Teach Your HOA Members How to Keep Costs Down

No one who lives in an HOA likes to see costs (and therefore dues!) go up. After all, everyone has bills to pay and plenty of places where they can spend their well-earned money. Giving more to the association isn’t usually top on anyone’s list of places to spend.

If your homeowners are serious about keeping their dues low, there are a few things they can do to help you keep costs down. Remind them of these things so they don’t inadvertently make it more expensive to live in your neighborhood.

Clean Up After Themselves

Keeping common areas clean is everyone’s job. If individuals aren’t cleaning up after themselves, then the association will have to pay someone to come in and keep things clean. This costs money and can, over time, lead to a significant rise in HOA costs. Make sure residents know how to dispose of trash, access dumpsters, what needs to be recycled, and more.

Know and Follow the Rules

Chasing down rulebreakers costs time and money. While some of this is already built into the HOA budget, keeping infractions to a minimum can help save money, which can then be spent in other ways.

Additionally, many HOA rules are designed to help keep insurance costs down. If people violate these too often, insurance will actually get more expensive and the costs of living in the neighborhood will rise. Residents can also adhere to common-sense safety rules to help keep insurance costs down.

Recycle

If recycling is included in your HOA waste management budget, make sure people know how to use it. This is even more true if local laws require recycling and threaten fines to organizations that don’t do it properly. If the HOA gets fined because people are throwing away trash that they should be recycling, these costs will eventually get passed back to the homeowners.

Sometimes, adding recycling to the waste management strategy will come with an additional cost. This cost is usually relatively small and well worth it. Some HOAs can even absorb it without having to change their assessment fees. If yours can’t do this, make sure homeowners understand why fees are going up and what participating in recycling programs can do for them.

Treat Common Areas With Respect

Any damage to common areas – whether to landscaping or other parts of the property – will need to be fixed and every repair has a cost attached. Reminding your homeowners that treating common areas well can save them money could help keep your costs down.

Educate Everyone

Teach people how to save water, how to plant for the climate, how to save energy at home, and more. When you educate your homeowners, they will be able to apply what they’ve learned to keep the overall costs of living in your neighborhood down.

Consult an HOA Management Company

Reach out to us at AMI today if you need an HOA management company in Florida or help to keep costs down in your neighborhood. Our community management professionals will find the solutions that will work best for you!