The mailing with the 2024 dues bill and announcement of the 2024 Annual Homeowners Meeting was mailed on November 30th and should be arriving in mailboxes any day now, if you haven’t already gotten it.
The executive summary:
- Dues will be $236 and are due on January 1, 2024. See further down this page for a FAQ about how the dues amount was determined this year.
- Trash service is still required to be handled by Republic, in order to get our cheap group rate, but each homeowner will now pay Republic directly instead of it being paid through their dues.
- The Annual Homeowners Meeting where we will elect the next board will be held Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 6:30pm at Searchlight Ministries Church on the corner of 22nd Ave and Quincy St.
In order to save printing and mailing costs, a number of things which were not required by our bylaws to be included in the physical mailing were uploaded here instead of included in the envelope, and the cover letter in the envelope asks you to come here to get them.
- Copy of the cover letter (PDF) – this includes the information about how to pay your dues and when and where the meeting will be.
- Letter second page (PDF) – communication from the HOA to go with the mailing
- 2024 Final approved budget (PDF)
- (coming soon) Draft Agenda for January 16, 2024 Homeowners Meeting (PDF) – Contact Claire if you would like something added to the agenda.
- Proxy Form (PDF) – if you can’t attend in person
- If you would like to be put on the ballot to run for the Board of Directors, please fill out this online form. See also an overview of the duties of board members (coming soon).
2024 Dues Overview
We’re making three major changes that affect how you pay dues this year.
- We are continuing to mandate everyone use Republic for trash pickup service so that we can get a much cheaper group rate, however, we are shifting from paying it through your HOA dues to each homeowner paying Republic directly. This eliminates billing issues with bulk pickups and bin deliveries, and vastly reduces the number of mistakes Republic’s customer service is likely to make when dealing with you. It also spreads your trash payment out across the year with quarterly payments instead of paying it all at once.
- We are discontinuing the use of Waveland Property Management effective April 30, 2024. We are returning to being self-managed. This will result in a significant decrease in collected dues (in the long run), however it depends on us continuing to have active board members and other volunteers in the future. We are investigating the possibility of retaining access to AppFolio for the member portal and accounting services, as they will sell directly to HOAs as well, and suggested we could retain our existing data.
- We will be replacing the signs at the Quincy Street and 22nd Avenue entrances, as the existing ones are rotting and will soon disintegrate. The assessment for this is being split over two years, with a significant portion of the cost coming out of our reserves in 2024, and an assessment to replenish the reserves will be collected in 2025. For 2024, this will unfortunately counteract the savings we get from dropping Waveland. Of note: if we had opted to keep Waveland, your 2024 dues would have been $292 for a total out-of-pocket of $401 once you include trash.
So how much is this actually going to cost me?
The trash payments will be paid quarterly, so you won’t have to pay it at the same time as dues. Your first payment for 2024 trash should be in December. If you haven’t been contacted by Republic by mid-December, please contact them to make sure you are set up correctly.
The below chart shows how the dues and trash fees will combine for a more accurate year-to-year comparison. Yes, your out-of-pocket cost actually goes up by $30 in 2024, but as mentioned above, it doesn’t have to all be paid at once. The bulk of the additional cost is the assessment for the sign project. Starting in 2025, your total cost gets significantly cheaper.
The total cost of the sign project is estimated to be roughly $159 per lot. An assessment of $95 per lot is included in your 2024 dues, with the remaining $64 per lot ($9805) of the cost being taken out of our reserves. The 2025 dues will likely contain a $58 per lot assessment to replenish the reserve account.
Note that the amounts listed here for 2025 and beyond are estimates based on the existing budget, and are subject to change (and probably will) based on vendor pricing changes and other unforeseen community needs. But this will still give you a good idea of where it it trending.
| Year | HOA Dues Amount | HOA-mandated out-of-pocket (includes dues + trash) | Notes |
| 2023 Actual | $315 | $315 | Trash was included in dues |
| 2024 Actual | $236 | $345 | 1st sign project assessment, last 4 months of Waveland |
| 2025 Estimated | $170 | $279 | 2nd sign project assessment |
| 2026 Estimated | $113 | $222 | Normal dues going forward |