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July 28, 2006
FEES FOR KEYS
I often get questions about the reasonableness of fees charged by associations. This is a recent inquiry: " The management company has a policy to charge $75 for a copy of the hoa common area keys. Is this legal?"
Usually costs for items provided by the Association are tied to actual costs to reproduce but in the case of keys, there is some recordkeeping when keys are lost, so one can generally expect a fee that is more than just the cost of the keys. I do not know what it costs the Assn to replace keys and change the records - it would vary depending on whether real keys or key cards are used. Possibly, there are records involving an owner and a tenant involved. A $75 charge for key replacement indicates to me a possibility that the association set the price high because of a history of too many people losing keys, or too many past residents using the keys to use the facilities. Sometimes the locks have to be replaced and everyone has to have a new key - and that can get expensive. A $75 cost to replace keys discourages losing them.
Posted by Beth Grimm at July 28, 2006 11:26 PM