Moving into a planned community by an experienced developer offers many advantages to residents. Among those benefits are Home Owner Associations or Community Associations, commonly referred to as HOAs or CAs. These organizations are an important a part of community life in Texas.

Most planned communities have a homeowners association or HOA that is created to preserve the integrity of a community and help to maintain its long-term value.

A homeowners' association a legal entity created by a real estate developer for the purpose of developing, managing and selling a development of homes. It allows the developer to exit financial and legal responsibility of the community, typically by transferring ownership of the association to the homeowners after selling a predetermined number of lots.

What many homeowners may not be aware of is that one of their homeownership responsibilities is to pay annual HOA dues. These dues, which are disclosed to homeowners at closing, are dedicated help to fund things like the maintenance of common areas and amenities such as pools and parks. Sometimes they are even used to sponsor community wide events, but primarily, are utilized to maintain the uniformity and overall appeal of a community. Homeowners Association dues vary by community, depending on the community’s size and amount of amenities.

Some of the many responsibilities of the homeowners association include enforcing deed restrictions that are also provided to residents at the time of their home purchase. These deed restrictions help make the community appealing long term and hold homeowners accountable for the ongoing maintenance of their property. In other words, it would prevent a homeowner to paint their house a strange color, or a color that is not already approved by the HOA, or making sure that trash cans did not constantly remain in front of a house.

Homeowners associations require residents to pay their dues just once a year, typically at the beginning of the year, so it is a good idea to have that amount budgeted when they are due.