The unforeseen ramifications of a recent decision to raise nominal valuations of community properties have left homeowner associations stunned and the Bexar Appraisal District backpedaling.     
 
“This was really an attempt to clean up our roles,” says Deputy Chief Appraiser Mary Kieke.  “We weren’t trying to start a controversy.”
 
HOA representatives were shocked when they began receiving appraisals of their neighborhood’s community properties last month.  Including recreation centers, parks, pools and detention ponds, the shared parcels that fall within nonprofit HOAs are appraised at a nominal value to avoid double taxation.  In years past, that value has always been $100 per parcel, but was suddenly raised to $2,000 this year.
 
When implementing this increase Kieke had expected each HOA to have just one community parcel, of which the jump in value would have only increased taxes by a few cents when divided amongst all homeowners.  The deputy assessor has since learned that many HOAs seek nominal valuations on dozens of tracts.  Promontory Pointe, off of Wilderness Oaks, has a total of 22 community properties. 
 
Dave Walsworth, president of Promontory Pointe’s HOA, said the $1,900 increase would raise taxes from a few bucks to $50 per parcel.  It’s an increase “no one’s budgeted for” and would most likely force associations to increase homeowners’ dues.
 
Now fully aware of the magnitude of that increase, the Bexar Appraisal District has decided to return to the original $100 nominal valuation.  The BCAD will change all but one community parcel back to $100 for any nonprofit HOA that protests their appraisal.  A neighborhood’s main recreation center, however, will still be valued at $2,000.
 
The nominal value increase stemmed from the Appraisal District’s recent request for all HOAs to prove their nonprofit eligibility.  Of the 252 applications the district received, only 49 associations were found to be ineligible for nonprofit status and nominal valuations. 
 
Along with some HOAs receiving nonprofit benefits they don’t qualify for, Kieke said many parcels claimed as community property are merely residential tracts that have yet to have homes built on them.  The first eight tracks she looked at within Promontory Pointe, for example, were vacant parcels intermingled with completed homes.  “Why on earth would a homeowners’ association take possession of [these] lots? That’s not what HOAs were designed for,” says Kieke, adding that community properties are supposed to be greenbelts, recreation centers and parks.
 
“I was personally trying to stop that madness,” Kieke says of increasing nominal valuations.  “It didn’t work.”