As an HOA board member you probably know what a reserve study is and the importance of doing one. Equally important is that having the proper reserves in place will ensure that the long term assets in the Association (roads, roofs, pool, landscape, etc.) will be properly cared for and maintained.
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If you’re in the process of house hunting you may have come across your dream home in a homeowners association community. But before you make a major purchase, are you informed about living in an HOA? If you aren’t familiar with how it works, there are some important questions to ask and a few actions to take before purchasing your new home.
Halloween is a kid’s delight. It’s a blast to dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, attend parties and most of all, eat a lot of candy. At the same time, Halloween can be scary for parents. Costumes can be dangerous, too much candy can be sickening and walking around at night can be risky, even in your homeowners association community.
The purpose and protocol for executive sessions in a homeowners association are often misunderstood by both homeowners and board members. HOA Board members may call an executive session to discuss important matters and make crucial decisions involving privileged and private information.
Below are some frequently asked questions that you might have about executive sessions that will help to increase your knowledge and fulfill your duty to be informed as a member of the Board and Association.
If just a few homeowners aren’t paying their HOA fees it can be felt very quickly in an association’s budget. It can also cause a ripple effect. If too many homeowners fail to pay their HOA fees, lenders might start to be unwilling to finance mortgages in the association. This could lead to a decrease in property values.
When it comes to the annual budget for your homeowners association, it can feel cumbersome to understand and plan. It can also seem like an overwhelming task because you just don’t have a lot of accounting knowledge.
The budget planning process is a lot of work and a large responsibility for the HOA board to prepare. It’s a complex activity that has to start early so the budget can be finalized and approved prior to the beginning of the new Association fiscal year.
We’ve all heard the term “read the small print before signing on the dotted line” but how often do we really do this? An HOA board will be considering and entering into contracts on a regular basis and it’s not uncommon for otherwise cautious people to become jaded by the terms and conditions and just quickly glance over the documents.
A house is one of the biggest purchases a person will ever make, and most want to keep their homes looking beautiful not only for themselves, but also to entice future buyers. It’s also a regulation in most homeowners associations. From time to time, it’s a good idea for an HOA board to encourage residents to invest in some home remodeling to add to its appeal. Of course, before making any major changes to the home, residents need to go through the proper channels such as the association architectural committee for approval and the city for the necessary permits to make sure they don’t run into any legal issues.
Each and every homeowner’s association should have a reserve fund as part of its budget to plan and prepare for future repairs and maintenance, as well as unanticipated expenses and needs. HOA board members are responsible to make sure a reserve plan is in place for the Association, or at least ask the question about how the Board is planning for the reserves. If the Board is ignoring the reserves altogether, then it needs to actively seek out assistance to make this happen.
You don’t want to be that guy (or gal) do you? You know the one – unreliable, uninformed, and unmotivated. It seems like every Association or organization has this type of person that everyone just puts up with or secretly doesn’t like at all. Do yourself a favor: look at the following list and be honest with yourself. If you do any of these things, maybe it’s time to change or step down. If you can think of a fellow HOA board member who does this, maybe you could help them!
