J & L Management

09/18/2025

🌟 Should your HOA Add a Working Capital Contribution for New Buyers? 🌟

As communities grow and age, one option boards are exploring is amending the declaration to require a one-time working capital fee from new buyers at closing. Here’s a quick look at the pros and cons of this idea:

✅ Pros

Boosts community funds right away – helps reserves or working capital without raising everyone’s monthly dues.

Can reduce special assessments – more stability means fewer surprise bills for current owners.

Tied to home sales – funding grows as homes turn over, not just by charging long-time owners.

Flexible use – money can go to operating needs, reserves, or capital projects.

⚠️ Cons

Hard to adopt – Minnesota law usually requires 67% or more owner approval to change the declaration.

May impact marketability – buyers or realtors could see it as an extra cost at closing.

Closing logistics – title companies must be set up to collect the fee smoothly.

Fairness questions – some may feel it shifts costs only to newcomers.

💡 Bottom line: This tool can strengthen your financial position, but it requires owner support, legal work, and clear communication. Transparency and community input are key before moving forward.

09/16/2025

Over the past few years, many community associations (HOAs, condos, co-ops) have seen major insurance premium increases at renewal. According to the Community Association Institute (CAI), associations are facing “rising insurance premiums, policy cancellations, and increasing deductibles, and diminishing coverage options,” especially in areas prone to natural disasters and inflationary pressures.

Some of the driving forces include:

Increased frequency & severity of natural disasters (storms, wildfire, floods), which push insurers to charge more or limit coverage.

Post COVID rising construction, materials, and repair costs. When replacing or repairing frequently damaged common property (roofs, siding, structural elements), those costs have surged.

Regulatory changes and building inspections/codes (for example, post-Surfside in Florida) that require more stringent structural evaluations and reserve funding, which increase risk in insurers’ eyes.

As a result, reformatting how insurance is assessed in HOAs is becoming more common.

08/13/2025

Stay tuned!

03/18/2022

This weekend Spring officially begins! With warmer weather in the near future, we've scheduled gutters cleaning to get ready for the Spring rains and yard clean up.

Every owner should be checking their smoke detectors and all single-family homes should arrange for gutter cleaning.

These small tasks will help pave the way to smooth sailing into summer.

12/25/2021

From all of us to all of you- hope you have a wonderful Holiday season. Be safe, have fun and we’ll see you soon. Take care.

07/26/2021

The National Night Out is just around the corner!! And the SSCO is looking for volunteers to help spread the word about the event and other volunteer opportunities to help make this the best National Night Out ever! Here are the "deets":

Location: Stevens Square Park (1801 Stevens Ave, MPLS, MN 55403)
Date: August 3rd, 2021
Time: 6pm-8pm
Description:
Join your neighbors for a National Night Out celebration Tuesday, August 3rd from 6pm-8pm in Stevens Square Park. Let's get to know each other through conversation, celebration, and resource sharing with each other and our neighborhood partners.

Enjoy free food & root beer floats, live music from Matthew Schmitz, and tons of family friendly activities. Bring some non perishable goods to contribute to the Groveland Food Shelf, get to know our new neighbors at Family Tree Clinic, learn more about Plymouth Congregational Church's racial justice initiative, and receive a free Naloxone (a medication which can reverse opioid overdoses) training from South Side Harm Reduction

Would you like to support SSCO’s National Night Out event? You’re in the right place and we’d love to have you! The actual event is Tuesday, August 3rd from 6:00-8:00pm, but we need help promoting beforehand, and throughout the day on the 3rd. Please fill out this form. If you have any questio...

07/23/2021

It's Friday and we're looking forward to a relaxing weekend. If you're in Minnesota, try to stay cool. And for our Colorado folks- stay dry!

07/20/2021

There is an SSCO Safety Committee meeting Thursday (7/22) from 6-7:30 PM You can attend in person at Plymouth Congregational Church (1900 Nicolette Ave downstairs in the Jackman Room, online https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85991883635 or even on your phone (312) 626-6799 Meeting ID: 859 9188 3635

These meetings are a great way to meet neighbors and find out about happenings in the neighborhood.

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

07/06/2021

With the number of Americans 65 years of age and older reaching close to 53 million- homeowner communities are going to need to address accessibility like never before as the number of Seniors eclipses any other period of US history to close to 20%. We thought this was an interesting article that addresses accessibility in general.

While creating an architectural design, greater emphasis should be put on accessibility. Go through our complete guide on the topic to know all the details.

06/24/2021

Check out our new logo! What do you think?