HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - October 19, 2012
Published: Fri, 10/19/12
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Three Ways to Improve Your HOA's Architectural Review
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In this week's tip, we share three tips for handling
architectural reviews fairly.
1. Educate home owners on the committee's role.
"Educate home owners on the reason for the architectural
review committee," says Steven Parker, president of
RMI Management in Las Vegas, which manages 286 community
associations. "You might say, 'You bought in this
community because you liked the way it looked, and it's
the ARC's job to maintain those standards that appealed
to you.' I've seen associations where owners were mad at
ARC decisions and considered them unfair, and that was
because the board hadn't adequately explained the
reason for the ARC process to home owners in the first
place. Where that's done and owners' requests are declined,
they're less likely to be angry."
2. Create written standards. "The first thing you need
is written criteria," explains Robert Galvin, a partner
at Davis, Malm & D'Agostine PC in Boston who specializes
in representing condos and co-ops. "For example, if
somebody wants to put in a dormer, what are the criteria
for that so it's not left completely up to the
architectural review committee?
"You could promulgate specific criteria for specific
renovations," adds Galvin. "For example in the condo
where I live, the windows are owned by the owners and
aren't common. The association has issued a list of windows
you can use. You can buy them anyplace, but the windows
you buy must meet these specifications. Then there are
balcony criteria: This is what you can do to your balcony.
"Then there can be general criteria," says Galvin.
"You could state that alterations have to fit in with
the existing architecture, so they must be art deco or
American colonial style, whatever your style. Otherwise,
there are no guidelines, and it would be very difficult
for the committee to know what the criteria would be.
That'll make the process fair, and not only that,
people will believe it's fair."
3. Take tons of decisions out of the committee's hands.
"Have as many decisions taken out of the subjective
realm as possible," advises Parker. "Rather than saying,
'No, you can't choose that paint color,' create a list
of paint colors that are acceptable and let owners
choose from the list."
Get all 7 Tips for Handling HOA Architectural
Approvals Fairly in our new article
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/772.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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