A couple of weeks ago, we took
the RA Board to task (
here)
for introducing prorated assessment fees for low-value properties, specifically
0.5% of the value of properties worth $128,400 or less.
Well, to use an NFL officiating term, upon
further review the proposed prorated fee is specifically called for in the RA
Deed.
It is not a change of process.
Specifically, Section V.8 of the
RA Deed sets a limit on how high RA assessment fees may rise. It specifically states that no property can
be forced to pay more than one-half percent of its County-assessed property
value. Here’s the language in the Deed:
Section
V.8. Maximum Assessment.
(a) In any one year, the sum of
the Annual Assessment for Common Expenses and any
Special Assessment, attributable to that year, with respect to any Lot
shall not exceed the lesser of:
(1)
Percentage Cap. One-half of one percent of the assessed valuation, as
determined
for tax purposes from time to time by
Fairfax County, of such Lot and improvements
thereon;
. . .
Although we accept responsibility for our post, RA did not make the
source of the authority for this prorated fee easily understood by the
community.
The RA resolution refers to
this “maximum assessment” section in the eleventh of its fourteen “whereas”
recitals in the current draft assessment fee proposal.
(See the draft resolution at the link above.)
The
RA
news release on the proposed assessment fees does not explain the authority
for the newly published prorated assessment fee.
So RA is making explicit in its assessment fee schedule—for the first
time to our knowledge--the requirement of the Deed to limit assessment fees since
the community amended the Deed in 2006.
We applaud the Board's effort to make the prorated fee transparent as
part of the annual RA fee setting process.
