Can Your HOA Raise Dues, and by How Much?

How to find the real limit on an HOA dues increase by checking the declaration, budget process, state statute, owner approval rules, and the math on your notice.

There is no nationwide percentage that tells every HOA how much it can raise dues. The limit can come from the declaration, bylaws, state common-interest statute, budget-ratification process, or a combination of them. The practical answer is found by comparing the new budget and assessment notice with the specific approval path your community is required to use.

Find the base number before calculating the increase

Owners frequently compare the new monthly payment with the amount they personally paid last year, but that can mix regular dues, service-area charges, cable, reserves, or prior credits. Identify the association's prior regular assessment and the newly adopted regular assessment on the same basis. If units have different percentage interests, check your class or allocation rather than the community average.

Then find the governing limit

• Declaration or CC&Rs: percentage caps, member-vote triggers, assessment allocation, and special classes.
• Bylaws: budget adoption, member meetings, quorum, or ratification procedures.
• State statute: mandatory limits, notice rules, exceptions, and definitions that can override documents.
• Adopted budget and board resolution: the actual amount and effective date.

California demonstrates a statutory member-approval threshold; other states use different rules

California Civil Code section 5605 allows a board, after satisfying specified budget-report conditions, to impose a regular assessment up to a statutory threshold without the member approval described in the section; the current statute uses a 20% comparison with the preceding fiscal year for most associations covered by that provision. Do not copy that number into another state. A Texas, Florida, Colorado, or Virginia community may be governed by very different statutory and document language.

A cap in the declaration can be more restrictive

Suppose your declaration says the board may increase regular assessments by no more than 10% in a year without approval of a stated member percentage, while state law would otherwise allow more. Whether that private cap is enforceable as written depends on the governing statute and document hierarchy, but it is an obvious place to investigate. Ask the association to identify the authority for any increase that exceeds the document's apparent limit.

The example is only arithmetic. It does not say that 10% is allowed or prohibited in your community. Use the correct base and then apply the actual legal/document rule.

Budget adoption and assessment authority are related but not identical

A board may lawfully adopt a budget yet still need a separate owner vote or ratification step before collecting the resulting assessment, depending on the jurisdiction and governing documents. Conversely, some statutes use a budget-ratification model in which the board adopts a budget subject to owner rejection under specified rules. Read the process from start to finish rather than assuming the budget meeting alone answers everything.

Why dues can jump even when the board is not “adding amenities”

• Insurance premium or deductible changes.
• Utility, labor, landscaping, security, or management contract increases.
• A reserve study that recommends catching up long-deferred contributions.
• New statutory inspection, reserve, or safety obligations in some jurisdictions.
• Loss of a temporary subsidy from a developer or another income source.

A dues increase can be painful and still be financially rational. A flat assessment while insurance and replacement costs rise can simply postpone the same cost into a special assessment. Owners should challenge unexplained numbers, but 'dues never went up under the old board' is not evidence that the old level was sustainable.

What to request if the increase looks wrong

1. The adopted budget and prior-year budget.
2. The board resolution or minutes showing the assessment decision.
3. The declaration section governing regular assessments.
4. Any member-vote or budget-ratification materials.
5. A short explanation of the largest expense increases and the reserve contribution change.

If the increase exceeds an apparent cap or the procedure appears defective, the next step is state-specific analysis. The governing text matters more than a national article or percentage calculator.

Audit the percentage with the right denominator

Percentage disputes often begin with the wrong base. Compare the new regular assessment with the prior fiscal year’s regular assessment on the same frequency—monthly to monthly or annual to annual—and separate any special assessment, cable package, utility pass-through, reserve contribution, or optional amenity charge that the documents classify differently. If your community has unequal assessment shares, compare your parcel’s allocation under the declaration rather than a neighbor’s dollar increase.

Next, request the adopted budget and the notice that accompanied it. A lawful increase is not established merely because management typed a new amount into the portal. Depending on the jurisdiction and documents, the board may need to satisfy budget-disclosure, meeting, notice, ratification, or member-approval rules. Your written question should therefore ask for both the calculation and the authority: “What is the prior-year base, what percentage does this represent, and what provision allowed the board to adopt it without—or with—the member vote used?”

If the increase is driven by reserves, compare the budgeted reserve contribution with the reserve study recommendation rather than treating the reserve line as optional padding. A board can face a real choice between higher regular assessments now and greater special-assessment or borrowing risk later. That financial question is separate from whether the board followed the legal process required to adopt the increase.