HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - April 6, 2012
Published: Fri, 04/06/12
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Save Your HOA Money through Proactive Maintenance, Utility
Credits, and Consciousness Raising
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In a new article we offer 3 ways to reduce your HOA's utility
bills. In this week's tip, we share one part of that story: How
one HOA was successful saving money through proactive
maintenance--with some utility credits and common sense thrown
in.
"In the past two years, we've reduced our water bill by 75
percent and our electric bill by 25 percent," says David
Loughran, president of the 11-unit Promenade House Condo
Association in Portland, Maine. "Most of our utility savings
have come from being very committed to routine maintenance and
identifying several systems that were broken and getting them
fixed."
The biggest savings came from hot-water line repairs. "There
was a leak in our hot-water line," says Loughran. "It stared
out very small and ended up getting bigger and bigger over
time. We didn't know this. It had been identified eight to
nine years ago, but that and a couple of other things weren't
fixed, and they led to really high water bills."
How high? Promenade's monthly water bill was $800. Post-repairs,
it's now $200-$250. "That sparked a big discussion on our board
about how to reduce all our costs," says Loughran. "Now every
year, we have a plumber inspect all the plumbing systems to
make sure they're working properly. That goes from in-unit
toilets to make sure they're not leaking to our three gas
hot-water heaters, our common washers and dryers, and our
backflow preventer. Since we've done that, we've avoided
replacing major systems and higher utility bills."
There's an additional bonus: Loughran was also able to get a
$3,600 credit from the association's water district. "I'd read
about its policy stating that if you had something that was
causing significant overuse and brought the use into line, it
would refund half the overage going 12 months back," he says.
At the same time, the board has also worked on cutting
electricity bills. "We replaced all the thermostats in the
common hallways and laundry rooms and set up a routine," says
Loughran. "In the past, if people were cold, they'd turned up
common-area thermostats. Now we turn on the heat on October 15
and not before that.
"These are common sense things, so the effort was more
consciousness-raising," says Loughran. "The best way to make a
difference, whether it's on utility bills or anything else, is
to get buy-in from everybody involved. If everyone's doing their
part, it's easier on everybody. The lesson we learned is that
being proactive and fixing the small things has saved on our
monthly bills and avoided huge replacements down the line. That
hadn't always been the attitude of the association."
To discover other ways your HOA could save money on utility
bills, read our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/snip/140.htm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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