Homeowner Briefing · 2025 Financial Year
Where does a dollar of your dues go?
Every homeowner pays the same annual assessment. This is what the Association's own financial statements show that dollar paid for last year.
One dollar of assessments · 2025 Source: Association year-end statements
- 66¢ — Management, delinquency billings, legal fees, bank charges
- 15¢ — Landscaping the entrance
- 11¢ — Insurance
- 7¢ — Community events
- 1¢ — Utilities
Sixty-six cents of every dollar goes to administration. Thirty-four cents reaches the neighborhood — the entrance, the insurance, the events, the lights. Our common area is a single monument lot. There is no pool, no clubhouse, no gate.
Four things the records show
These figures are drawn from the Association's own year-end statements. They are rounded. Exact figures and source documents are in the board packet below.
- $84 Interest the Association netted in 2025 on roughly $120,000 in the bank — after about $190 in bank charges. That is a return of about seven one-hundredths of one percent.
- $1,700 Net cost to the Association of collections last year. We spent about $4,900 pursuing unpaid dues and recovered about $3,200.
- 66% Share of all 2025 spending that went to administrative and financial costs, rather than to the neighborhood.
- 2 Increases to the management fee since 2024. Both are signed, but the Association's records contain no board minutes ratifying either one.
What the Board has asked
These are questions, not conclusions. Each has been put in writing and each is on the record.
-
Why is the Association's money earning nothing?
Roughly $120,000 sits in Association accounts. Last year it returned $84 after bank charges. We have asked what the accounts are, what rate they pay, and why the monthly bank charges were not waived.
-
Why does collecting a small debt cost more than the debt?
The governing documents set the remedy for late dues: interest at ten percent a year, and a lien. They do not set a menu of per-letter charges. Those came from the management contract — which the Board controls. We have asked that collection charges be capped, and that they be payable only when actually recovered from the owner.
-
Are we seeing the complete report?
The monthly board packet includes a check register — a line-by-line list of every check written, with the vendor, the check number, and the amount. It is how a director verifies where the money actually went.
For all of 2025, it wasn't there. The Association's packages moved to a shorter “Engage” format that contained only a balance sheet and an income statement — totals, with no way to see the checks behind them. The register returned in February 2026 and has appeared in every full monthly report since.
Two questions follow from that:
Both formats are still in circulation. The shorter package, without the register, has still been issued alongside the fuller one this year. Which one the Board receives in a given month is not guaranteed. The full Monthly Report — the one containing the check register — should be the standing format, not the one we happen to get.
2025 remains unverified. For twelve months, the Board approved financials it could not check against the underlying disbursements. Those registers exist in the Association's records. We have asked for the Association's complete financial records.
-
Are we paying a fair price?
The Board solicited competitive proposals for management, landscaping, legal, and insurance. Responses have arrived and the range is wide. No vendor decision has been made, and none will be made until every proposal is in front of the full Board.
What could change
If the Board acts on what the records show, the Association's annual position could improve by an estimated $13,000 to $16,000 — roughly $100 to $125 per lot, every year. Two of these need no change of vendor at all.
| Change | Needs a new vendor? |
|---|---|
| Move Association funds to an account that pays market interest and charges no monthly fee | No |
| Cap collection charges, and pay them only when recovered from the owner | No — a policy and a contract term |
| Right-size the landscaping contract for a single monument lot | Competitive bid |
| Right-size the management contract | Competitive bid |
Board documents
The full budget packet — including vendor proposals, pricing, and the year-over-year financial compilation — is restricted to Association directors and officers. Vendor proposals are submitted in confidence and are not published.
- Budget review and vendor benchmarking report
- Year-over-year financial compilation, 2018–2026
- Competitive proposals and comparison model
- Governance reference — every recorded instrument and amendment
Your records, your rights
Every owner may inspect the Association's books and records. Requests are made in writing to the Association's mailing address of record, under the Association's Records Production Policy and the Texas Property Code.
Board meetings are open to members. Notice is posted in advance. If you want the meeting date, the agenda, or help making a records request, use the contact below and it will be sent to you.
About this briefing
Published by a member of the Board of Directors as a homeowner briefing. Figures are drawn from the Association's own financial statements and are rounded for clarity; exact figures and source documents are available to directors in the board packet. This page reports what the records show and the questions that have been asked. It is not a statement of the Board as a whole, and no vendor decision has been made.