By: Roy Helsing
Question: Our association pays $150 a meeting for a meeting room in a hotel. We have no on-site place to meet. Why can’t we just forgive $100 per meeting to someone off their assessments if they volunteer their home for the meeting?
It seems like a great plan, anything to get more volunteers – except that neither the Board nor the membership can forgive assessments. Assessments run with the land and the duty to pay them is one that others cannot forgive.
We also see similar plans to forgive all or part of a homeowner’s assessments for other volunteer efforts. In addition, some homeowners feel they can withhold their assessments if they don’t like something the association is doing (or put them in an escrow account until their grievance is solved). Still others think they should get reduced assessments if they don’t use an amenity like the pool or club house.
Unfortunately, none of these actions are allowable – and if they were, they would undermine the entire schema of HOA financing and move an obligation to other homeowners that the association has no authority to move.
In your case, there is an additional concern. If you hold the meeting in a person’s home, unless that person is a board member there is going to be a problem in conducting any executive session should the regular meeting be followed or superseded by an executive session.
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The Helsing Group, Inc.
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