What are ancillary fees and which ones are normal?

Ancillary fees are everything billed outside the base management fee, and for many communities they add fifteen to thirty percent on top of it. They are normal. What is not normal is a fee schedule the Board has never seen in full.

Ones that are routine and defensible: resale and estoppel documents, additional meeting attendance, certified mailings, lien preparation and release, records requests beyond a statutory minimum, architectural review processing, and after-hours emergency dispatch.

Ones worth questioning: charges for producing the monthly financial package, per-transaction fees on ordinary accounts payable, a fee to give the Board access to its own portal, charges for routine email or phone contact, and anything described as an administrative or technology fee without a stated service behind it.

The structural protection is simple and Boards ask for it too rarely: require the complete ancillary schedule as a dated exhibit to the agreement, with changes requiring notice and Board consent. A schedule that lives on the company's own system can be revised without anyone voting on it, and generally is.