This years annual owners meeting for the Shadybrook Community was held Saturday June 24th. Almost 100 owners attended and three new board members were elected. New POA board members elected to three year terms: Ed Lopez, Allen Whitt, Joseph Pekar

Also the members in attendance along with about 50 owners who voted via proxy, voted to address the inflationary costs increases of maintaining our private streets. Since the pandemic, the cost of a truck load of asphalt for pothole repairs has almost tripled and materials costs across the board have risen by a similar percentage. No one has escaped the impact that rising inflation has had on the American economy and property owners associations are not exempt from the rising prices of maintaining drainage and roads.

The owners voted to implement an additional $100.00 roads fee for two years as a stopgap measure. The current annual roads fee of $100.00 per dwelling will double to $200.00 per dwelling for the remaining two years of the five-year special roads assessment that was voted in back in 2019.

The owners also voted to increase annual POA Maintenance Dues via a special assessment. Special temporary assessments approved by owners, are allowed by law and do not require adjustments to our Shadybrook bylaws. This special temporary assessment approved at this 2023 annual meeting will result in an additional $100 per dwelling for the next two years for similar inflationary adjustment reasons. The costs of security, the upkeep of our common areas, grass cutting, administration, have all been impacted by the increases in prices of goods and services. So the owners voted to increase annual maintenance dues on a single lot from $188.40 to $288.40 for the next two years.

Along with the increases in fees and the election of three new Shadybrook POA board members, the owners were in agreement that efforts by the POA must be increased to enforce the Shadybrook Covenants, especially as they relate delinquent owners. Many owners present made statements to the board that delinquent owners must be encouraged to bring their past due balances current, even if in rare cases those delinquent and non-responsive owners must suffer legal liens placed against their properties.

When purchasing property in a community with a property owners association the Texas State Code is clear that each owner has a legal responsibility to contribute to the upkeep of communal areas and private streets. Private communities with communal areas come with many privileges of ownership. But if any owner fails to uphold that legal commitment to the owners within a property owners association, regardless of circumstance, then the code allows for property associations to liquidate those property assets, typically as a last resort, in an attempt to provide relief to the remaining owners who are contributing to the maintenance of communal areas.