K.S. from Massachusetts writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
Our board and management deleted our capital reserves on a roof project and has since obtained a loan for it. We have 3 types of condos with 3 different percentages of ownership. They have increased our condo fees and have also added on a capital reserve fee and an additional reserve contribution. They have rounded off these 3 fees. My question is, can they round off capital reserve fees?
Mister Condo replies:
K.S., I would say that they are safe rounding off the fees as long as we are talking about rounding to the nearest dollar, versus rounding off to the nearest $10 or higher. For instance, if the fee for your unit is $96.58 per month and it is rounded to $97 per month, I would say that is likely to be acceptable. If they rounded the same $96.58 per month to $100, I would say that they are not actually rounding but rather increasing the assessment and that could be questioned. As long as they are following the percentage of unit ownership formula correctly and rounding a few cents one way or another, I think they are within their right. All the best!
Our community association manager told me that we cannot round off the monthly maintenance fee and that when complaints have been filed with the state (FL) they’ve lost. Is this true?
K.K., I haven’t heard of that but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Rounding off keeps it simple, for sure. But if a unit owner is going to be a stickler about a few pennies difference per month, I suppose they could file a complaint. Most associations I know have even dollars for fees. In other words, $299.75 is typically rounded up to $300.00. All the best!