A comparison of the HOA Dues we have at Lancaster Residences - An eye-opener to the community.

As you have already known, the homeowners association in our community, Lancaster Estates Homeowners Association (LEHOA) does not provide a financial statement and so our community will never know where the HOA dues we pay every month goes to. We have already exposed that this homeowners association collects HOA dues for about 27x more expensive than a higher class subdivision. Luckily, someone was able to hand us over a yearly budget of LEHOA. Take note that this is only a budget list and it is not the actual disbursements and payments the association made. Read more so you may have an idea on how this scrupulous "homeowners" association which is handled illegally by the real-estate developer ProFriends, makes a fool on all of us.



In our previous article, Estimated Collections of LEHOA, we have explained that in the absence of a LEHOA regular financial report/statement, we were able to estimate the potential collection of LEHOA from the homeowners and was able to compare it with a higher class subdivision. It turned out that our homeowners association collects 27 times more expensive than the other.

Now, we were able to get a document from LEHOA. An estimated yearly budget (and not an actual financial report) as they attempt to make a justification of their HOA dues collection even without giving us an audited actual report.

Let us read further and discover for ourselves how LEHOA makes a fool of all of us.

1.  Electric Bills from MERALCO Light posts.

LEHOA MERALCO Light Post Monthly expense

According to the document, LEHOA spends P62,804.07 for MERALCO posts for Lancaster Residences phases 1-7.  LR1 has about 18 lit electrical posts. That makes a single lamp post costs P697/month to operate.

Lit Street Lamps at LR1. Number 4 isn't even functioning.

Now let us compare with the other subdivision we know.

Click to Enlarge (Light posts monthly expense of another subdivision)

On this actual financial statement from a different homeowners association in another subdivision, they spend Php21,274.00/month for the MERALCO lamp post. The village has 40 operating lamp posts and this makes each lamp post costs P531/month. This village is within Metro Manila to where MERALCO has more expensive electricity generation charge than in Cavite. It seems LEHOA's budget for electricity generation is excessive.

Summary

LEHOA - P62,804.07

Other Larger Subdivision - P26,759.40

2.  Garbage Collection

LEHOA Garbage Collection per Month

According to LEHOA, the garbage collection costs P100/house  twice in a week, thus they spend about P277,100 per month for garbage collection.


Now let us again compare this with the other subdivision we know.

Click to Enlarge (garbage collection monthly expense of another village)

On this actual financial statement from another homeowners association in another subdivision, they only pay P500 for 5 weeks for 200 homes. That is about P2.50 per unit in a month

This another village gets to collect garbage twice per week for only P500 for 200 homes in 5 weeks!

It seems that LEHOA excessively collects homeowners association dues for garbage collection for about 40x more expensive!

Summary

LEHOA - P277,100

Other Larger Subdivision - P500

3.  Security Guard, Other Personnel and Un-elected Village Management.

LEHOA Personnel Expenses

Among other expenses, LEHOA seems to spend a lot of its HOA dues collection to its employees. Security guards are being paid P22,000/month each including undemocratically and un-elected Village Management personnel to which the salary ranges from P12,000 - P18,000 per month. Thus LEHOA spends about P460,000 for them in a month.

But this other subdivision which is larger than combined LR Phases 1-7 only has 3 guards paid at P5000/month and is doing their job well. Their HOA directors do not have any salary and they do their job well for the community. And in case one of the guards becomes absent, some homeowners are willing to provide their services for free o guard the village.

Click to Enlarge (security guard expenses of the other subdivision)

Summary

LEHOA - P460,000

Other Larger Subdivision - P15,000

4.  Other Expenses

Among the plethora of other expenses LEHOA has presented, it seems that it has a "monthly" budget for meetings, general assembly, HALLOWEEN, CHRISTMAS PARTY and INCENTIVES, transportation and liaison as well as permits. So in case, you think these real-estate developer initiated events are benefits... remember: it is our money and is even collected monthly for a yearly event.

For the other subdivision we interviewed, the events they have for the community are free because the savings they have for every month are accounted for and collected for use of community events and parties.

This is not possible for LEHOA because we do not even know how much they save for every exacerbated collections they make.

Additionally, LEHOA Budget does not give information on how much they collect from the amenities such as Leighton Hall; to which it can be used for the community aside from their operational costs. Remember that a developed land including its amenities is owned by the community and not the developer; because the unit owners already paid for it as part of their premium when the homes were bought.

Summary

LEHOA - P31,200

Other Larger Subdivision - P0.00

In summary, the following are the monthly "report" of LEHOA and the other subdivision.

LEHOA Disbursements (Budgeted only and not actual) - P837,604.07
Other Subdivision Disbursements (actual for July 2013) - P66,435.25

LEHOA tried to exaggerate its budget to get more money from us. How much? For almost a million! - P771,168.82



Parting message by the author:

We all very know that in the absence of the actual financial statement from LEHOA; and being controlled by the same real-estate developer where you bought your homes - we would never know exactly to which pocket our money goes to. And with the monthly and yearly budget they presented, we have seen that there are a lot of unnecessary and excessive costs. This is minus the check and balance we can have because of the present by-laws that they force upon us. There is no way for us to complain and change policies they set (know why). This is because the HOA the developer registered and controls is operating against the tenets of RA9904 or the Magna Carta for Homeowners Association.

And once you all remain to be quiet and doing nothing amidst what ProFriends is doing upon us, there is no way for this corruption to end and there is even more abuse that they can do to us once they pursue on the elections for the block representatives they have planned for November (know why through this article).

Focusing your energies in facing the real enemy (the developer-controlled homeowners association) instead of fighting among each other in your neighborhood; is the solution to the problems of Lancaster Residences and its community.