HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - November 30, 2012
Published: Fri, 11/30/12
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How to Be Neighborly with Your HOA's Neighbors
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It's not just you and your HOA's owners, and your
owners and their fellow owners, who have to work
together. You need to be able to work well with
your HOA's neighbors, too, whether they're also
associations, single-family home owners, or
commercial property owners. In this week's tip,
we get you started on a good working relationship.
"Cookies get much greater results than a slap
in the face," says David W. Kaman, a Columbus-based
partner at Kaman & Cusimano LLC, which represents
associations throughout Ohio. "In Aurora, Ohio,
there's an area with association after association
right next to each other, and we often represent
several of those associations. We've really
stressed to our boards, 'Hey, why don't you two
boards get together and sit down? If you need
their residents to pick up their dogs' stuff,
it's a good possibility they need something
from you like tree trimming. Your boards
working together will go a long way toward
working well with neighbors."
Nathaniel Abbate Jr., a partner at Makower
Abbate & Associates PLLC in Farmington Hills,
Mich., who represents associations, suggests a
similar approach. "The best way is to start out
from a position where you're not adversarial,"
he says. "You might say, 'Looks like we both have
this problem, and the only way we're going to get
it resolved is if we work together.'"
Whatever you do, don't blame the problem on the
neighbor. "Do it in a very friendly manner,"
suggests Robert White, managing director of
KW Property Management & Consulting in Miami,
which oversees about 125 associations totaling
30,000-35,000 units. "Whatever the problem, we
tell our boards they should try to work together,
and we encourage our managers to develop
relationships with managers of other associations
nearby. I'd suggest approaching the other
building and saying, 'Hey, we've got a rat
problem, and we hear you've got a rat problem,
too. Want to work together on a solution?'
That's as opposed to, 'We've got a rat problem
because of you." That would immediately put
the neighbors on the defense."
Also learn the risk of trying to call all the shots,
and find out what to try when friendliness doesn't
work, by reading our new article,
Tips for Working with Your HOA's Neighbors.
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/787.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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