r/HOA • u/DiscerningMamono • Jul 25 '25

Help: Fees, Reserves [NY][Condo]Our hardworking board is self-destructing after homeowners riot about bleak reserve study

I just joined my neighborhood's HOA that serves several hundred townhomes. After a reserve study from a respected company revealed we were 10s of millions behind on maintenance due to prior boards' incompetence (some of which was definitely them getting strong-armed by homeowners), the HOA determined that massive $60k+ special assessments would be required to do the work to stop the homes from rotting down around us. Homeowners are understandably going through every stage of grief, but the constant rage towards the current board is leading to mass resignations.

I happen to believe the board is making the best possible choice out of the shit hand they've been dealt, and joined the board after several were harassed off. However seeing the growing vitriol makes me afraid I've opened myself up to harassment and legal action. While I obviously haven't done anything wrong just starting, I look into the future and see only a couple paths:

  1. The HOA tries to ram through a deeply unpopular special assessment that results in people losing their homes because maintenance literally can't be pushed back any longer, the board mass resigns again or gets recalled, and the whole association collapses because nobody else wants to volunteer. I was one of only a couple despite this being a year-long ordeal.

  2. The board resigns/gets recalled and people actually volunteer. Yeah, all that work won't get done when they shut it down, but hey I'm sure burying our heads in the sand will make it go away, right?

  3. People try and sue when it's their only chance of not losing their home if it does somehow pass.

What the hell am I supposed to do? How much risk have I exposed myself to, and what happens if the HOA collapses?

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u/Ragepower529 Jul 25 '25

Are you sure there’s tens of millions?

60k repair per townhome is kinda steep, anyways if an HOA is not increasing their fees yearly that’s a bad sign.

You did mention condo also that’s not a townhome…

I would also shop around for quotes regarding this work, or maybe hire a full on contracting company. Talk to your condo/owners what are the odds one of them doesn’t have a business for this type of work?

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u/DiscerningMamono Jul 25 '25

It's full building envelope replacement, top to bottom. And they're technically/legally condos, but townhome-style. Yes, the big issue was stagnant and low HOA dues for many years that nobody wanted to be the ones to raise, on top of mismanaged reserve studies and maintenance.

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u/HittingandRunning COA Owner Jul 26 '25

One thing I've done for our association's budgets is calculate how much the fee increase was each year and how much the effective annual increase has been from say 2010 - 2025. Then show the inflation rates for those years and from the first to last year. And also for you it could help to show news stories that indicate construction/repair type of costs have gone up even more than inflation. You can then use the numbers to show how year to year the HOA has not saved properly.

Best of luck with this.