Condo Association Management Blog

In many circumstances, the HOA or condo is created the minute the articles of incorporation are filed. Based upon your statement that 4 out of 8 residential units have been purchased, leads me to believe that would be the case, so in fact your HOA is established. Calculation of fees is normally in accordance with your articles of incorporation / bylaws. 
 
Sounds like what you are describing is a developer controlled HOA / condo which has not yet been turned over to the owners.

If you have bylaws you may find your answer therein. In not then download your State's Condominium Act. There will be many references to the developer in this law. If you do not have by laws call the clerk of your county court and see if they were registered. If not registered again look at your state law for requirements in this regard. 
Should all this not solve your problem you'd best get a competent attorney to helped you should also call on your Attorney General's office for help.

If your assn has a name, i.e. "XYZ Condominium Assn" then the corp/HOA has been established. Have you been making assessment payments to an HOA or to the developer? Normally the HOA is established before any units are even built. 
 
It appears that your assn is still under declarant control. During this time assessments may be raised by the developer although they usually like to keep them low so as to attact buyers. But, since the original developer went belly-up the new declarant is probably raising the fees to make up for any shortfalls the original developer incurred. In some states these shortfalls must be made up by the developer -- you may want to check this out. You may also want to check out state law and your gov docs regarding increases in assessments. Here in AZ the assessments in a planned community cannot be raised more than 20% w/o a vote of the members, but there is no limitation for condos. Some CCRs may have a limit also. The CCRs should also specify how the assessments are to be calculated. Some condo assn's require this be done by sq. ft., some do not -- it all depends upon what the CCRs say. 
 
Being a member in a new assn you may want to take the time to thoroughly read your gov docs and also research state Condo statutes. When the developer turns over the assn to the members you may wish to seek a position on the board. With only 8 units in the assn the members will have to be involved!! Someone with knowledge of the gov docs and state law will be a valuable asset to the BOD.

It sounds like unfortunately that control of the association has not yet been turned over. When there is a new development, the developer turns over control usually when a percentage of the property is sold and this is identified usually in the by-laws of the association. Sometimes it’s a time frame, 1 year, or 95% of the beneficial interest sold but until then, the controlling entity can do basically what they want in a certain regard as in your case, increase the fees. Fees are not calculated by square footage per MGL 183A (Massachusetts Condominium Law). They are created on fair market value at the time of the development though that is not defined, and therefore, square footage is used as one quantifying indicator to determine the interest a unit would own in an association as noted in the master deed documents. 
 
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