[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Jazuela

No horse in this race, since I think $159 is a reasonable fee for the amenities y'all get. But I have a question about "fairness." Why do new homeowners have to bear the higher cost, thus covering the entire added expense, and not distributed evenly among all homeowners? Do people who bought in TV the day before the changes became effective, cost less than the people who bought the day after the changes became effective? If not, then why aren't they being made to pay the increase as well? I get that "old timers" might be grandfathered in. But that would be people who bought in Orange Blossom, or similar. Anyone south or west of Spanish Springs would not be considered "old timers." And at this point, most people living north or east of Spanish Springs aren't original owners either.

In every condo I know of, everyone pays the same condo fee, unless there's a skyscraper with a luxury home on the top 3 penthouse floors with concierge service. They'd pay more, because they get more amenities. The same for coops, and the very few limited planned communities that I've actually looked into, or know people who live in them.

But if everyone who owns in the Villages is entitled to the same amenities, I don't understand why they aren't all equally responsible for the fees. This is only partly a criticism. But mostly it's just being very confused, because I've never heard of such a thing before.

Your question is both interesting and reasonable, it's also very difficult to answer. I'll apologize now for this post being so long winded but it's complected to address and gain an accurate prospective on.

Based on all I've read and the discussions that have been had at CDD and PWAC meetings I've attended in the last 5 years I offer the following observations and information.

All the deed restrictions (that I'm aware of back to 1973) contain a Consumer Price Index adjustment (CPI) clause that allows for the adjustment of the amenities rate paid by a home owner every year. This is the first of only three ways that your amenities rate can be changed.
This serves two purposes; a) most importantly, it protects us, the home owners, from uncontrollable increases by the governing body (previously the developer and now the AAC and SLAD/PWAC), and b) allows for some adjustment in revenues collected to offset rising operating costs for the amenities.

Overtime the CPI adjustment limits has lead to some differences in the rates paid by home owners in the various areas. The CPI does not always reflect the real world and the realities of how prices and costs change. Remember, the CPI comes out of Washington DC and is subject to their changes and interpretations, and we all know how accurate and truthful the politicians in DC are. As the CPI adjustment clause dates back to 1973 in the original deed restrictions of the first units of The Villages and has fundamentally remained unchanged, we are left with 46 years of cumulative error or under adjustments in amenities rates. (the oldest deed restrictions contract I've found dates back to 1973 - 46 years ago)

The real world chimes in as it often does when it comes to operating the facilities and amenities and their costs. The CPI adjustments don't cut it and adjustments are periodically made to the Prevailing Rate to reset the starting point. This "reset clause" in the deed restrictions allows the rate to be adjusted and eliminates the CPI errors when a house is sold or resold. This is the second way in which your rate is adjusted. It generally doesn't affect you until you die or move on and then it actually affect the new owner. Who would have known that so many Villages would be affected by this as they moved into their second or third home in The Villages, I had one neighbor who was in their 5th home and has now moved on to their 6th.

The Deferral Rate was established several years ago to help smooth out some of these differences and limit the upward growth of the monthly rates. The Deferral Rate is an implementation of the deferral option clause included in the later deed restrictions contracts. The good and the bad of this rate have been argued many times and both sides have valid points of view. The ultimate realities of this voluntary cap in rate increases is quickly coming upon us as we look into the next few years and see the adverse impact it will have on future budgets. This is a topic that is scheduled for discussion in a joint meeting of the AAC and PWAC as we enter into the cycle to establish the operating budget for the next fiscal year.

The Prevailing Rate determination, while I don't have much insight into its determination process, is a reflection of the actual operating costs of the current amenities and it's implementation on resales using the reset clause relieves some of the pressure caused by the CPI clause.

It's not a perfect system, but it does protect the residents from runaway rate increases, an important issue for all on a predominantly fixed income. Ultimately, one way or another most home owners pay very close to the same amount each month for the amenities. Is it a "fair" system? Based on the current numbers, contracts, and agreements in place, it's about as fair as it can be.

I mentioned that there are three ways that the amenities rate can be adjusted. Here's the third. Let's call this one the "Gimme Clause" in the deed restriction. In a nutshell, if enough residents demand some new amenity then the rates can be raised to cover the cost to build and operate this additional amenity. So when a group of residents start to say "Gimme more golf executive golf courses, Gimme a covered pool, Gimme more pickle ball courts, or Gimme a new rec center with X, Y, & Z in it" the response from the other side of the table (from AAC/PWAC/SLAD) has to be "Gimme some more money every month", the conversation usually dies at that point. If you want something new you have to pay for it, there is no rich uncle out there doling out dollars and fee stuff, and the Developer doesn't owe anyone anything that isn't written in their signed contract.

I hope this and my previous posts on the subject help you understand what is going on and why with the amenities. My attempt is not to agree or disagree with the current happenings but to try to lay out the facts as I've learned them and provide some accurate insight for everyone else to try to understand them also.