Everyday when I’m working with Midtown Atlanta condo buyers, part of our conversation is about the monthly HOA fee that is required when you own a condominium. Indeed, some buildings it can me quite an expense, and it is based on the size of your condo to start with.

What Are Condo HOA Fees Spent On?

I often try to relate this back to living in, or owning a single family home. Just think of these activities….

• Mowing the grass, blowing off the driveway and planting flowers (Exterior Landscaping)
• Painting the hallway you use to get from the bedroom to the kitchen/living room (Common hallway in the building)
• Fixing the TV when it breaks ( Could be the TV’s in the Club Room that you use)
• Fixing a leak in the roof (The roof of the building or anywhere there could be a leak in the building)
• Repainting the front door of your home (painting the outside of your entrance door–if not wood) or the trim around it)
• Paying your homeowner’s insurance (HOA pays for the exterior of the building- you pay for your contents)
• Paying your monthly security alarm system (Concierge, roaming security officer, controlled access system)
• The garage door won’t open (some yahoo drove into the gate in the garage before it opened)

In you single family home, there are areas that you could call “common” such that we call them in a condo building. The reference to the hallway above is like the hallway you walk down from the elevator to your condo door. Oh, and yes…the elevator. No, you don’t have one in your house, but you probably don’t want to climb 25 flights of stairs, right? So we have to maintain that elevator.

But when you see damage to the common areas, most likely caused by another resident/owner, just remember, you all pay for that repair out of your HOA dues. So a careless resident (and they DO NOT have to be a renter…I’ve seen a few OWNERS beat up buildings) can be costly. And it affects the overall appearance of your HOME….imagine you or your guests entering the building and the doors look like this?

Sure, there is a thing called “normal wear and tear” but this looks pretty tough. The photo on the right is above the normal door handle one should use, so you have to wonder how that paint got all chipped off. But the bottom….well, I personally stood there and watched a resident (don’t know if they were an owner, or a renter use THIS and let is scrape all along the door as she pulled it out to get her groceries out of her car.

First off, where on EARTH do you PARK this thing in a condo? But just imagine all that metal scraping along the door as she pulled it out and did not first prop it open (another no-no if you leave a door propped open…but that’s a whole other topic).

So the next time you are wheeling your carry-on luggage home from MARTA and going down the hallway to your condo, try not to scrap it down the hallway. Afterall, it is YOUR hallway and it is What Your Condo HOA Fees are Spent On!