Cutback in Services due to lack of funds

7/6/2021 17 Comments

Cutback in Services due to lack of funds

Do you believe that we are receiving less and less services for our HOA dues? Some homeowners are being told by the HOA that there are no longer funds available for removal/replacement of dead plants and some plants are being starved due to reductions in watering to save money. The HOA has already recommended that homeowners should update their aging sprinkler systems. We are being told by the board that in spite of the pandemic we are not facing any financial issues.

We would like to hear from homeowners to see if this is an isolated issue or becoming a general pattern.

17 Comments

Jamie Ferguson

7/14/2021 05:39:39 am

We used to receive pest outdoor services sprayed around perimeter of home for ants and crickets. Now I’m told it was an oversight and that service wasn’t meant for the homeowners. 2 years later! I have many ideas where they can save money. My first is overhead cost for the board. In business, we are required to do more and more with less. When was the last time an audit was done on their administrative payrolls and is every position truly needed? Why do we have cable when cable is growing more and more obsolete with streaming services?

Michelle Dupar

7/14/2021 05:50:16 am

I have owned in DP for 4 years. The HOA dues from 1990 to 2017 were $608/month and the services were good. In the 4 years that I have owned, the HOA dues have gone up 5 times. I fell like the money is being miss managed. For example, I see many flowers being placed in the garden along the entrance to my house that die quickly. What a waste of money! There has to be places in the budget to trim so that we don’t lose services and the HOA dues don’t go up again.

Tom Kohrs

7/14/2021 06:05:18 am

We have seen the board drop pest control for Villas. Lots of excuses from the board as to why they think they shouldn’t have pay, but it comes down to cost. At the same time, the golf course marketing sub committee was told explicitly that the HOA no interest in marketing to non-residents as that might make it harder for residents to get their desired T-time at the last minute. Meanwhile, 1/2 of our HOA dues go to the maintenance and watering of the course. My feeling is the golf course should be run as a business, not a perk for the frequent golfers paid for by the homeowners.

Art

7/14/2021 07:51:50 am

If you're an owner with no cart and want to play in the afternoon in the summer you can't because they want the carts back by 2pm. I agree, the golf course needs to be run like a business. We've gone to other courses to play rather than play here.

DENIS FRIEZNER

7/14/2021 09:45:49 am

Buy a golf cart.

7/14/2021 08:05:48 am

We have been losing @ $1.5 Million A YEAR in golf and the clubhouse, if anyone can figure out the cooked books and mumbo jumbo between the 2 HOA entities of Country Club and HOA.

That is where the money goes.
While annual golfers continue to golf at around $10 a round and eat up the best times of the day with standing orders to block off their times each day.
($3000 plus for golf memberships, golfing 320 days a year. Yes they do).

The majority of owner's don't vote.
Don't bitch if you don't vote.
And don't say you don't know who to vote for.

Do your homework. It is your home.

It will only get worse because the refuse to acknowledge the golf loses.
But. It. Is. Unsustainable.

Craig Robinson

7/16/2021 05:45:37 pm

I have lived here for 32 years on weekends. When this entity was formed, the CC and HOA were separate entities. It wasn't until after the HOA was able to purchase the CC out of bankruptcy and subsequent legal action, that the two entities were combined; around 20 years ago. Each maintained their own landscape, repair services, etc. Combining the two entities saved us substantially. I am sure that it still does. In addition, there was a fee that was separate, that is now part of the HOA dues. It was called "Proprietary Dues". It was paid separately. The three partners, Watt, Princess Hotels, and Gibraltar savings knew that there was not going to be enough revenue to support an 18 hole golf course, which it was at that time, let alone a 27 hole course. They imposed this fee to support the CC. This fee would rise depending on the amount of money needed for the budget. At the time that the fee was rolled into the HOA dues it was somewhere around $100 a month. The need didn't disappear because it is called HOA dues rather than "Proprietary Dues". It was a fee for the value added to your property for being on a golf course, and to give each owner a right to use the Country Club. What you call mumbo jumbo is about the value of Proprietary Dues without much of an increase over 20 years. There are approximately 1300 units @ $100 per unit, or $130,000 a month, or $1.5 million a year.
Not only is it sustainable, it has worked for38 years.

Bill Bender

7/22/2021 07:41:54 am

Well stated, Craig. You save me the problem of responding to TJ who's facts and math we're certainly way off.

Layla

7/14/2021 09:07:01 am

I agree, golf should be run as a separate business and audits should be happening to look at where to cut other costs. I was recently told there was no budget for paving any of the roads anytime soon, even though they all I have cracks are very loud and bumpy, and I was promised over a year ago but they would be paving them soon. I am currently trying to address this with HOA due to how it affects the acoustics in my condo, and disrupts my lifestyle and well-being.

Caroline Marshall

7/14/2021 10:18:25 am

We were told in April that there was no money for tree trimming after several of those wind events. We want our trees trimmed so that they don't get knocked over by the wind. We want to keep our trees as they provide shade for our unit during the heat. Now, apparently, they have the money to remove 1,000 trees from the property with no plans to replace anything. I wonder if our trees aren't being trimmed because they will actually be removed.

Also, the pools are in terrible shape during the weekends. Supposedly, there is no cleaning on Sunday and Monday but now it also seems to be that Saturday, there is no cleaning. By Tuesday, pools that we visit have bugs floating in them, lots of debris and sometimes are cloudy or green. I'm not sure if the chemicals are being done on a daily basis as required by the state.

I have brought both of these issues before the board and received a lot of double speak that means nothing.

7/14/2021 04:22:46 pm

I have no problem with the cost of our maintenance. And when I purchased here, I did so with the full knowledge that I was purchasing in a golf community and that some of my maintenance would go to subsidize golf. Again, I have no problem with that at all. In fact, the maintenance costs here are much less than other communities that we looked at because we are not required to pay for a golf membership or buy a certain amount of food from the clubhouse as is required at other communities that we looked at. We get the cable and soon the wifi which saves us money. But with that said, since I live in a resort community, I expect that I will have resort amenities and I expect that those amenities will be kept up in good condition. The pools should be clean and sparkling every day not just Tuesday through Friday. We should have a lush and beautiful community that reflects the golf community that is here. At this point, we are considering our options as far as other communities that will keep the pools clean and won't destroy the landscaping that is here.

Otto Feik

7/14/2021 12:08:34 pm

Both of my patios are cracking and settling. Been hassling with management trust over a year so far. They required me to spend over $3,000 to remove the tiles and now HOA claims any concrete work will be in 2021 to 2022 year. Why spend $3K to remove tiles when concrete should be jack hammered out and replaced? I think Management Trust is playing games
Was told this was all approved only to now be told is not.

Judith Stephan

7/14/2021 12:09:06 pm

When I first moved here 1 1/2 yrs, ago, I noticed the maintenance was excessive, but I thought I'd deal with that later. I was willing to pay one of the highest assessments around for having a nice warm pool and well-maintained grounds. Now everyone is deploring the lack of maintenance and the poor quality of it. I was the controller and later board member of a very large HOA in central CA. We controlled costs and dealt with inefficiency, and we had more amenities than here. Our assessments did not go up much and still haven't over the last 22 years. I see a lot of waste of our resources and inefficient practices here. We need walk-around management immediately. The Management Trust is not doing the job we are paying them for. They refused to answer my questions about whether they received free government money for payroll and how we would benefit from it. I asked times and got nothing but a runaround by the HOA board. All of a sudden, now they announced they did get the money and would allocate it. I believe they have breached their contract and that we need a new board that is responsive and not political to deal with these issues.

Troy Dose

7/14/2021 03:18:40 pm

We have only owned in DP since 2019.
First, golf should be its own entity. Period.

Second, made the board needs to look into who was doing the accounting. Three separate occasions did payments get applied to the wrong accounts. Golf was applied to HOA and HOA was applied to golf. We say all kinds of transactions back a forth for same dollar amounts. At the end of the whole thing we ended up making double payments twice. Something fishy there.

Lastly, the whole have to have an appointment BS for the HOA office on-site is stupid. Limit the number of days open but make it where you don’t need an appointment.

Laura Gargas link

7/14/2021 03:18:51 pm

I agree with everyone’s blog. We have lived here for four years in the Arroyos. For one thing the extermination of the outside of our homes was part of what was included in our HOA fees from day one. Now it was a mistake for four years, really? I think that can be argued that it was included in black & white on the purchase of our homes. We definitely need walk around management. We had it with Ken Kuperstein. He seemed to genuinely care and responded always to my concerns. I don’t see mgt doing that now. I think that has always been part of the job description.
I have a big concern with the cars parked on the very narrow streets of the condos. This isn’t safe practice. You have no visibility. Cars have to wait to let each other pass and when there are pedestrians on the roads, it’s an accident waiting to happen. Also the cars parking on the grass to avoid the road as much as possible. Sprinkler damage cost all of us. I don’t see warnings on the cars I have come across that are parked on the grass. Thought that wasn’t allowed?
Took away are ability to park in front of mt.view grill with our van, why? There’s plenty of parking out there. Bad enough we can’t park it in our own driveway when it doesn’t obstruct anything. We have three feet of driveway to spare. We have no sidewalks in front of our homes. It doesn’t infringe on anything, yet can’t park in our nice long driveway. No sense. Also part of HOA landscaping has always been if a plant dies, they replace it. Now that’s going to go away too!
I have noticed more of my neighbors hiring there own landscapers, why? Ours do very poor job of what they call landscaping. I have watched them wander through my yard, not knowing what to do. I get so frustrated when I see this and have to go out and give them direction. Pull the weeds, not one or two. Give the yard the attention it needs. Most of the Arroyos owners have pools, so they have less to maintain. If they no you are not a residing there full time. They will skip your house. I have seen that time and time again. Recently our street had palm trees trimmed. They did one half of the street, then left. Haven’t got a straight answer of when they will complete the street. The palm trees are beyond there trim cycle when they start flowering and these are blowing and creating havoc with the pools. These sticky flowering pods are all in the pool and will create clogged filters and not to mention how the pools look. I have been hearing the last couple years about sub contracting out the pool cleanings. Great, let’s get some professional pool cleaners in here that actually know what there doing. I don’t think are pools are correctly chemically balanced. This is the desert, we have wind and hot temperatures, we all know this. All the more reason to keep up on the palm tree trimmings and pool maintenance. It was always a big seller for people to move here. We have 34 pools. If you don’t like one, go to another. Now I see people searching to just find a clean pool. This needs to be done daily. Yet I hear we’re short staffed. Desert Princess received 313k in PPP, that has been forgiven. That is paycheck protection program. I think we need some new blood on the board that actually care and are responsive to the people.
The Lakota Court pool is less than 4 years old, yet because the tiles aren’t cleaned on a regular basis, they no longer can be cleaned. They are permanently ruined.
Yes, a big dissatisfaction from this management and the things they are slowly taking away from us. Why aren’t we asked and our voices heard?
The Cielo gate access on the Fourth of July was closed. Where everyone would goes to see all the fireworks in the valley. It is a great look out point. I was just told because Palm Springs didn’t put on a fireworks show, they saw no need to keep it open. Yet, the casinos, Palm desert and surrounding areas all had them . Nope, locked up tight here. Felt I lived in a Nazi camp. Uncalled for. Is one person just making all the decisions around here?
We who live here need our voices heard and action where it’s needed. They think by letting these owner chats and things to hear our voice is enough. But no one acts on them. Just listens. Not enough!

Craig Robinson

7/16/2021 05:04:33 pm

With respect to your parking of your van in HOA property, it is specifically prohibited in the CC&R's. The problem with parking near the Grill is that the original CC&R map shows that the parking lot near the grill is HOA property and not Country Club property. If it were Country club property, there would be no prohibition to parking there. Unfortunately, changing the CC&R's is not a simple process. It is a shame that you cannot get a straight answer from the HOA. I have found our Manager Jerry Storage to be very helpful; and, I am sure he doesn't always appreciate it, but I email him directly, rather than waste my time with work orders and such.

Rebecca Schneider

7/17/2021 12:43:04 pm

Thanks for creating a platform where we, as homeowners at DP, can share issues . Yes, there are many issues but there's a whole lot of goodness at DP, too. I love owning and living here and I don't even play golf! My advice to complainers: work around it!

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Charter

This blog is designed as a means to provide transparency and informative access to the policies and protocols of the Desert Princess Palm Springs Homeowners Association, the governance of the HOA Board of Directors and the management of the community’s assets by The Management Trust. The expressed intent is to establish a neighborhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information, goods, and services; it is hoped that homeowners will use it to build a stronger and safer Desert Princess Palm Springs.

This Blog will not publish any comments that are personal attacks or unrelated to the published post.

PLEDGE

BE HELPFUL
Share this space in a constructive way. Be kind, not judgmental, in your conversations

BE RESPECTFUL
Remember you are speaking to your real neighbors. Strong communities are built on strong relationships

DO NOT DISCRIMINATE
Racism, hateful or foul language, or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.

NO HARMFUL ACTIVITY
Any activity that could hurt someone—from scams to physical harm—are off limits.

YOUR CART

Cutback in Services due to lack of funds

Leave a Reply.

Charter

Archives

Categories