G.H. from outside of Connecticut writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
What are the recommended best practices for boards to abide by when deciding whether, or not, to adjust annual Reserve Fund contributions to take inflation and interest on reserves into account? Is there any liability assumed by a Board if they do not take these two factors into account when finalizing the annual budget and establishing the HOA’s contribution to its’ reserve fund?
Mister Condo replies:
G.H., there are several states that have enacted legislation to force associations to use Reserve Studies and to adjust their common fee contributions to keep the Reserve Fund at adequate levels. A list of these states can be found at the CAI website at https://www.caionline.org/Advocacy/StateAdvocacy/PriorityIssues/ReserveStudy/Pages/default.aspx. So, if you live in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, or Virginia, your association is required, by law, to have a Reserve Study in place. The page also lists Washington State as having a statute that “encourages”, not “requires” a Reserve Study to assist the Board in determining the appropriate level of common fees for an association. Even if you don’t live in state where it is mandated, Reserve Studies are vital tools for associations to know that they are following the Best Practices and sound business judgment in running their associations. I am not aware of any liability assumed by the Board for not taking inflation or interest into account when determining Reserve Fund contributions but a well thought out Reserve Study would certainly do so. In other words, if there were $100,000 needed to replace the common elements in 20 years and only $100,000 were budgeted to do so, factors like inflation and interest would likely make that number too low when the time came to actually make the expenditure to replace the common element. On the other hand, a well-funded Reserve Fund can actually offset some of the interest expense by being invested in a reasonably liquid asset, such as a CD. Hope that helps!