Paying for sukkah in condo

amother

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:13 pm

I live in a condo building.

Some condo owners live here and some rent it out for income.
The building has some religious and some non religious families living in it.
The owners need to pay the maintenance fees to the management.

The building management allows a sukkah but they don’t want to be involved.

Every year someone takes charge of hiring a building company, setting the rules and collecting money from everyone who will use the sukkah.

This year, the person in charge decided that every religious person who lives in their building needs to pay $500 for the sukkah costs
of supplies and labor- weather or not they plan to be here for Sukkos.
Other years only the families that used the sukkah needed to pay but it was a higher fee.

I think it’s a chutzpah.
If I’m going away Sukkos, meaning I am paying for a sukkah elsewhere, and I’m not renting out my apartment to someone who will be using the sukkah I shouldn’t be required to pay for someone’s else’s sukkah.

Am I wrong?

amother

Electricblue

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:21 pm

And usually it’s more than that? Your typical family living in a single family house spends a fraction of that yearly on the succah itself. Most years we spend zero dollars. I hear if you hire people to put it up that could be a few hundred dollars, fine, let’s figure because it’s a big succah it’s $1,000. Even $1,500. What are they doing with all that money over $1,500??

amother

Pink

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:24 pm

They have zero grounds to tell you that you need to pay for the sukkah. Just don’t pay it. If they convince management to come after you for payment, you can tell them that you aren’t any more responsible for payment than non religious residents.

amother

Pink

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:25 pm

amother Electricblue wrote:

Right? Like are these US dollars or Monopoly money?

amother

Bone

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:28 pm

I live in a condo. There’s a handful of Jewish families. Maybe 2 handfuls. Years back we pooled some money for a sukkah. One family Bought it and Anyone who wanted to gave him some money. The building stores the sukkah. A few families assemble and dissemble it. All kids are invited to help decorate. Anyone can use it. No one is charged. It’s not clear where the $500 per family per year is even going!

amother

Ivory

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:46 pm

How many families are participating?
That’s A LOT
I live in a condo S.FL.
Our condo doesn’t charge for the SUKKA building year by year.
The condo wants to build a permanent structure so that walls and air conditioning can be put up for Sukkot, also they can use it year round with a detachable roof
For this permanent structure each family has to chip in
That makes sense

But your scenario doesn’t make sense.

Other buildings in the area are charging $100 per family using the SUKKA and they get a reserved table and chairs-

amother

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:48 pm

Not USD. Another currency that’s worth less.

I don’t know why it costs so much and I don’t care. The management doesn’t allow it to be stored on shared property and no one wants to store it on their own property - they buy new supplies each year.

Even if it was $10 I wouldn’t want to pay.

Their logic is that everyone religious in the building is responsible to make sure the building has a sukkah. This is the first year they have this logic.

When we put up mezuzos on shared spaces all the religious Jews contributed. It was communicated on a WhatsApp group with us religious families. The management didn’t want to know if deal with it.

The management won’t care if I don’t pay. The other families will be upset because either they will all need to pay more, or more likely the person arranging it will come short with funds and need to pay the missing amount for supplies and labor.

I don’t want to not get along with my neighbors but I think it is a chutzpah. I’ll probably end up paying just to keep everyone happy. I’m annoyed at their logic.

amother

Pink

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:55 pm

amother OP wrote:

Their logic is that everyone religious in the building is responsible to make sure the building has a sukkah. This is the first year they have this logic.

Maybe you can tell them to talk with a rav. Because as far as I know, a building doesn’t need a sukka. They can eat in the shul’s sukka like they did back in the shtetl.

Are you the only one who isn’t home and isn’t renting out your place?

amother

Electricblue

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:55 pm

Mezuzos for shared spaces may or may not be halachically required, I really don’t know enough to say. But a succah on your property I know 100% is not halachically required.

amother

Pink

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 6:58 pm

amother OP wrote:

The management doesn’t allow it to be stored on shared property and no one wants to store it on their own property - they buy new supplies each year.

Supplies are really expensive. Are they throwing it out every year? So they expect you to pay this amount plus, every year?

I’m sorry they don’t want to store the sukka. It seems rather spoiled of them. They can each take a small portion to store and save themselves thousands of dollars.

amother

Electricblue

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 7:00 pm

amother OP wrote:

The management doesn’t allow it to be stored on shared property and no one wants to store it on their own property - they buy new supplies each year.

This is unbelievably wasteful. If I lived in your building I’d offer to store the succah in my property in exchange for getting to use it for free. It can’t be that nobody in your building is interested in making this kind of deal.

And even with all new materials it really shouldn’t cost so much. How many religious families are in your building? I’m really curious how much money we’re talking about here.

amother

Pink

Thu, Sep 21 2023, 7:02 pm

amother Electricblue wrote:

Dh works with building supplies. They have gotten really expensive. So that part makes sense. The rest of it really doesn’t.