Real Estate Branch

Changing your managing agent (or board) is unlikely to reduce your maintenance fee. This question is often asked when there have been no or little maintenance fee increases for several years and a new managing agent or new board raises maintenance fees to establish the new reserve. Your new board or managing agent are not just imposing an arbitrary increase. They are following the law. Under the prior law, boards and managing agents who were reluctant to increase maintenance fees could defer maintenance and put little or no money in reserves. The maintenance fee was low only because it did not cover the true cost of operating the project. Owners were not avoiding that cost, only postponing it. Eventually, they paid the true cost through large special assessments.

The reserves law prohibits those practices. It requires reserve planning and collection no matter who serves as your board or managing agent. Therefore, your old board and managing agent will be subject to the same legal requirements on reserves as your new board.