The HOA Nottingham Country Buyers Assume Isn't Always the One They Get

A group of Nottingham Country homeowners spent part of 2024 and 2025 organizing under the banner Save the Nottingham HOA, calling for greater financial transparency, including independent audits and competitive bidding on vendor contracts. The group also pointed to participation in board elections: in a community of roughly 2,300 homes, one recent board seat had been decided by nine votes, and total turnout for a board election had come in under 150 homeowners.

By March of this year, the neighborhood's main homeowners association had a new management company. Inframark took over from the previous manager, brought in a community manager named Cassandra Perez, and launched a new resident portal at home.inframark.com. If you're eyeing a resale in Nottingham Country right now, that timeline has a practical consequence for your paperwork: any HOA document, dues statement, or management contact info attached to an older listing packet may already be out of date. The paperwork trail changed hands earlier this year, and not every source online has caught up.

That's the smaller surprise. The bigger one is that "the HOA" in Nottingham Country was never really singular to begin with.

Not One HOA, But Two

Nottingham Country was built out in phases during the 1970s and 1980s by the Kickerillo Companies, divided into ten numbered sections, with Section 1 the oldest. Sections 1 through 9 fall under the Nottingham Country Community Improvement Association, the HOA that just switched to Inframark. Section 10 answers to a different entity entirely: Nottingham Country Fund, Inc., managed separately through Crest Management, according to the neighborhood management directory kept by the local municipal utility district.

That split means two people buying a home in "Nottingham Country" this month could be joining two different associations, paying different dues, filing architectural requests through different portals, and reaching different phone numbers when something needs fixing. A resale certificate pulled for a Section 3 property tells you nothing about what a Section 10 buyer should expect, and vice versa.

If your offer is on a home in Section 10, confirming the association and management company before you're deep into option period saves you from chasing the wrong portal login the week before closing.

A Third Layer With Its Own Elected Board

Neither of those HOAs touches your property tax bill. That's the job of a separate governmental entity, the Nottingham Country Municipal Utility District, which owns and operates the neighborhood's own wastewater treatment plant on Almond Park Drive, built to handle 650,000 gallons a day. The district completed a major renovation of that plant in 2022, replacing equipment original to the 1970s-80s construction and adding redundancy so the system can keep running if one part needs maintenance.

The MUD has its own elected board, its own budget, and its own line on your tax statement, running independent of whichever HOA governs your section. A dispute over HOA transparency, or a management company switch, has no bearing on what the MUD charges or how it spends it. Buyers sometimes assume the entity billing them for water and sewer is the same one enforcing lawn height rules. In Nottingham Country, it never has been.

Why the Tax Rate Looks Different Here

This is where the layered structure actually shows up in a number worth comparing. Recent write-ups on Katy tax rates put Nottingham Country somewhere in the low-to-high 2 percent range, with one June 2026 estimate landing at 2.10 percent specifically. That's meaningfully below the 3.2 to 3.6 percent range cited for newer Katy sections like Firethorne and Tamarron.

The gap isn't a pricing quirk. MUDs fund infrastructure, water lines, sewer plants, drainage, by issuing bonds and repaying them through that MUD tax line over years or decades. A district built out in the 1970s and 80s has had far longer to pay down its original construction debt than a MUD still building new sections today. Nottingham Country's rate sits lower because a large share of its infrastructure bonds are already retired, not because the district is charging less for the same obligations. A newer Katy community carrying fresh bond debt on a swim center or new lift station is going to show a higher rate until it works through the same payoff timeline.

For a buyer comparing a Nottingham Country resale against new construction elsewhere in Katy, that MUD-rate difference is a real, ongoing carrying-cost gap, not a one-time closing credit. It's worth running alongside HOA dues and any homestead exemption math when you're sizing up total monthly cost across neighborhoods rather than just comparing sales price.

What to Actually Pull Before You Write an Offer

Given the layers involved, a few document requests are worth making early rather than during a tight option period:

• Confirm the section number on the property and which association actually governs it, NCCIA or Nottingham Country Fund, Inc.
• Ask the listing agent or seller for the current management company contact, not whatever's printed on an older HOA addendum. If it's an NCCIA property, that's Inframark as of this year.
• Pull the most recent MUD tax bill directly rather than relying on an appraisal district's general estimate, since section-specific and year-to-year rate figures can shift.
• Request the resale certificate from the correct management company for that section. A Section 10 request sent to Inframark, or an NCCIA request sent to Crest, will just cost you time.

None of this is unusual for Texas MUD communities generally. What makes Nottingham Country specific is that it stacks two possible HOAs on top of the MUD layer, and one of those HOAs just went through a management change that's still working its way through everyone's contact records.

A Few Questions Worth Settling Early

Is the MUD the same organization as my HOA? No. The Nottingham Country Municipal Utility District is a separate governmental entity that sets your water, sewer, and drainage tax rate. Your HOA, whichever one governs your section, handles deed restrictions, dues, and community amenities. They don't share a board or a budget.

I'm buying in Section 10. Do I deal with the same HOA as the rest of the neighborhood? No. Section 10 falls under Nottingham Country Fund, Inc., managed through Crest Management, while sections 1 through 9 fall under the Nottingham Country Community Improvement Association, now managed by Inframark.

Does the lower MUD tax rate mean my total housing cost will definitely beat a newer Katy neighborhood? Not automatically. The lower rate is one real, ongoing component of cost, tied to decades of paid-down infrastructure bonds. You'll still want to add current HOA dues, insurance, and the specific home's condition into any side-by-side comparison before drawing a conclusion about total monthly payment.

If you're weighing a Nottingham Country resale against something newer elsewhere in Katy, I can help you pull the current section-specific HOA contact, the latest MUD tax figure, and a real comparison of what those numbers mean for your monthly payment before you write an offer. Andrea Smith has spent enough time in these neighborhoods to know which document goes to which office, and that's exactly the kind of detail worth settling before you're under contract, not after.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.