Leaving Homeowner Associations Underfunded

There are also numerous instances of homebuilders who built subdivisions then ran off leaving underfunded homeowner associations holding the bag. As the homebuilders build more planned communities, they are also turning them over to residents and volunteers to run once the developers sell out. Often, development experts said, residents from California to Arizona to Florida learn they've inherited financial time bombs. There are no statistics on how often these problems occur. But experts in association finances say they're one element in a larger phenomenon in which one-third of the nation's 260,000 associations don't have enough money for their long-range upkeep.