4, 2025
Published: Fri, 04/04/25
Updated: Wed, 04/09/25
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - April 4, 2025
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In this week's tip, we help you out with the inevitable gripes you'll hear even when you're doing the right thing—meaning, raising assessments because the cost of everything just keeps creeping up, and you're working hard to keep your community running and looking great.
In our recent webinar, “8 Tense Moments You're Likely to Face as a Condo/HOA Board Member — and How to Respond Without Fear or Tension,” two condo/HOA experts walked listeners through smart ways to respond when you hear that inevitable pushback against a perfectly justified and even necessary assessment increase.
“This might be one of the most common complaints a board might receive whenever there's a proposal to raise assessments,” says panelist Todd J. Skowronski, an associate at Makower Abbate Guerra Wegner Vollmer PLLC, whose firm advises nearly 2,000 association clients throughout Michigan. “I'd venture to say there's not an HOA in existence where there's not at least one person who will never agree that assessments need to go up.
“But the reality is you can't have it both ways,” he adds. “Either you're going to raise assessments to keep up with inflation and increasing costs and to maintain the standards you have or, if you keep assessments flat, over time, the standards that you're able to maintain in the community will simply go down. That's just the reality.”
Skowronski's co-panelist, Cyrus Koochek, a partner with Swedelson Gottlieb in Santa Monica, Calif., who advises about 100 condos and HOAs throughout the state at any given time, likes to ask for more information in response to grumbling about assessment increases. He also likes to educate owners on the broader picture of association management.
Find out how to ask for feedback and share information on your condo or HOA's financial operations in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5075.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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