The Sun City Home Owners Association (SCHOA) team has been busy; and in response to Linda McBroom’s recent letter, I, as SCHOA general manager, felt it was important to share the data that demonstrates our ongoing hard work to support the community and showcase how becoming a member is the best way to truly support our efforts.
In April alone, SCHOA received 506 complaints, and about 275 of these complaints were about weeds. The remaining 229 complaints consisted of other possible CC&R violations, such as age restrictions, sheds, vehicles, parking, etc. Our three compliance officers, who all work part-time and cover 17,500 single-family homes in approximately a 15 square mile radius, investigate every complaint. On top of the 506 complaints, we also had hundreds of additional calls, emails, and visits from property owners.
Not only do we take complaints from both members and nonmembers, but we also work with all homeowners to make sure their improvement projects are in line with our CC&Rs. Every property owner in Sun City lives in an HOA and is required to adhere to the CC&Rs; however, unlike every other HOA across the country, it’s currently not mandatory that all property owners pay an annual HOA assessment fee. SCHOA’s annual membership fee is only $25. However, less than 20% of all property owners are members of SCHOA and about 75% of complaints that we receive are from those who are not members of SCHOA.
Linda stated several times that it was the responsibility of SCHOA to essentially maintain everyone’s property values. Honestly, it’s not the sole responsibility of the board of directors, general manager or compliance manager to maintain your property values. It’s the responsibility of the property owner. SCHOA does assist with this by working to enforce the CC&Rs. The mission of SCHOA is “to preserve Sun City property values through the fair and consistent application of the CC&Rs.” And, as a team, we do this to the best of our ability with available resources and in accordance to the legal process.
She also stated, “We all, as Sun City residents, also have a duty and responsibility to maintain our age-restricted community and property values and to speak up and get answers and action before it’s too late.” This is true. All of Sun City’s residents have this duty and responsibility; however, raising your voice and demanding things be done, without being financially supportive of SCHOA, isn’t really going to get us all very far.
Another point of agreement is when she writes that every property owner should be concerned. But that concern should be directed at building support and understanding how community membership would empower SCHOA to do so much more. Many want us to continue to “do your job,” but with 80% of home owners not financially supporting our efforts, this puts a strain on the organization. The annual fee helps us to enforce the CC&Rs, protect our age overlay, fight legislation that could hurt our community, pay our staff, keep our lights on, fund our Community Intervention Program (CIP), and pay for costly attorney fees and lawsuits. I’ve been amazed at the demands directed at SCHOA, made with little thought about supporting those efforts through membership.
As a reminder, none of the RCSC mandatory annual $575 assessment fee goes to SCHOA. The RCSC is not your HOA. SCHOA is the HOA for Sun City. I think we would all agree that we don’t want to look like any other city or lose our age overlay. We all moved here because it’s a unique and beautiful community. But this is where the community needs to come together and financially support the work that we do.
My final comment is that the entire SCHOA team works very hard for the residents of our community. Most of us live in Sun City, love Sun City, and view our jobs as a labor of love and service to our community. If you care about the future of Sun City, and aren’t a member of SCHOA, you should be. Visit suncityhoa.org or give us a call at 623-974-4718.
