Villages North - Myth vs. Fact
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On February 23, 2026, the president of the board recited some information on a slide show, trying to differentiate myths and facts at Villages North. While everyone is entitled to their perspective, we'd like to point out some of the realities going on. What we found is that most of the material presented was, at best, a half-truth.
You'll read about financial transparency in the next post. Let's take a look at some of the other ones presented by the board president.
Myth #1: Management companies
The simple fact remains this: on the day Cornerstone Properties assumed the management duties of the HOA, they charged Villages North $4,200 per month. Exactly one year later, that amount has skyrocketed to $10,000 per month.
You need to ask yourself one question: am I getting twice the service for the added expense? Don't forge the most recent hike in the monthly assessment was due almost exclusively to this 230% increase.
Myth #2: Landscape costs
Again, here's a case of a half-truth. The board president averred that they HOA wasn't "really" over budget to the tune of $40,000 in tree maintenance costs because it was an invoice left over from a prior year. Let's take a look at the numbers:
2023: Tree trimming budget $100,000 Actual cost $83,000 (under $17,000)*
2024: Tree trimming budget $85,000 Actual cost $91,100 (over $6,100)
2025: Tree trimming budget $90,000 Actual cost $131,000 (over $41,000)
* Bill's final year on the board
So even if you want to play make-believe and move that $40,000 around, it means the current board went over budget in one of these years by $40,000! And who knows what invoices from Tree Doctors will come in this month from work in the last year? Until someone brings this cost under control, they will always want to say an invoice is "not from this year." That's a cop-out.
Myth #3: Legalities
The board president averred that we will get the full legal settlement due to us, all $4.7 million, with no question. The truth is: we don't know that.
It is true that the HOA took SRS Roofing to court an was awarded an arbitration award, except SRS Roofing is no longer in business in Arizona, meaning we would be trying to collect blood from a turnip. The new strategy to to go after SRS Roofing's insurers, who have denied the insurance claim. This means taking an insurance company to court.
Have you ever heard of an insurance company just forking over money? Neither have we. If an insurance company thinks they have have a case (and it appears they think exactly that), they could drag this process out by years. In addition, taking the case into court presents the possibility that we may not get everything we demanded. Civil judges are bound to provide equitable relief to all parties. Therefore a specific monetary amount is not a guarantee.
It should be noted that even the HOA's insurance defense attorney has said there is no such guarantee. Optimism is fine in certain instances. We think here it's time to confront reality. We certainly haven't gotten any legal updates in quite a while.
One final note, we will have to pay 1/3 of any settlement to our construction defect attorneys, and additional retainer to the insurance defense attorney out of that remainder. Assuming that's 1/4, we will probably not cover the costs of the roofing contract.
Myth 4: Vendors/Contractors
The simple facts are this:
Pool maintenance: fired two companies, now on the 4th. This speaks to poor selection.
Landscaping: fired two companies, and had a respectable third company terminate the contract on us, not wanting to deal with the extant board of directors. Villages North has never had a contractor cancel a contract on us...until now.
Common area maintenance: fired the vendor and never thought to hire a replacement.
So many other service providers and vendors have changed. Plumbers show up and do not understand the plumbing system, prompting unnecessarily widespread outages. Pool vendors now clean and maintain fountains (something the in-house maintenance manager Jordan Nuckolls did as part of his schedule).
Things have changed for the sake of change. Sara and Bill both believe in building successful relationships, not just throwing someone out at the drop of a hat. The community had to learn this lesson the hard way.
There were other items presented which do not seem worth mentioning here. We think the lesson is: caveat emptor -- buyer beware.
