We hope you are sitting down.  If you aren't, you should have seat before you continue reading.

If you thought the Board's rush to borrow $450,000 was something that won't have a dramatic impact on you, think again.  When you do the math, the loan necessarily means that monthly Association assessments for 2013 will have to increase a minimum of 22% in order to make the payments on the Board's mega-loan.  And that's on top of the 15% we just got hit with this year.

Here's why.  Our current year budget (2012) is $468,000, however, only $15,000 of that is for loan payments for 2012.  If you subtract the $15,000 anticipated 2012 loan payments of $15,000 from the total budget, the result is a core budget of $453,000.  Now, add twelve months of loan payments on the $450,000 Board advertised loan request, borrowed at the rate Stuart Sutherland gave homeowners at the most recent Annual Meeting - 7.75% - and amortize that out over the five year loan term.  You will arrive at a monthly loan payment of just over $9,000 per month.  But the Board will have to collect even more than that, because we are required to set aside 10% of monthly assessments for reserve account funding.  The result is that 2013 monthly assessments will have to be at least $104,000 over and above what homeowners are paying under the 2012 budget.  That's an increase of 22% for 2013, assuming that the core budget is flat compared to 2012.

No wonder why the Board has been so miserly with details about the loan and has been otherwise mum on the subject - they were no doubt hoping no one would put all the pieces together and realize the that it's not just a loan, it's a game changer.  

We will be number one on at least one list under the Board's proposed plan - we will be the most expensive loft building per square foot in all of Metro Atlanta.  That's quite a feat, although not entirely surprising given the Sutherlands' combined years of business education training and years running an actual business enterprise total precisely zero.

If you are okay with a 2013 dues increase of 22%, then do absolutely nothing.  That certain future will be here soon enough and you'll be able to pay what you do today, plus an additional 22%.  However, if you think what's coming down the pike is outrageous and completely unacceptable, then click here right now to send us an e-mail with the subject line "Count me in" and, together, we will work to restore sanity to this clearly insane Board.

There is no time to waste.  Get involved now - before the Sutherlands drive our Association straight over the cliff of their own ineptitude.

Your neighbors at the Blog