Urgent Message About This Budget
Dear Bayside friends & homeowners:
Below are some of the main reasons that this year budget report is invalid & unenforceable:
1-It has missed the deadline required by law (in our case it was October 1st. most received it on 6th and 7th for some people): Owners are entitled to know at the beginning of the fiscal year what their association’s assessments will be. The board has a fiduciary obligation to determine what the assessments will be for that fiscal year and has a right to use the remedy provided in the Civil Code if expenses are greater than anticipated. Otherwise, the legislature would not have imposed a sanction for a board’s failure to timely distribute the new fiscal year’s budget, and a board could simply send out whatever they have and finalize the budget later.
§5300(b)(5) provides that an association’s annual pro forma operating budget is to be distributed 30 to 90 days prior to the beginning of the association’s fiscal year. If the association does not timely distribute its budget, then it does not have the right to increase regular assessments, at least not without approval of the homeowners (as described below in reference to §5605(b). This language makes it clear that it was the legislature’s intent that the budget be distributed once (and prior to the beginning of the association’s fiscal year), and that homeowners are entitled to know at the time the budget is distributed what the rate of assessments will be.
2- It implies the possibility of a mid-year increase,
To allow a board the ability to increase regular assessments mid-year does not allow the association’s homeowners to budget their personal finances properly and allows the board to approve and distribute a budget that is not a fixed and accurate accounting of the association’s projected costs for the fiscal year. The Civil Code does not specifically provide that an association has the right to increase assessments mid-year (without owner approval) just because it did not increase regular assessments by 20% when the budget was distributed prior to the beginning of the association’s fiscal year.
3- It contains the CC&Rs changes that was never approved by the membership
For example, rules for pets
Another issue with this budget is its illegal reduction of our reserves to the tune of 121,000 dollars equal to about 43 dollars per unit per month. Even if we did not increase the reserves and kept it at last year level, we would have seen a 68 dollars per month increase in our monthly fee instead of 25 dollars.
This budget as presented, has a built-in 6000 Dollars special assessment to cover the reduction of our reserves which will kick in a few months from now. This means we will have to pay over 13,200 dollars for next year’s fees. This is the mid-year increase of bullet point 2 above.
I have made it easy for you busy homeowner to see the problem areas by taking the reserve pages and highlighted them for you. Please look over these 3 pages and send an email to baysidehomeowners@gmail.com with your questions or concerns or need for clarification.
This budget paints a bleak picture of our future financials which will cause an immediate drop in our unit market value not to mention the enormous fees we have to pay. If you have such extra cash sitting around, ignore this warning. If not, please join our group of Bayside Concerned Homeowners to collectively stop this damaging chain of decision making that has resulted in this debacle.
The law is on our side. We can and should reject this budget before losing our right to do so. Please leave your comments and you can read about your rights as homeowners on the some of the other articles posted on this website.
Thank you
DOCUMENTS & ANALYSIS:
Word DOC 
>> Please see this 2019 vs. 2020 year over year comparison regarding the upcoming special assessment