Raising assessments
The board's authority, the state limits, and the emergency exception
In most states, the board raises the regular assessment on its own authority, simply by adopting a new annual budget. Owners do not vote to approve it in advance. Instead, in many states the budget takes effect automatically unless owners affirmatively vote it down at a scheduled meeting. State law and the declaration then set the real limits: how much the board can raise without a vote, what notice is required, and what counts as an emergency that changes the rules.
Who actually raises the assessment
An assessment is legally defined as an owner's share of a budget the association has already adopted, not a number the board picks first. Budget comes first, assessment second. In many states, regular assessments must be levied at least annually and tied to that adopted budget, so a board cannot just decide mid-year that dues have gone up without a new budget behind it.
In states built on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act framework, the board adopts the budget, and owners get one check on it: a meeting where they can vote it down.
"Unless at that meeting a majority of all unit owners or any larger vote specified in the declaration reject the budget, the budget is ratified, whether or not a quorum is present."
Source: Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 27A, State of Vermont
Boards and owners routinely assume the opposite, that owners must approve an increase before it takes effect. In states that use this model, that assumption is backwards.
The board's own authority has a ceiling
How far a board can raise assessments without a vote, and what triggers a vote at all, varies by state and by your declaration. Check your own statute and governing documents before assuming either of these examples applies to you.
California caps the board's own authority by percentage:
"The board may not impose a regular assessment that is more than 20 percent greater than the regular assessment for the association's preceding fiscal year."
Source: California Civil Code §5605, California Legislative Information
Texas solves the same problem a different way, with no statewide percentage cap but a hard procedural rule. A Texas board "may not, unless done in an open meeting for which prior notice was given to owners," vote on "increases in assessments" or "levying of special assessments." Do not import California's percentage into a Texas board packet, or vice versa; the two states are not interchangeable. For the specific numbers and procedures that apply where you serve, see Assessment caps and Budget-driven increases.
Genuine emergencies change the calculus
What counts as an emergency, and what a board must document to use it, varies by state. California's percentage caps, for example, do not limit assessment increases necessary for emergency situations, but the board still has to pass a resolution with written findings on why the expense could not have been reasonably foreseen. This is not a shortcut around accountability, it swaps a vote requirement for a paper trail.
The industry trade body representing associations takes a similar position at the policy level, supporting a board's ability to raise emergency money for genuine safety threats without waiting on a membership vote, while still expecting the board to own that decision.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A board adopts next year's budget with a higher regular assessment. No meeting is held to approve it. In a state that uses the ratification model, what happens next?
A California board wants to raise the regular assessment 25 percent above last year's, with no membership vote and no emergency findings. What is true?
A Texas board discusses and votes on a regular assessment increase entirely through private email, never in an open meeting. What is the problem?
Sources
- Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 27A, State of Vermont
- West Virginia Code, Chapter 36B, West Virginia Legislature
- California Civil Code, Davis-Stirling Act, §5605, California Legislative Information
- Texas Property Code, Chapters 82 and 209, Texas Legislature (via Onecle)
- Reserve Study and Funding, Community Associations Institute
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Assessments
Next, see exactly how your state's cap or open-meeting rule works in Assessment caps.
Whether a board can raise assessments without a vote, how much it can raise on its own authority, and what counts as an emergency all vary by state and by your declaration. Confirm current statute text and your governing documents before relying on any figure here.