HOA Management BlogRecent Posts
Anything can happen! From a winter storm to a heat wave, natural disaster to a building collapse, it's important to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in your homeowners association and encourage homeowners to do the same. According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Ready Campaign, think first about the basics of survival—fresh water, food, clean air and heat.
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.
Did you know you can request a copy of the CC&Rs that detail just about everything you need to know about the HOA, prior to becoming a member? You can and you should! One of the important factors is how much you will be paying in monthly HOA fees.
As an HOA Board member you know that HOA rules serve a valid purpose – usually. While you understand the importance of enforcing your HOA rules and regulations, it would be hard to follow through on the following with a straight face.
Are you abiding by the rules in your homeowners association? When you move into a homeowners association you become part of a neighborhood that is governed by a board of directors who enforce the rules of the Association. When you sign the Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) of the Association, you are entering into an agreement that you will abide by the rules of the Association community. This often means you’re limited to the improvements you can make to your property (like paint color of your home, landscaping, or decorative components), whether or not you can have pets, noise restrictions, etc.
All meetings of the homeowners association Board of Directors are open meetings. Residents are encouraged to observe meetings and read approved minutes. Residents who wish to address the HOA board are welcome to do so during the forum conducted at the beginning of each business meeting.
Here are a few tips for participating:
For the eighth time in 15 years, Americans living in homeowners associations, condominiums, and housing cooperatives say they’re overwhelmingly satisfied in their communities. They are expressing strong satisfaction with the HOA board members who govern their homeowners associations and the community managers who provide professional support.
Successful communities, governed by successful homeowners associations, typically have a strong, effective HOA board of directors that conducts their HOA’s business in a professional manner, including having regularly scheduled meetings. Problems can arise, however, when one or more directors fail to attend those meetings consistently.
A homeowner’s association’s worst nightmare occurred on June 23, 2021, when a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida partially collapsed. Many people died, many were injured, making it one of the deadliest building collapses in American history. It’s important to acknowledge and address a tragedy like this to respect the lives that were lost and the families affected, while also learning from the experience to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Is your homeowners association thinking of embarking on a maintenance or construction project that will require the services of a contractor? If the project needs association approval, the first thing before you get to the place of interviewing contractors is to make sure you follow the steps of your design review process. Once the design review process has been completed and the association is ready to begin the steps to move the project forward, make sure your project is nailed down using the following five simple guidelines:
