HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - August 6, 2021
Published: Fri, 08/06/21
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - August 6, 2021
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It's been more than a month since the structure of the 12-story beachfront condo complex in Florida gave way, leading to the deaths of 98 people.
In this week's tip, as the families still grieve, we begin to discuss what board members in communities nationwide can learn in the wake of such devastation.
"It's a terrible tragedy, and it's tough to talk about those things while we're still dealing with the recovery effort," said Stephen G. Davis, a Missouri- and Illinois-licensed attorney at Carmody MacDonald in St. Louis, which represents about 200 condo and HOA communities, in early July. "We don't want to be acting too soon given the terrible tragedy and the families who are grieving.
"We are thinking through the various takeaways from the situation that we want to be sure our clients are considering," he adds. "And I don't think it's too soon for communities to start talking about issues we're seeing there and to learn from a horrible situation."
Our experts haven't heard much from their clients yet. "I really haven't gotten any calls," reported Scott D. Weiss, CCAL, a community association lawyer at Ortale Kelley in Nashville, Tenn., who represents more than 650 condos/HOA communities throughout the state, in early July. "We don't really have a ton of really tall condos like that. Nashville probably has the highest concentration of those, and they're not even as tall as Champlain Towers. It's so early, but I'm surprised I haven't."
Nor has Janet Oulousian Aronson, a partner at Marcus Errico Emmer & Brooks in Braintree, Mass., who is licensed in that state, in addition to Rhode Island and New Hampshire. "I've not any real board members reach out," she says.
Aronson has much sympathy for the Champlain Towers volunteer leaders. "I do feel bad for those board members," she explains. "I'm sure they were doing what they thought was in the best interest of the association. They were juggling the cost of the work with the challenges for homeowners. Then I'm sure the pandemic set them back a bit. I know a lot of board members in condos and HOAs didn't want to raise fees because homeowners' incomes were affected by the pandemic.
"It's not uncommon to have buildings with reports of deterioration of some kind," notes Aronson. "Usually it's structural, and it's scary. But I don't think anybody really thought the building was going to fall down. And it don't think the board was told the condition was dangerous.
"The reports said the building needed work, but the issue isn't usually that simple," she adds. "Board members typically don't have the expertise needed to address structural issues, so they needed engineering evaluations and other reports to do the work necessary. So it's not like next week they could do the work. And how can you hold board members responsible if owners won't vote for the work to be done? The situation isn't so cut and dried.
"I'm sure there was some kicking the can down the road," notes Aronson. "I think that happens quite frequently, and I think this tragedy might change things going forward. In Massachusetts, boards have the authority to raise funds to do necessary work--they don't need owners' approval--yet they still struggle with those decisions. But if boards don't have the authority to levy assessments to cover necessary work, their hands are effectively tied, and they're not able to address potentially serious matters."
Our experts say the Surfside tragedy offers many painful lessons, but ones that communities nationwide can benefit from hearing. Read them in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/4365.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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