References for Residents

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Welcome To The Tate

Get involved at the Tate! (from the Social Committee)

Tate Master Guide

Click to open the PDF version of the Tate Master Guide (updated February 2025)

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2025 Board-adopted HOA Budget

Budget Message for 2025

Budget Committee Chair: Hallis

I would first like to thank my committee members for their thoughtful, diligent work and invaluable advice in crafting this 2025 budget – Joan Hudson and Lauren Dame. Further, we could not have done it without the able assistance of Diane Sollinger from BMC who researched the increases in all utility rates and contractor amounts. Many thanks to them all.

The budget committee met on October 28, 2024. We drafted the 2025 budget based on:

Past 3 years of actual expenses and estimated 2025 expenses
Increase in amounts prepared for the Tate by BMC
Standing committees’ requests
Amounts estimated for capital expenses that might be financed by the Operating fund, under “Capital items paid by Operations”. This amount was increased to $2,000 for 2025 from $1,500 in 2024.
The history of increasing maintenance costs due to the aging of the building.
Analysis of the Replacement Reserve suggested 2025 costs.
A request from The Building Committee for an annual budget of $2,000 to cover miscellaneous costs incurred in issue analysis.
A 15% increase in property and earthquake insurance, our largest cost per line of costs.

As a result of our close examination of costs we determined that an increase in dues during 2025 is necessary to put the Tate operating funds in the black. We recommend an increase of 18.7% in residential Operating Fund dues for 2025 and 5% for Commercial Operating Fund dues in order to cover the known and expected costs plus continue a positive financial position. Thus: In order to be prudent in our cost estimates and to provide the level of services that the owners have been accustomed to:

We have increased the amount allowed for payment of capital expenses from the operating budget to $2,000 from $1,500.
We increased the operating contingency to $3,000, based on the potential transfers needed in the next year.
We will continue the operating dues of $15 per month for all units in order to accumulate cash for future asset acquisitions. The additional amount would accumulate until we have reached $60,000. We will be using substantial amounts from this during 2025 for the new security system and potential other asset purchases. Thus we will not have additional assessments for those assets.
We increased the comcast cost per unit from $50 to $52 to reflect the actual cost incurred. The current contract ends September 30, 2025.

Each year certain expenses increase due to cost of living increases, and the fraying of our beautiful building as it ages. The amount of revenue required to meet the budgeted expenses suggests a 18.7% increase in Operating dues for 2025. The Replacement Reserve fund was assigned a 6% increase for 2025 based on the Schwindt Replacement Reserve study conducted during 2024, which is projected out for at least 30 years.

The following are the requests for the standing committees’ budgets:

Landscape – this committee now also contains the responsibility for the Terrace Landscape. It has been projected to need $7,000 for 2025. The increase is due to a one-time cost to redesign of the Gallery Garden to introduce shade loving plants appropriate to the location.
Art – $1,000 for art receptions, which is the same amount as for 2024.
Social –$1,500 which is the same amount as for 2024.
The landscape maintenance contract with Gentle was increased to $8,052 from $7,320. His duties include the second floor terrace.

Brothers cleaning cost increased by 5%.

BMC’s administrative management fee increased 5%.

The following are the cost changes for utilities:

EWEB storm water – 7% increase
EWEB electricity and water – estimated 9% overall for electricity and 8% increase for water
City sewer – BMC estimates a 7% increase
NW Natural gas – BMC estimates an 7% increase
Elevator phone lines increased to $5,000.

Daddy’s Day Job (window washing) will be $10,580 for both cleanings, a $3,000 increase from 2024.

Elevator Maintenance will decrease to an estimated $7,000 as we will not have the every 5 year extra maintenance charge in 2025.

Our insurance costs are estimated to increase by 15%, which added $7,034 to our costs.

Also of note, the estimate for legal fees related to the By-laws update is $10,000, which greatly increased our Accounting and Legal amount.

BMC will be charging the same $2.35 per unit per month for technology fees relating to software upgrades for all properties at BMC. The committee decided in 2019 to not add a billing line to owners, rather the Operating Fund will absorb that cost.

Attached, please find the draft of the 2025 budget and the allocation of dues by apartment for 2025.

2025 Board Adopted HOA Budget