Can an HOA make you pay for cable or internet you don't use?
Reviewed by the OurHOA team · Updated July 2026
How bulk service contracts work, why the fee is usually mandatory, who has authority to sign one, and what to ask before your association locks in a long term.
What a bulk contract actually is
In a bulk services agreement, the association signs one contract with a provider covering every home in the community, and the provider charges a per-door rate that is typically a fraction of retail. The cost then flows into your dues as a common expense rather than arriving as a separate bill in your name. That is the whole appeal: a package that runs $90 a month retail might come in at $35 a door when 200 homes are committed. It is common in condos and newer master-planned communities, and it is usually the largest single line item most owners never voted on directly.
Why you pay whether you use it or not
This is the part that surprises people, and the answer is almost always yes, you still pay. A bulk fee is not a subscription you hold with the provider; it is a share of an expense the association owes under a contract it signed. Say your community has 120 units and a five year agreement at $40 a door. The association owes $4,800 a month regardless of how many people plug in a cable box, and that obligation gets divided across the owners the same way insurance or landscaping does. Cancelling your own service, or never activating it, does not reduce what the association owes, so it does not reduce your dues. Nothing stops you from buying a competing service on top of it, but you will be paying twice.
Who gets to sign it, the board or the members
This depends on your declaration and your state, and it is worth pinning down before an argument starts. In many communities the board can enter a service contract on its own authority as an ordinary operating decision. Florida is a useful example of how specific statutes can get: for condominiums, the board may enter a bulk communications contract and the cost becomes a common expense, the contract has to run at least two years, and the members can cancel it by a majority of the voting interests present at the next regular or special meeting. There is a catch in that last part worth knowing about, which is that if nobody makes the motion, or the motion fails, the contract is treated as ratified. Other states leave it entirely to the governing documents, and some declarations require a membership vote for any contract past a certain length or dollar amount.
What federal law does and does not protect
Federal rules protect competition at the building, not your right to opt out of the bill. The FCC has long barred providers from signing agreements that give them exclusive access to a multi-unit property, so a bulk contract cannot legally lock out every competitor. In February 2022 the FCC went further and prohibited exclusive and graduated revenue sharing arrangements between providers and property owners, closed a loophole where a provider would sell the wiring to the property and lease it back for its own exclusive use, and required providers to disclose exclusive marketing agreements to prospective customers. Ordinary bulk billing that does not involve revenue sharing was left alone, and a later proposal to let residents opt out of bulk billing was withdrawn by the FCC in January 2025. A few states are moving on their own, though carefully: California's AB 1414 gives tenants an opt out starting in 2026, and it does not cover homeowners or condo associations.
The math a board should run before signing
The per-door number is the easy part. The parts that go wrong are term length, escalators, and what the contract actually includes. A ten year term at a rate that steps up four percent annually is a very different deal than the headline figure suggests, and boards regularly sign long terms because the door rate drops, then spend years watching the market price fall past them. Ask what happens at renewal, whether the agreement covers equipment and installation or bills those separately, who handles service calls, what speed tier is guaranteed rather than advertised, and whether the association can exit if the provider stops performing. Also count how many owners already buy from that provider, because a bulk deal that saves 60 percent of the community money and forces the other 40 percent to pay for a second service is a harder sell than the savings alone make it look.
If you object to the one your community already has
Start by getting the contract itself and the declaration language the board relied on, both of which you are generally entitled to as an owner. Read for the term, the renewal mechanism, any cancellation window, and whether the cost was supposed to require a member vote. If your state has a ratification rule like Florida's, find out when that window opens, because it can close quietly without anyone raising a hand. Then bring it to a meeting rather than a comment thread, with the actual numbers: what the community pays per door, what retail costs, and how many owners are paying twice. Boards that put contracts, budgets, and meeting notices somewhere owners can find them get far fewer of these fights, which is a large part of what OurHOA is for. See also our guides on how HOA dues are calculated, what an HOA can charge you for utilities, and how to request HOA records.
OurHOA is the friendly, affordable way self-managed communities keep dues, records, and reminders in one place. See how it works.
These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.