If you live in a house, condo or townhome that is part of an HOA, you have to pay monthly dues, but that doesn’t mean that’s all you pay. From time to time the HOA may also decide that you need to pay an additional fee for something called a special assessment. This may happen due to a maintenance or repair project that’s beyond the HOA’s budget, but it may also happen when the HOA realizes they didn’t collect enough money to pay the bills they’re supposed to pay.

In this story, one condo owner’s HOA tells the residents they each need to pay $4000 for a special assessment due to utility and insurance expenses that were higher than they anticipated.

However, this resident has questions, and the HOA doesn’t seem willing to provide detailed answers.

Keep reading for the whole story.

HOA is charging every unit a $4k special assessment due to unexpected utility usage

Location: Phoenix, AZ

I live in a townhome/condo complex.

Our HOA just notified us that they’re charging a $4,000 special assessment to be due December 31, due to “an operating expense shortfall” due to utility and insurance expenses exceeding the budget.

The math isn’t mathing.

There are 44 units in my complex.

So they’re basically telling us that we spent an additional $176,000 on water/sewage/trash this year???

The original budget for the year planned for $53,448 for these expenses and $16,824 for insurance.

So even if both of these doubled somehow, it wouldn’t add up to $176,000.

The HOA refuses to give a detailed breakdown.

I emailed back requesting a documented break down of how they calculated that $4,000 number and they sent a mass email back saying “The Special Assessment has been calculated at $4,000 per unit. As stated in the assessment letter, the funds will be placed into the Association’s operating account to help fund unexpected operating expenses. The total assessment amount was determined by reviewing the Association’s current-year shortage, anticipated increases for next year, and deferred maintenance needs for the associaiton. At this time, the Association has not broken down the specific allocation of the assessments among these expenses.”

Is there anything we can do to fight them on this or at least push them to give us the proof??

I live in a low income area and this is a huge amount of money to just spring on everyone.

I’d have to pay them like $450 a paycheck to pay it in full by the deadline AND our HOA fee is already $245 for a really bad, not well-maintained, bare bones community.

It seems like they just pulled that number out of a hat if they don’t have a breakdown of expenses to share.

Let’s see what Reddit recommends.

This person doesn’t think the assessment sounds that outrageous.

Another person has a theory.

This person has another theory.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who gets revenge on her neighbors after they keep using her trash bins.

Here’s a suggestion to run for the HOA board.

If OP really wants to know the ins and outs of how and why the HOA is making the decisions they’re making, running for HOA board would probably be a good idea. However, it sounds like $4000 isn’t actually that crazy, and OP is probably going to have to pay up.

Special assessments can be really annoying when the reasoning doesn’t make sense. An explanation wouldn’t make the payment any easier, but at least it would make it easier to understand.

Nobody likes an unexpected bill.