HOA Management Blog

If your homeowners association operates on the fiscal year, then you’re already a month into the new year – Happy New Fiscal Year! Have your fellow HOA board members asked this question: how did we do last year? If not, then now’s the time to re-evaluate and ask the following questions so your Board sets the Association up for success.

So you moved into a beautiful new luxury homeowners association. Your home is on a quiet street in an established neighborhood. Every evening you sit on your newly purchased adirondack chairs in your shady backyard, sipping on a bottle of wine -- while your roommate is lapping his water from an old beat up water bowl -- your "roommate" in this case happens to be a 120 pound fur baby named Rex and he is not on good terms with your neighbors.

Many HOA boards think they have it all together and can easily manage the homeowners association on their own. But can they really? While there are various factors involved when it comes to whether or not a homeowners association can successfully be self-managed – such as how involved the board members are, the size of the Association, etc. – ultimately an HOA puts itself at risk if it tries to self-manage all the components that are part of the Association. Instead of rolling the dice on hoping for the best for your Association, learn what seven of those risks are and then consider where your Association stands.

How is your homeowners association holding up? Do you have buildings in need of repair? Has the HOA board set aside funds for inevitable future repairs? If you don’t know the answer to these questions, then it’s time to find out. Why? Because it’s the Board’s job to protect and maintain the association and keep it safe. Sometimes, the safety of lives is even at stake. You don’t want to wait for something bad to happen before taking action, like one homeowners association did in Florida. Read more in the article excerpt below.

The ultimate goal in a homeowners association is for everyone to be respectful and live together peacefully. However, it’s hard to accomplish both of these goals when you have members breaking the rules – especially if it’s a board member. It’s the responsibility of an HOA board to protect, maintain, and enhance the Association through its leadership, so what happens when one of its own is breaking the rules?

While nearly all HOAs have some type of policies on the books, many HOA boards have little or no idea what type of insurance they have or need. This can potentially lead to expensive litigation and claims that can cost your homeowners association thousands, and sometimes even millions of dollars.

Finding members in your homeowners association who want to volunteer on the HOA board can be hard – finding a member to step up and become the board president is even harder. So, what do you do when the current president passes away, you don’t have a lot people in your community involved with the board, and your current board members are concerned that hiring an HOA manager will only cause the company to take over the Association?

The California drought has officially been acknowledged as coming to an end. While this is great news for the residents of California, it’s not back to the normal day-to-day management of homeowners association just yet.

Doing good may be its own reward, but most homeowners association volunteers would probably agree that it’s also nice to be recognized for the time, effort, and commitment they put into serving others, particularly in what can sometimes seem to be thankless roles.