HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 11, 2019
Published: Fri, 01/11/19
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4 Ideas That Could Reduce Your Condo/HOA’s Fine Frustration
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We offer some potential stress relief in this week’s tip.
The one sure way to make your owners angry—which in turn inevitably makes them more unpleasant to you and their neighbors, which then makes your life more stressful—is to impose fine after fine on them. It’s a no-win cycle that takes a lot of your time and makes your job as a board member all the more thankless.
A better approach is to try to get owners to comply with your HOA rules in the first place. Our experts have four tips to achieving better owner compliance with your rules and for handling violations in a way that doesn’t require imposing fines. Here’s the first one:
1. Go big on communication on the front end. “One thing you can do is to have better communication,” notes Robert E. Ducharme, founder of Ducharme Law in Stratham, N.H., who specializes in representing community associations. “I try to get boards to create essentially a welcome committee.
“Under New Hampshire law, everybody in the community is bound by the laws even if they’ve never looked at them,” he states. “But rules have to be given to owners, and you have to give them a reasonable period of time to come into compliance with the rules before your association can enforce them.
“So before you provide notice of any violation, you have to show that owners have actually been given the rules,” explains Ducharme. “If you’ve given them a copy of the rule, you’re good. If you have an association website and they’re posted there, you’re also fine.
“But I suggest that boards have a committee that meets with every new resident to say hello, maybe give them a $10 gift certificate to a local establishment, and to give them full set of the declarations and rules,” he suggests. “Also, every quarter send owners and residents notice of upcoming rules that may come into play. Maybe you send rules before winter that include such things as what to do with Christmas trees.
“I always say that 90 percent of community association living is communication,” says Ducharme.
Catch all 4 Steps to Reducing the Number of Fines You Impose in 2019 in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/3847.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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4 Steps to Reducing the Number of Fines You Impose in 2019
The one sure way to make your owners angry--which in turn inevitably makes them more unpleasant to you and their neighbors, which then makes your life more stressful--is to impose fine after fine on them. It's a no-win cycle that takes a lot of your time and makes your job as a board member all the more thankless.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4-Steps-Reducing-Number-Fines-You-Impose-in-2019.cfm
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Condo/HOA Experts: Expect to See More of These 5 Challenges in 2019
Part of your job is to know which issues should be on your radar this year. To help you out, we asked our experts in both HOA/condo management and the law what they expect to see arise more often in 2019, and they suggest you track and prepare to face these five hot or soon-to-be-hot topics.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/CondoHOA-Experts-Expect-See-More-These-5-Challenges-in-2019.cfm
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No HOA Quorum for 15 Years--That's Not a Typo
An HOAleader.com reader asks, For the past 15 years, our HOA was unable to get the 50 percent quorum, so nothing could and still can't be done. The president and just one board member have been sitting there twiddling their thumbs.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/No-HOA-Quorum-for-15-YearsThats-Not-Typo.cfm
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Are Florida Condos Refusing Residents with FEMA Vouchers?
A reader has given HOAleader.com a heads up that, with all the damage to the Florida Panhandle from Hurricane Michael in October, some condo associations in the state are declining to accept Federal Emergency Management Agency vouchers that allow people to rent temporarily in a property after a natural disaster.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Are-Florida-Condos-Refusing-Residents-with-FEMA-Vouchers.cfm
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How Far Should You Push the Boundaries While Investing Your Condo/HOA Reserves?
In this week's tip, we answer a reader's question: We have a reserve fund to maintain our road and entry gate, and that's it. We just resealed the road and then had it inspected. The road shouldn't be resealed again for 10 years. They don't need major work until 25 years.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/How-Far-Should-You-Push-Boundaries-While-Investing-Your-CondoHOA-Reserves.cfm
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