Just a quick update on a couple of things of interest to Members. The HOA board meeting scheduled for this Monday, September 19 at 6:30 will be to approve the 2023 budget and set the assessment amount for the year. All are welcome to join us online where we will go through the budget line by line. For 2023, we have finally seen the large increase in our insurance rates that I was expecting last year as insurers look to recover the huge costs associated with the winter storms from recent years. Overall, our renewal is coming in at approximately 50% higher. In addition, as identified in our recent reserve study, we are expecting a doubling of our spending on concrete fence maintenance to approximately $70,000 annually. If you care to review the reserve study report, it is available here.
We have also seen higher maintenance spending on our irrigation system this year. One bright spot is that with the City of Austin’s conversion of our legacy water meters, we have been able to identify a series of leaks in the irrigation system accounting for roughly $10,000 in annual water loss this year. As we have no clean baseline to work from, it is unknown for how long this has been going on or what the cost has been. Repairs to these leaks are ongoing but we expect less than a 2 year return on investment in the cost of leak location and repair.. Once these are fixed, we’ll be able to establish a good baseline and be able to identify the presence of new leaks almost immediately going forward. For a couple of years now, the board had been investigating various resource monitoring solutions for this purpose so it has been advantageous that with Austin Water’s conversion to this new technology, we now get this capability at no cost.
As I signaled in the Q2 update, with the higher costs we are experiencing, I expect to propose the full board approve an annual assessment increase of just under a 10% in order to maintain our target operating expense ratio and to fund necessary capital maintenance and improvement projects.
The annual audit for 2021 is underway. With the solution to the handling of amenity key card deposits in effect, I expect no issues and a clean bill of health. This should wrap up before the end of the year.
Finally, our neighborhood scouts have started their annual popcorn sales fundraiser. For a number of years now, the scouts have supported the Canyon Creek HOA through various volunteer service projects. We like working with these young, future leaders of our communities and try to support them in return when we can. Please consider supporting our neighborhood scouts with a popcorn purchase if you can.
As always, you can reach the full board with questions or comments at board@canyoncreek.net
Best,
Brett Funderburg
President, CCHOA