by Philip Trubey
NOV 1, 2018
Regarding the assessment lawsuit filed against the RSFA, the Association collects about $6M from members every year. Approximately half of all members pay a total of $1M while the other half pay $5M per year. A 500% difference.
The way we allocate Association dues (based on a percentage of County tax assessment), is illegal for new HOAs under the California Davis-Sterling law that regulates HOAs. When Prop. 13 was passed in the 1970’s, the Association should have undertaken the effort to change the way dues are assessed when everyone was paying an equal amount, but they didn’t, and so this inequity problem has gotten worse year by year.
We have approximately 2,000 home sites in RSF. If we simply divide $6M/2000 = $3,000 per year per home site. So if everyone paid the same amount, our dues would be about $250 a month.
For comparison, the average San Diego condo pays $330/month on property that is worth on average $385K.
A nearby gated community homeowner pays $700/month.
I was recently paying about $600/month for an empty parcel in Wildflower Estates in Olivenhain.
The point is that this shouldn’t be a big issue. Lifestyles aren’t going to change if we were to ask everyone to pay $250/month. No one should have to sell their property at that rate.
Such a change, however, would make it fair for all.