CivilMaze19 t1_j2e329u wrote
Reply to comment by iranisculpable in Website for HOA payments clearly states a $3.25 fee, but has been charging me 3.25%. Is this worth fighting over? by Melodic_Language_890
Attend meetings in general if you have a problem with what they’re doing. So many people willingly buy in HOA areas, don’t attend meetings, then wonder why nothing changes.
iranisculpable t1_j2e443n wrote
Ultimately the only way to force change is to be on the HOA board. It is fairly easy to join the board if state regulations required fixed terms and elections. Usually you end up in by default.
Once in the board, for something like OP’s issue, a director can ask the property manager why is there a discrepancy and if the answer is that it should have always been $3.25, the director can make a motion to require the property manager to refund the excess fees and a separate motion to stop collecting the excess fees.
azvnza t1_j2e6rgo wrote
Or even still, be friends with the board and be vocal in the meetings to push your issue along. You dont have to be on the board to get things passed, especially if other people in your community feel the same way.
s0n0fagun t1_j2ebsnc wrote
You are assuming the HOA is profiting from this transaction. Refunding the fees the payment processor made in error will come from the HOA reserves and not from the payment processor. The board needs to engage the payment processor to get to the bottom of this but the CCRs will need to define what an excessive fee is.
3.25% is not that excessive for a credit card procesing fee. The OP could try a different form of payment like a check or a bank transfer.
Only1alive t1_j2eb2h8 wrote
I went to 6 HOA meetings over 5 years.
Two of the meetings they cancelled without saying anything due to people on the board not being available.
The other four? We couldn't vote on anything due to either missing 2 of our 4 board members, or not enough home owners showing up (likely due to the meeting time being at 5:00pm in a weekday, not allowing kids, and cancelling last minute all the time without warning).
Since we couldn't vote, the board members were allowed to make decisions FOR us.
One of the votes were for new board members...
The board member that we were voting to remove didn't show, which prevented us from voting them out.
They did that for 2 years before enough people complained, and we got a whole new management company and board members, then the cycle repeated again, only this time, they raised condo fees by $50 a month every 6 months while also removing services.
They ended up claiming that all the costs went to snow plowing, until someone requested the receipts and did the math. The numbers were way off, and it was found that the new manager was increasing rates and pocketing the cash.
So glad to be out of the place.
_BearHawk t1_j2eb8zd wrote
Join the hoa board and then work to disband it
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