HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 21, 2022
Published: Fri, 01/21/22
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 21, 2022
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In this week's tip, we discuss a topic you may be thinking about but aren't yet sure how to manage—the post-Surfside reality that you could get hit with liability for your good-faith board work if your owners repeatedly decline to fund what's necessary for building repairs and maintenance.
Take a deep breath. You can protect yourself from liability.
The June 2021 condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., has caused board members to rethink their roles in condo/HOA boards. "Surfside has scared board members," reports Alex Noland, CCAL, founder of Noland Law in San Francisco, which represents 200-plus community associations throughout California. "Multiple Surfside owners have already sued board members in that community."
If board members aren't afraid, they're certainly frustrated, states Matthew Zifrony, who advises homeowners and condo associations at Tripp Scott, a Ft. Lauderdale law firm, and who has also served as the president of a 3,000-home association. "I'm not yet hearing that individuals are declining to serve on condo or HOA boards because of liability reasons," he says. "But I do see more of the aggravation boards are going though.
"I was at a board meeting a few weeks ago where the discussion was about making needed repairs to a boundary wall," recalls Zifrony. "Owners were up in arms. Budgets are increasing, and now there was talk of a special assessment. That was after years of the association taking a band-aid approach to the repairs.
"At that meeting, there were five board members faced with 30-40 angry, sometimes shouting owners," he notes. "Half of the owners were saying the board should have been collecting money all along, so they didn't want a special assessment. The other half were saying there was no need to fix the wall at all. It was a very, very difficult meeting where the board members couldn't win.
"There's a lot more of that frustration for board members," says Zifrony. "Rather than asking why they're serving due to the potential liability, they're asking: Why am I serving on the board where I have to deal with this?"
You probably have more protections than you realize. Find out more in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4452.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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