HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - November 7, 2025
Published: Fri, 11/07/25
Updated: Mon, 11/10/25
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - November 7, 2025
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In this week's tip, we help out an HOAleader.com reader who asks whether their management company can add a surprise fee of $36 per month per unit fee to owners who've chosen to pay a special assessment overtime. Our experts wonder if this is truly a surprise or whether the management contract needed closer review and negotiation.
Let's start with a clarification: Our experts aren't completely sure whether it's homeowners or the HOA being charged this per-unit, per-month fee.
“I think this reader is confused,” says Elina Gilbert, a shareholder at Altitude Community Law in Lakewood, Colo., who has specialized in community association law for 25 years. “To me, it looks like the management company is changing the association the fee per unit, then asking the association to charge it back to the homeowners.
“This sounds a little like a processing fee,” she adds. “I've heard of management companies charging processing fees to monitor payment plans and things like that. It's typically a monthly fee until the owners are done with the payment plan.
“I'm assuming that's what this is,” says Gilbert. “The fee needs to get charged to the association, and the association bills that back to the homeowner. Typically, management companies don't have the right to charge homeowners directly for this fee.”
That's also the thinking of 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. “I've definitely seen what I'll call processing fees or certain administrative fees management companies might charge to undertake a major special assessment project,” he says.
“I have one right now where there's a special assessment of about $20,000 per unit,” explains Koochek. “It's going to require a lot of coordination and ongoing facilitation of the payment plans owners are being allowed to enter into to pay over time. With any owner on a payment plan, there's a $10 monthly charge to coordinate it.”
Fair enough, but what about the reader's statement that this fee came from out of the blue? Read our new article, Is This A New Condo/HOA Management Fee? And How Did This Board Not Know About It?, to find out why this HOA might need to tighten its contracting processes—or even fire their management company: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/5199.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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The Duty of Condo/HOA Boards to Provide Safety and Security for Residents: How To Identify Your Role
Now, more than ever before, you need to be proactive about the possibility of violence and unrest affecting your HOA while still being sensitive to residents' peaceful assembly rights. We're confident the information in this report will help you begin to identify your duties when it comes to community safety. We're also confident it'll provide new and unique ideas and tools to help you navigate this difficult responsibility.
Members can download the report here:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/safety-security-for-condo-hoa-residents-report.cfm
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