are you saying that our building should not be assessing for a vague reason such as "to help keep done future mntnce"? (they are doing this now to balance the annual tax abatement) - are you saying it it illegal to assess for anyting other than cap improvements?

a very respectable building does what I described - assesses when the annual operating cost does not meet budget - it does seem like a very very good strategy to keep mantainence from being raised.

creative thinking and ideas - as threating as they might seem to some (people are scare of change) is often nothing but a better idea.

It seems that you have already made up your mind on the matter and aren't open to other peoples' opinions.

How do assessments really keep down future maintenance increases? Expenses rarely stay flat from year to year. By assessing rather than increasing maintenance, you're only fooling people. You're fooling them into thinking your building is more appealing (your words), and your fooling yourself by thinking that constant assessments don't affect a potential purchaser's decision.

that is s dismissive thing to say. obviously, if they are asking this question, obvioulsy they are open to new ideas.

there are many ways to reduce maintaience such as negotiating w/ your insurance company and taking a bit of time to shop around.

in general, it seems there istrange board censosrship atitude sometimes on this discussion group everytime someone mentions new thinking about mntnce increases, essessments, etc.

MM or anonymous or whoever... You asked for peoples' opinions and you're getting them. And you're criticizing those people who aren't too thrilled at the idea of assessing rather than doing a needed maintenance increase.

Of course there are ways to reduce costs. But in the end, you get what you pay for.

PD you are jumping allover someonw wihtout making constructive suggestions.

In general, there is no guarantee operational costs will increase a year after an assessment ot fill a deficiet a board may have though of a clever way to reduce some costs, commericial income may increase, it is too general of a statement to say that "costs go up" without giving a due consideraion to this idea.

Very OT: you've now posted under 3 different names (anonymous, mm and td). If you'd keep the same identity instead of pretending to be 3 separate people, I might take you more seriously.

Back on topic, please see AdC's response above.

you are the kind of unproductive, petty person the website does not need. seriously.

we have had costs remain constant in some year and NOT go up - also you cna work on lowering them via energy effieicent utility changges, negotiating with your insurance co, etc.