HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - August 19, 2011
Published: Mon, 08/08/11
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Can You Save Your HOA Money By Doing Owners' Repairs?
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In this week's tip, we explain how helping owners with routine
maintenance can reduce your HOA's expenses, liability, and
disputes among owners.
A townhouse HOA in Michigan checks owners' taps to ensure there
are no leaks, which saves on HOA water bills and helps reduce
the incidents of water damage between owners. It also requires
owners to have a furnace inspection at a cost of $30 to ensure
there are no furnace mishaps that can cause damage between units.
Though Robert M. DeNichilo, an attorney at DeNichilo & Lindsley
in Irvine, Calif., who specializes in representing community
associations, hasn't seen his HOA clients doing unit repairs and
maintenance, he sees the benefits. "It sounds like a great
program," he says. "Offering the program and working with
vendors is fantastic. In the long run, everybody saves. At HOAs,
owners are required to maintain certain structures, and the
HOA is required to maintain others. When there's damage, there's
usually overlap, and preventive maintenance is a lot cheaper
than fixing damage after the fact."
Of course, your HOA should work only with pros. "A board should
be careful it's affiliating with a competent professional,"
adds Matthew A. Drewes, a partner at Thomsen & Nybeck PA in
Edina, Minn., who represents associations. "The last thing
an association wants is to sign itself up for liability
for bringing in someone who's not qualified or to give the
appearance of endorsing the contractor. And it certainly
doesn't want a board member doing these things, especially
if it's for a fee. In Minnesota, board members are given great
deference for actions and decisions when they're not being
compensated. But once you take on something that's not a true
director responsibility and charge for it, those protections
are out the window."
No program is without risk, and J. Roger Wood, an attorney
with Carpenter, Hazlewood, Delgado & Wood PLC in Tucson, Ariz.,
who specializes in representing community associations,
sees some risks.
"I'm with the idea--to a point," says Wood. "But boards
should be mindful of what their governing documents say
about whose responsibility it is to do A, B, and C,"
adds Wood. "An HOA that takes responsibility for something
that's not its own may find itself taking on additional
tasks. Then if the program gets really expensive and the
board says it shouldn't be doing it anymore, the owners
might say, 'But you've done it for years!'"
For more ideas on how your HOA could save money by doing owners'
work, see our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/614.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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violations and when to give owners time to correct the violations
themselves.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/members/610.cfm >
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< http://www.hoaleader.com/public/608.cfm >
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< http://www.hoaleader.com/public/604.cfm >
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This week's tip gives you insight on how to fill a vacant seat on
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Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/public/596.cfm >
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