Coronado Cays HOA - Announcements - Mardi Gras MAY Newsletter

Mardi Gras MAY Newsletter

5/20/2014

MARDI GRAS VILLAGE NEWSLETTER

Most American homeowners associations increase their dues by 3 % per year. This is to keep up with the cost of living, which has recently become quite high. Coronado Cays villages typically try not to raise dues at all, which necessitates a large increase after several years of 0 %. Mardi Gras Village had a "catch-up" increase 9 years ago, then incredibly proceeded to have 0 % for 5 of the last 8 years! Here is the record, from fiscal year (July 1-June 30) '07-08 through the present '14-15: 0.00% 5.00% 0.00% 0.00% 3.00% 0.00% 0.00% 10.25%

Yes, the year beginning July 01, 2014 had to make up for the previous deficits. But if you actually averaged the increases over the 8 years, the annual increase is a most reasonable 2.3%, well under the living cost increases.

Mardi Gras, one of the Cays four condominium villages, has the largest expanse of landscaped areas, which makes us impacted severely by increases in labor and utilities supplies. Wages increased greatly last year, and water cost escalated, yet the budget selected for '13-14 was irrationally reduced to prevent any increase in dues! We had to go over budget for necessary landscape and other expenses shortly after the year began, which caused the substantial increase. Keep in mind, though , that AVERAGE costs for 8 years have been quite low.

We are proposing some cost-cutting of unnecessary expenses, which are overdue . I recommend that CCHOA discontinue servicing the front entryways-archway/gate to front door-of patio homes. The practice began soon after the village was formed , but townhouse owners were required to plant and maintain their front yards. To counter this inequality , an annual beach cleanup was performed for the bay-fronting units. The cleanup was abruptly discontinued a number of years ago. This inequality must cease.

Another clever way to reduce landscaping costs will be to eliminate those ridiculous little patches of lawn, mostly along Delaport, and replace them with artificial turf. Our own staff will do the labor, which greatly reduces the cost.

CONVERSION FROM CONDOMINIUM TO FEE SIMPLE STATUS: A NO-BRAINER!!!

For a relatively small fee, a company specializing in conversion to fee simple can give you a whopping increase of $200,000 on your $1,000,000 home!! ($160,000 for an $800,000 residence.) Who would NOT want to do this???

GM Nick Arther and I met with representatives of the firm last week to discuss how this amazing transformation can occur. You don't have to change any HOA services, such as painting and maintenance , which can remain as at present. The only change is the title. A survey of each lot will be taken, and the legal filing covers the rest. City of Coronado approval is necessary; we see no problem with this.

The surveyed lot will include backyard and front entryway , both of which will become the property of the homeowner , instead of having these areas designated exclusive-use common areas belonging to the village residents as a whole . This will allow building projections on the home to encroach both front and back, instead of only within the structure footprint.

You don't plan to sell your home for a long while? Then why not prepare it ahead of time, since the process is fairly lengthy? The procedure will allow a large increase in value for your children or grandchildren , when they inherit the residence.

Conversion fees will be about $3,000 or less, negligible when you consider the huge value increase. We will have the experts available soon to answer any questions and confirm what we are saying here. We must have total approval of homeowners to go ahead with this project. But it has been done numerous times successfully.

Again , why would we NOT do this???

Dick Beh, Director

May 2014