At an aging Baltimore County condominium community, dues are set to rise 15% next year. That’s on top of a $250,000 special assessment that the complex’s roughly 241 households are being asked to split.

To Caryn Green and a group of Rockland Run neighbors, the rising costs are a tough swallow. Many residents live on fixed incomes. They worry about being priced out of their homes.

But even as she pays more, Green said the problems at Rockland Run continue to mount: ceilings caving, water heaters breaking, a tennis court badly in need of repaving. She and others have questions for the board of directors and property manager about where their money has been spent over the years, inflaming tensions and pitting neighbors against neighbors.

Green has turned to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General for assistance, only to be told that the property manager refused to participate in mediation or turn over audits and other documents she requested. Hiring an attorney could cost her more than the new dues and fees she already owes.

The conflicts at Rockland Run, some observers say, underline the argument for more oversight over condos, homeowners associations, cooperatives and other common ownership communities — where members pay a cut for shared services and amenities, such as snow removal and pools. In these communities, rising maintenance costs and insurance premiums have increased the pressure on homeowners.

Residents say they’re suspicious of where their money is going. Management blames the increases on the price of maintaining the amenities and on uncollected dues. Attempts to add more laws governing these communities have sometimes added even more complications.

A 2022 law, for example, requires large common ownership communities to conduct reserve studies every five years to examine potential infrastructure needs. And it sets deadlines for associations to collect the money for maintenance and upgrades — meaning homeowners may only have a few years before receiving an unexpected bill.

The law was designed to prevent a tragedy like the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse that killed 98 people — which was exacerbated by an underfunded reserves account that was meant to fund repairs — from happening in Maryland. But some already feel pinched.

“The fees are going up, but what has been done?” said Emmanuel Grant, a medical coder who has lived in the Rockland Run community since 1998, pointing to a sinkhole in the parking lot marked with a lone traffic cone. Though he enjoys his neighbors and the complex’s location, he’s considering moving out to avoid more financial guessing games.

Grant said he understands dues and assessments must increase sometimes, and he acknowledged that payments stayed relatively low during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he wondered why the management company wasn’t receptive to providing audits to give the community greater clarity of its fiscal outlook.

“I don’t feel protected or secure,” he said.

Common ownership communities tend to draw everyone from retirees and students or young families needing starter homes. Often billed as “carefree living,” it appeals to those who may want to forgo tasks like landscaping and have access to clubhouses or pickleball courts that they aren’t directly responsible for taking care of.

In condo communities like Rockland Run, buyers purchase a unit in a building and pay dues or special assessments to take care of all the common grounds, goods and services. A governing board is elected to ensure the rules are followed and payments are made. Rockland Run, like others, has a property management company to take care of day-to-day needs in common spaces.

But many people underestimate how much “carefree living” can cost, said state Del. Marvin Holmes, the self-described “housing guru” in Annapolis who has taken on common ownership communities as a pet cause.

Holmes, the architect of the 2022 mandatory reserves study bill, has attempted to sponsor regulation that would have created a “bill of rights” for common ownership community residents. It has failed three times in as many sessions.

Next year, he plans to sponsor legislation that would establish a statewide commission for common ownership communities. Similar bodies in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Charles counties give residents a point of contact — and process — to handle disputes.

Outside of those areas, homeowners are often stumped.

“If you have a concern about your common ownership community,” he said, “the only place that you can call to get someone to listen to you is calling the office of Del. Marvin Holmes.”

He also plans to reintroduce a bill that would set licensing standards for property managers, who he said usually have few qualifications outside of their “business cards.”

Rockland Run’s property manager, Ben Colbert, would welcome more training.

A property manager since the early aughts, Colbert, a former scientist, said the job is sometimes more complex than what he used to do in the lab. He thinks residents sometimes allow their own self-interests to interfere with the community’s quality of life.

When dues decreased a few years ago, Colbert said he tried to push back but came up short. Now the community’s reserve account has been depleted to about $30,000 and is “bleeding money,” he said, leading to the $250,000 assessment.

He argued that much of the responsibility for maintaining a community falls to the homeowners and the board — and he disagreed with the assertion that the community’s funds have been mishandled. The requested audits, he added, would take awhile to compile and detract from his other duties.

Instead, he said, the tension at Rockland Run can be chalked up to differing priorities among the board, the property manager and the community members.

“How do you tell someone that they are being very selfish?” Colbert said. “It’s no one’s fault that drywall and wood [prices] have quadrupled, but they still want everything fixed. So what do you do?”

For example, Colbert said, the board voted to prioritize pool maintenance during the pandemic, believing that it would offer homeowners an outlet for socializing outside of their homes. He wouldn’t necessarily have made that same choice, he said, but those decisions happen outside of his purview.

Bob Allen, the president of the board, did not respond to a request for comment. In written communications to unit owners, though, he called skepticism over the board and the management unfounded and unwarranted. He recommended dissenters use the annual election process to make changes.

Green and her allies have run out of patience with business as usual at Rockland Run.

The board, Green said, should not have run up $250,000 worth of debt without consulting homeowners first. She has pushed for in-person meetings, circulated petitions calling for forensic audits and called for special meetings to remove four out of five board members. Her efforts have yielded little fruit, though, and instead have drawn the ire of fellow community members for running up their legal bills. Memos went around with her name on them.

With few options left, Green is considering a move outside of Baltimore County, where common ownership communities have more resources.

“If I lived in Prince George’s or Montgomery counties, they have a commission ... exactly what I can’t afford to solve the problem,” she said. “This would not have escalated.”

Baltimore Banner reporter Danny Nguyen contributed to this article.