In this week's tip, we answer a reader's question about how to weigh pool repairs against other community needs—with the underlying message being: Can we just get rid of it?
Here's our reader's question, but generally, they want to know if it's worth it to repair their 50-year-old pool that's open only a few months of the year when they've got tons of other expenses.
As insurance costs and reserve requirements continue to create budget challenges for communities, we're guessing our experts will hear this question more in the coming years. So, who decides that a community should close its pool? And wouldn't closing it rack up costs, too?
Let's start by saying that, overall, our experts predict their clients would face a revolt if they raised the issue of closing the condo or HOA pool.
"I've not seen that question
arise in Virginia," states Danielle Wang, of counsel at the law firm of Sands Anderson PC in Williamsburg and Richmond, Va., and the leader of its community associations team. "It's hot as all get-out here. Nobody in their right minds would close the pool because it gets up to 100 degrees on the regular here.
"But, of course, pools are very expensive to maintain," she admits. "When we're drafting rules and regulations for clients, we do a lot of focus on the pool, and it features prominently in the reserve study, budgets, and maintenance."
Jennifer Biletnikoff, a shareholder in the Naples, Fla., office of Becker & Poliakoff, who has represented condos and HOAs for more than 15 years, agrees. "It's so rare here in Florida," she says. "I've heard of it only once. That was only because of devastation due to a hurricane, the location of the pool, and the inability to build back due to the footprint of the building. They had to remove
that pool, but that was a one-off because of new code requirements.
"Here, I think people would go crazy if a board tried to remove a pool," predicts Biletnikoff.