September 24, 2025 | Mark Luis Foster

Seems like there are myriad examples of HOAs across the country that have pursued hail damage restoration projects that have gone decidedly sideways (to “hail and back?”). A local example this summer generated plenty of hype on the TV news about the Avon Lea Townhome Association in Lakeville, MN, that re-roofed their buildings and charged homeowners $17K for the loss assessment. Can you spell HO-6, anyone?

Now comes news from the Rocky Mountains (Colorado Springs to be more exact) that a roof project and the board that pursued it is charging back $20K to residents as part of the insurance deal. From the letter sent to residents, as reported by KOAA-TV:

“The Association’s insurance policy has an applicable [deductible] of $3,112,817.26 for this claim. As permitted by the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions of the Soaring Eagles Townhomes (the “Declaration”) and/or applicable Colorado state law, the Association has the right to assess this deductible against the units in any reasonable manner. The Association has elected to assess the deductible back to each unit in equal shares in the amount of $20,752.12 per unit.”

Well, so far so good. Hail damage does happen, and it often needs repair, so residents with proper HO-6 coverage should have nothing to worry about. Except…

“We have about one-third of our members who are elderly or single-family parents that will not be able to cover that difference, nor should they have to,” [Resident Heather] McBroom said as she protested. “They’ve already threatened to put liens and additional assessments and late fees on people who cannot pay it by October 1, or put it on a payment plan at 18 percent interest.”

If there is not proper coverage, or in some cases, no HO-6 coverage at all, then the piper needs to be paid.

The residents were told their payments were due by Oct. 1, and some of them believe their insurance will only cover half, based on the coverage they have. McBroom was holding a bright pink sign that read in part “STOP ILLEGAL ASSESSMENTS.”

Protests and residents holding signs? What is HOA Land coming to? A new Rocky Mountain Low. Can’t we all just get along?

Apparently though, communications was a problem. Says the past board president:

“Things were a little different back then,” [Rick] Dommer said about his time serving as the HOA president. “All the homeowners would come together. We’d let them know what was going on, how much it was going to cost everybody. We kept everybody informed what was going to happen…. Right now, the way things are going with roll call, there is no communication. Everything is done on the computer. They send you an email, they send you a letter.”

We have been covering communications for HOA boards all month long (Eagan is the last stop this month, on Tuesday) and the issue can’t be stressed enough: When it comes to these kinds of issues, over-communication is absolutely required. Emails are simply not enough.

Read the full story HERE.

[UPDATE 9/26]

Turns out that this story has a bit more to it (surprise). Our partners, SJJ Law, sent us a report from KRDOTV 13 indicating that while the HOA’s governing documents prohibited deductibles of more than $10K, the insurance industry has made such restrictions completely impossible given the rising rates of coverage across the country. And, the HOA and the property manager responded in kind and aggressively in advance of the mess. The report states:

 Smith also says the HOA and the management company, RowCal, have sent out numerous notifications to members about updating their HO6 insurance policy to cover more.

The recommendation was to increase loss assessment coverage to $30K. The report shows that most residents living in this HOA complied with the increase in HO-6 coverage.

And this:

“This problem is not unique to Soaring Eagles. Rather, it is a statewide problem that affects HOAs across Colorado. The insurance industry continues to increase the cost of property insurance for HOAs while simultaneously increasing the deductibles under those policies. In other words, HOAs are paying more money for less coverage.”

Read the updated report from KRDO HERE.