How assessments are calculated
Two numbers decide your bill: the budget the board adopted, and the share the declaration assigns your unit.
Your assessment is your unit's share of the association's adopted budget, multiplied by an allocation formula fixed in the declaration, either an equal share per unit or a share proportional to value or size. The declaration must state the formula, and every unit's share must add up to 100 percent across the association.
The math is two steps, not one
First, the board adopts a total budget for the year. Second, that total is divided across every unit using a fixed formula written into the declaration. Your assessment is not a figure the board picks for your unit specifically, it is your fixed slice of the whole. If your association budgets $250,000 for the year and your declaration gives your unit a 2.5 percent common expense share, your bill is $6,250, because that percentage is fixed, not because the board decided you personally owe that much.
The formula lives in the declaration, not the board's judgment
A board cannot invent a new split at budget time. The declaration itself has to state the method and the numbers have to add up.
"[The declaration] shall allocate a fraction or percentage of undivided interests in the common elements and in the common expenses."
Source: North Carolina General Statutes §47C-2-107, North Carolina General Assembly
Equal, per-unit shares and value-proportional shares are both legitimate methods, not a shortcut versus the "real" way to do it.
"The allocation may be by percentage, fraction, formula, or any other method which indicates the relative liabilities for common expenses."
Source: O.C.G.A. §44-3-80, Georgia General Assembly
Which method your association uses, equal shares, square footage, purchase price, or another formula, is set in your own declaration. Check yours before assuming another association's method applies to you.
One document can run more than one formula
A single association's expense share does not have to match its voting weight, or its share of the common elements. The declaration can set different formulas for different purposes.
"The items need not be allocated the same for all purposes."
Source: Minn. Stat. §515A.2-108, Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Minnesota
So a unit that pays an equal one-fortieth share of expenses in a forty-unit association might still cast one of forty equal votes, or might not, those are separate questions your declaration answers separately.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A new board member says the association's equal, per-unit assessment split must be a shortcut the old board took instead of doing real math. Is that right?
The declaration lists percentage shares for all 40 units in the association. What must be true about those percentages?
A condo's declaration gives every unit an equal vote but allocates common expenses by square footage instead. Is that arrangement allowed?
Sources
- Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 27A (Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act), State of Vermont
- North Carolina General Statutes §47C-2-107, North Carolina General Assembly
- 68 Pa.C.S. §3208 (Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act), Pennsylvania General Assembly
- O.C.G.A. §44-3-80 (Georgia Condominium Act), Georgia General Assembly
- Minn. Stat. §515A.2-108 (Minnesota Uniform Condominium Act), Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Minnesota
Assessments
Want to see where your association's number might legally increase? Read Raising assessments next.
Which allocation formula your association uses, equal shares, square footage, purchase price, or another method, and whether it differs for voting versus expenses, is set entirely by your own declaration. Look there first before comparing your bill to another owner's or another association's.