HOA Legi-Slate

According to a recent memorandum to the Denver Water Board from the manager of Rate Administration, John Wright single family residential HOA’s could see a 40% rate increase in 2007 for those HOA’s using less than 350,000 gallons annually and a 40%-90% rate increase for HOA’s using more than 350,000 gallons in annual consumption. The proposed rate structure increases applies to irrigation – only taps.

This comes as quite a surprise (some might say shock) to HOAs and managers since as late as October, 2006 the Water Board was projecting rate increases in the neighborhood of 7%. As expected, a number of large single family HOA’s have voiced their concerns and objections to the proposal rate structure, however, to date the Board Commissioners and staff have not shown any inclination to alter it.

Why is government trying to make patio home communities go down in value? Unlike single family homes,there is more and more push to pre-fund maintenance that will not occur for many years and now the Water Board is trying to increase watering rates far above single family homes, without regard to whether the HOA has too much green space or has very little or what impact they have on water conservation. It seems everyone is aimed at making owning a patio home more expensive, thereby reducing their sales appeal and resale value.

Over the past few years the more we save, the more we are penalized by Denver Water by increased rates. Now HOA's who have limited budets are being penalized astronomically. I do not see why HOAs should pay more than regular single family homes since, for patio homes, common areas are the yards for each home. These are questions that I and others ask over and over again with no satisfactory answer.

I am the President our our HOA Board of Directors in Carriage Club. We have 430 homes in our community and have considerable large areas of grass. We would either have to drastically raise our HOA dues, or drastically cut back on watering since our annual cost of watering in 2006 was close to $70,000.00. Also, communities create their budgets before the start of the new year, so to so drastically change the water rates after that, puts community budgets in total disarray.

We have had record moisture already, so if you really want to raise the rates so drastically, give communities a chance to make changes to reduce water usage before incurring the increase. Otherewise, communities will be forced to curtail the watering necessary to keep existing grass areas green creating ugly, dry communities. Do we want Denver to look like a barren desert where only the wealthy can afford green?

I am a former President and Treasurer for Cherry Grove East II in Aurora. In November 2006 we budgeted for about a 6% increase in water as instructed by our management company. A 40% increase would be more than $20,000 extra that we do not have in our budget. I am extremely angered by this verylate notice regarding such a substantial increase. I am currently investigating Xeriscaping options to bring our current consumption under control. HOAs should be given at least a year or two to bring down their costs before such an increase is accepted.