Homeowner’s Associations are raising fees and tightening restrictions

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Many HOAs are on the brink of bankruptcy, according to local property managers. This means they're forced to pass the buck on to residents, who are then facing hundreds of dollars per month in increased fees and even tighter restrictions than years prior.

It's not a new trend to HOA managers, who say it's been going on for years.

"Many of the associations are, you know, one large repair away from being bankrupt," Rudy Thompson, President of Doorman Association Management. "You know, if they had one large plumbing repair in some instances, it could bankrupt many of these associations."

Thompson went on to say that it had to do with increasing costs associated with running an HOA, like insurance, maintenance, and backlogged property maintenance.

"For instance, we've got an association ... that has a number of decks that are in disrepair. And a lot of them ... [have] become a life safety issue, meaning that they're dangerous for individuals to go out on the decks, and over the last 20 or 30 years, they've not been maintained very well," Thompson said.

He said he had seen many associations delaying repairs or maintenance to avoid hiking up HOA rates more over the last few years, and now residents are bearing the consequences.

Another strange phenomenon among HOAs is banning gas grills.

"A lot of the insurance carriers started requiring that grills be 10 to 15 feet away from a structure. And so it's always been a requirement. It's only been the last three or four years that they've started to monitor and ensure that homeowners are actually doing that because of fires," Thompson said.

According to Thompson, Grills can increase insurance rates, another major factor in HOA increases. For many HOAs in Colorado Springs, banning or regulating grills is a matter of affordability for homeowners.