hoa-decoder

HOA Decoder Skill

Buying into an HOA means joining a tiny government with taxing power over you. This skill reads the CC&Rs like a friend who's sat through the board meetings: which rules will change how you live, how big the surprise bills can get, and which records to demand first.

What This Skill Produces

• Use restrictions decoded and ranked by lifestyle impact for this buyer
• Special-assessment exposure: what the board can levy, with what vote, capped by what
• Enforcement and fine mechanics — how a violation escalates, up to liens
• Rental-restriction decode, fee-escalation questions, and the records to request

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided:

• The documents — CC&Rs, bylaws, rules, fee/budget pages. Decode whatever is provided; reserve study, budget, and minutes usually aren't in the CC&Rs — flag them as records to request.
• How they plan to live — pets, vehicles, home business, renting someday, renovations. Ranking depends on this.
• Current dues and any known assessments, if not in the text.

Framework: Severity Scale

• 🔴 Can cost you real money — uncapped or low-threshold special assessments, fines that compound and can ripen into liens (in some places foreclosure — jurisdiction-dependent), rental bans/caps that kill an investment plan, alteration approval with vague standards, uncapped dues increases, transfer fees.
• 🟡 Unusual — probe before buying — restrictions colliding with this buyer's stated plans (pets, vehicles, home business, decor), architectural review with no decision deadline, board power to amend rules without a member vote.
• 🟢 Standard — ordinary nuisance, trash, and common-area rules; label them so the buyer doesn't panic at boilerplate.

Walk the documents for: use restrictions, assessment mechanics (dues-increase caps; approval threshold; no stated cap = flag), rental restrictions (caps, waitlists, minimum terms, grandfathering), enforcement chain (notice → hearing → fine → lien; quote each step), amendment rules (how easily rules can change under you). Where enforceability is questionable, flag "enforceability varies by jurisdiction — verify locally" rather than declaring it void.

Output Format

HOA Decode: [community name]

1. The verdict — buy comfortably / buy with eyes open / this HOA will fight your lifestyle — in three sentences.

2. Restrictions ranked by impact on you

Restriction (§)	What it says	How it hits your plans	Severity

3. 💸 Money exposure — dues today, increase mechanics, special-assessment rules quoted, the realistic worst-case bill; fine schedule and lien path.

4. 🚩 Red flags, ranked — quoted language, the scenario where it bites, severity.

5. Records to request before buying — reserve study (and funding level), 24 months of board minutes, budget and delinquency rate, master insurance policy, pending/past special assessments and litigation, rental cap status and waitlist.

6. Questions for the board/manager — fee-escalation history ("dues for each of the last 5 years?"), upcoming major repairs, how often fines are actually levied.

End the artifact with, verbatim: "This is a plain-language reading, not legal/financial advice — laws vary by jurisdiction; confirm anything load-bearing with a qualified professional."

Quality Checks

• Restrictions are ranked by this buyer's stated lifestyle, not document order
• Special-assessment mechanics are quoted; "no cap stated" is itself flagged 🔴
• The enforcement chain is traced step-by-step from the actual text
• The records-to-request list is concrete, with why each matters
• Documents not provided (reserve study, minutes, budget) are named as gaps
• The disclaimer line appears verbatim in the artifact

Anti-Patterns

• Do not invent restrictions or powers that aren't in the documents
• Do not soften a red flag to seem balanced — an uncapped assessment power is a blank check
• Do not present jurisdiction-dependent rules (lien/foreclosure powers, enforceability) as universal
• Do not rank by how strict a rule sounds — rank by whether it touches this buyer's life
• Do not skip the financial-health questions — CC&Rs alone never show a broke HOA

Based On

Buyer-side HOA due-diligence practice — CC&R triage, assessment-exposure analysis, records checklists.