Written by bkabritsor
Living in a community that has a homeowner’s association in place offers benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, you have recourse if one or more of your neighbors neglects to keep their homes in adequate condition. On the other hand, you may have to abide by any number of different rules and guidelines, and you may feel as if your HOA keeps raising rates without due cause.
What to know about HOA fee increases
HOAs generally have the right to increase HOA fees as long as they are able to justify the fee increase based on how the community is going to use those fees. HOAs have some discretion in this area and may decide to raise rates if they feel doing so is a necessary part of maintaining the residential community.
What to do before signing a deed
Once you sign a deed to a home in an HOA community, you have limited options available to you in the event of an HOA fee increase. For this reason, it may benefit you to have a property lawyer review the deed before you sign it to make sure the covenants it outlines are reasonable.
Many HOA disputes are the result of similar circumstances. Often, these cases arise when a homeowner purchases a home in an HOA community while agreeing to one set of covenants only for new restrictive covenants to apply sometime later.
Shared from Gregg & Gregg, P.C.
