Originally Posted by LuvtheVillages (Post 2212585)

All newly built homes have a bond debt. You acquire the bond debt when you purchase a home. You pay it annually on your property tax bill.

Homes in the "historic section" have no bond.
Older homes have been paying on their bond annually, and the amount is therefore reduced.
Some homeowners have chosen to pay off their bond instead of making annual payments. They still have to pay the annual maintenance fee with their property tax. But they are saving the interest expense and the annual administration cost.

Originally Posted by coconutmama (Post 2212766)

I would add that some villages in the county of Lady Lake, such as Pine Hill & Pine Ridge never had bonds. Of course their taxes are a bit higher.

Originally Posted by coconutmama (Post 2212766)

I would add that some villages in the county of Lady Lake, such as Pine Hill & Pine Ridge never had bonds. Of course their taxes are a bit higher.

Originally Posted by retiredguy123 (Post 2212769)

Not correct. The houses in the Villages of Pine Hills and Pine Ridge all had or have bonds.

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2212521)

There are bond amortization schedule for Districts 1-14. I think that covers all homes but I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by coconutmama (Post 2212766)

I would add that some villages in the county of Lady Lake, such as Pine Hill & Pine Ridge never had bonds. Of course their taxes are a bit higher.

Originally Posted by cycler (Post 2212437)

My wife and I are visiting the end of May and hope to find a rental in the fall, for a one month stay, to see if TV are for us. While doing research on TV I see the following terms and hence the question. Are amenities fees another way of saying HOA fees? If not are there two separate fees in TV and what is the difference between the two fees if they are not the same thing? Thanks in advance, cycler.

Originally Posted by Bill14564 (Post 2212548)

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

- The Developer owns everything initially - houses, roads, rec centers, dog parks, etc
- People purchase homes
- Most roads are turned over to the County
- A CDD is established for local governance and for maintenance of common areas
- Amenities (golf courses, pools, rec centers, dog parks, etc) are turned over to the Villages CDD covering the area (North of 466 = VCCDD, 44 to 466 = SLCDD, South of 44 = ???).
- "Turning over" might involve payment to the Developer

When the dust settles:
- The resident owns the home
- The numbered CDD owns the common area and the Villa roads
- The County owns the non-Villa roads
- The Villages area CDD (VCCDD or SLCDD) owns the amenities

Amenity fees are paid monthly monthly on your utility bill and go to the CDD covering the area (VCCDD or SLCDD). Amenity fees pay for gate attendants, rec center employees, neighborhood watch, pool chemicals, new roofs on the rec centers, etc.

Maintenance fees are paid yearly on your tax bill (about $500) and go to your numbered CDD (CDD10 gets mine). These fees are used for maintenance of common areas such as entrance signs, painting some villa walls, flowers, maintenance of villa roads, filling sinkholes near retention ponds, etc.

A portion of the Maintenance fees from Districts 5-11 (currently) are pooled for project-wide maintenance activities (mowing common areas, flowers in common areas, fixing sinkholes, etc). The Project Wide Advisory Committee (PWAC) is a group of supervisors from Districts 5-11 that advises the SLCDD on the use of the pooled funds. They also make recommendations to the SLCDD on the use of Amenity fees.


For those who are already owners, the Resident Academy is the place to learn about District Government from the experts.

Originally Posted by jmaccallum (Post 2212779)

The Historic Section is not a CCD and the homes there never had bonds.

Originally Posted by Laker14 (Post 2212527)

If this is true than I have been misunderstanding the system. Not sure what you mean by "The Villages" when you say they own the amenities. My understanding is that The Developer owns the amenities in the newly developed areas until a certain point in time when the developing phase has ended, and then the amenities are bought by that particular CDD. Each separate CDD does not, however, administer the finances. There are 3 entities that do that. One of them is the developer for the aforementioned areas still owned by the developer, and the others have acronyms I don't remember, but they pool the money and administer the funds to pay for the amenity infrastructure and maintenance.

Originally Posted by snbrafford (Post 2212498)

I wanted to add that no golf is free. You can pay as you go at executive golf courses or if you play a lot, you can pay an annual "trail fee" - either way it's pretty cheap golf but not free. You can play the championship courses but not free. I've not stayed up with the cost of the premier membership but it only reduces the cost to play. For us, the executives are challenge enough.

Originally Posted by jmaccallum (Post 2212808)

The CDD’s do not own any amenities. They are owned by LLC’s and maintained by the VCCDD, which employs everyone that works for the Villages. Two advisory boards, the AAC (Amenities Authority Committee) and the PWAC (Project Wide Advisory Committee) make suggestions to the VCCDD for improvements and such. Our Amenity Fees go to the VCCDD to pay for everything.

Maintenance fees are separate and in addition and are established by the CDD you live within by the CDD elected Board. For new CDD’s it takes about 5 years before all Board Members are residents. At the start of the CDD Board Members are appointed and each year thereafter one position is filled with a resident member. The CDD Maintenance Fee is different for each CDD and is used to cover Common Area expenses that particular CDD is responsible for maintaining.

The governing/maintenance system of the Villages can seem baffling. It is complex with many components but not really that difficult to understand, and it works pretty well.

Originally Posted by Laker14 (Post 2212840)

Thank you for the explanation. Who owns and controls the LLCs that own the amenities? What does the acronym VCCDD stand for?