To say Rosalie Hayes was stunned when she opened the letter describing a dues increase at her Arvada condo complex this year would be an understatement. “When I opened this letter, it was just like you could have knocked me over with a feather,” she said. “It was a shock.” The letter explained her monthly condo dues would increase from $346 to $620, an increase of nearly $300. The main culprit for the increase, according to the letter from the Sequoia Condominium Association, was that the homeowners association’s insurance premium had more than doubled from the previous year, adding $140,000 to the association’s yearly insurance bill. “There’s a lot of people here… they’re younger and older and I don’t know how a lot of people are going to do it,” Hayes said. But the situation at her condo community is playing out in similar communities across the state, as insurance companies move away from the HOA business in Colorado, citing increased loss from hail and wildfire, other liabilities and a lack of profitability for HOA policies in general. “In the last 17 years in Colorado, I can say without hesitation, this is the biggest crisis to hit HOAs,” said Molly Foley-Healy, an attorney who represents HOA boards. Foley-Healy said many of her clients are seeing premium rate hikes adding anywhere from $300,000 to close to $1 million to some policies, especially in more wildfire-prone mountain communities. And those sudden premium increases are leading boards to turn to their only sources of income for help – monthly dues and special assessments.