For a long time, City Walk Condominiums have included cable television as part of the general monthly fee. But as of this last monthly billing cycle, residents saw a new line item for cable as well as 21.65 added to their total bill. What’s going on?
As best I can put together, the budget – as it was built out – did not include the cable as it did in years past. I suspect it may have had to do with the transition from the former management company to First Service Residential (FSR). Any transition of management as large as our community’s is bound to have hiccups. All the ways we did things previously were not likely adequately communicated during the switchover.
As a result, this omission caused us (along with other items) to build a deficit where we were showing overspending relative to the budget plan.
This issue came to the forefront during the last board meeting because FSR presented that they had negotiated with Comcast Xfinity a new deal for cable for us.
Our old deal was a contract that went through 2038 where cable was 31.09 per month and the contract allowed them to raise the price by up to 3% per year. The new deal is a 7-year contract, ending in 2033, for 21.65 per month were they are allowed to raise it by up to 4% per year.
The difference is that in years past that amount, formerly 31.09, had been paid by the HOA with no line item or additional fee on the HOA monthly bill. Now, even though it’s cheaper, the board voted to pass on the 21.65 to the homeowners via a separate line item. I suspect they did this in order to keep the budget deficit caused by this from getting worse. The cable has been paid outside of the planned budget since the beginning of the year and that deficit remains. This action also brings us in alignment with the standard way in which this is handled by other FSR communities.
The new contract is a good deal. It shortens our obligation significantly and lowers our cost by 30%. Even if they give us the maximum increase of 4% per year, we will still be ahead by about 7 dollars a month at the conclusion of the contract. We will be able to either leave cable behind or renegotiate the contract with a lot of bargaining power 5 years earlier.
The sting of having the cost of it passed on, however, should be taken in context of the catch-up the community is doing to the reserve fund based on the 2025 reserve study. Each 21.65 payment made for cable is 21.65 more that can go to the many other obligations the community needs to meet.