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RoyR2 (California)
Posts: 2
Posted:
Dear friends, I live in a townhouse community in orange county, CA. My roof has been leaking for past two weeks from what appears to be at the same location as it was occuring last year which they had apparently fixed. I contacted my HOA immediately and few days later a service professional showed up and took pictures and left without saying anything. I called HOA for update and they told me that they have sent the work request to property manager. My follow up calls to HOA has been essentially the same answer.
I was wondering if I can contact a roofing professional myself and pay the bill and charge the association for the repair? is that something varied by each association and I should be referring to my assosication book or is there a California state law that allows me to do that?

on the side note, should HOA include mold exam as part of this?

warm regards,
roy
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,062
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By RoyR2 on 01/03/2011 8:31 AM

I contacted my HOA immediately and few days later a service professional showed up and took pictures and left without saying anything.

This is a good sign that your issue was heard and is being addressed.

Quote:
Posted By RoyR2 on 01/03/2011 8:31 AM

I called HOA for update and they told me that they have sent the work request to property manager. My follow up calls to HOA has been essentially the same answer.

I would recommend that you start doing follow-ups in writing. In you first follow-up you should document the previous calls by identifying them in the letter. Hopefully with dates and with whom you spoke with as well as their response.

Quote:
Posted By RoyR2 on 01/03/2011 8:31 AM

I was wondering if I can contact a roofing professional myself and pay the bill

You could do this but by doing so you might be taking on the future responsibility of any issues associated with the repair work. Additionally, it could be argued that you don't own the roof directly and therefore didn't have permission of the owner (the Association) to do the repairs.

Quote:
Posted By RoyR2 on 01/03/2011 8:31 AM

and charge the association for the repair?

You could present the bill to the Association but that is not the same as having the bill being paid.

This would be like your neighbor informing you your fence needed to be replaced, you looking into it but before you had your contractors do anything, your neighbor hired a contractor who replaced the fence and presented you with a bill. Would you pay it? What if your contractor only said a loose board needed nailed down but the neighbor replaced the whole thing? What if the neighbors contractor was charging twice as much as the contractor you had found?

You see the issues this can create. Not to mention if your fence then falls onto your neighbors car causing damage. It leaves the question open as to whose fault it was - the contractor who repaired it, the neighbor who hired the contractor, you who owns the fence but didn't approve the repairs or some mixture of everyone.

Quote:
Posted By RoyR2 on 01/03/2011 8:31 AM

My roof has been leaking for past two weeks from what appears to be at the same location as it was occuring last year which they had apparently fixed.

Bottom line, it's only been two weeks. Making it harder, the two weeks included holidays that typically leave some businesses shorthanded due to vacation schedules.

I've recently had a gutter come down in a storm and the contractor my insurance company and I agreed on says it will be 2-3 weeks for the repairs. Sometime, things just take time. This is why I suggested documenting your discussions with the Association, in case there is additional damage you need them to repair.

Recommendation: Continue contacting the Board and the PM, copying one whenever you contact the other. Keep the contacts in writing or via e-mail. If you do have verbal conversations, follow it up with a letter to them identifying the meeting and what you understood from it as this would document the fact that you had the conversation. - You should not repair the issue yourself without advance written approval from the Board.

Tim

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202
Posted:
2 WEEKS!! Holy mackeral. I'd have a tarp thrown over the entire condo by now.

RoyR2 (California)
Posts: 2
Posted:
Thank you for your reply, they were reasonable and helpful!

Roy
CK1 (Colorado)
Posts: 3
Posted:
I live in Colorado and we had a roof replaced on our condo. They started in Feb (in bad Colorado winter) ripped the roof off, and put new tar paper on and left. Three months went by and they didn't finish it. No tarp was put on the roof and I had water coming down my livingroom walls, windows, and the fireplace for three months! We called the HOA, the manager is always "in a meeting" or I get a voicemail. I then would email her as well. The contractor came in April and said that they couldn't do anything until everything was dried out. I come to find out that they didn't have enough materials to finish the job. So I don't understand why they would tear it off when they clearly new they couldn't finish the job. Everytime it rained or snowed, here comes the water! When they finally fixed it, they were suppose to replace the fireplace caps as well. They never did it.

Besides going through all this the economy tanks and so does my spouses hours at work. We had trouble for a while and decided to file for bankruptcy. We filed in Jan and it was discharged in May 2010. We paid HOA fees throughout the proceedings (we didn't know we could have put them in the filing) and when we gave up on making voluntary payments on the mortagage we moved out of the property.

We stopped paying HOA dues in October, and now it's Feb. The HOA has notified me that they put a lein on the property for unpaid dues and threatened to sue me for the unpaid dues. I'm pretty angry that they didn't fix the waterfall in the living room. I was ill and missed 10 months of work due to severe upper respitory problems. (I'm thinking that we could have had mold growing by now) They are suing me and still don't have to fix the problem?

I'm figuring I can do a few things about this:

Rent the condo until they forclose (I got a legal letter from a law firm that they were reatained to initiate foreclosure proceedings) and actually make money before they take the property over.

2. Let it be, and let them sue me, and they will get paid when the property is sold.
3. I am planning to get legal council and sue them for damages to the property.
4. Have parties in the property until they foreclose.
5. Pay the fees, and keep paying them through the nose and wind up out in the street. Foreclosure could take up to two years right?

Yes, I'm very angry. I try to do the right thing, everyday and I seem to get the shaft. I could use any advice on where to go from here. They are giving me until Feb 24th to make payment arrangements.

Please help!! I appreciate any advice you can give me, from your experiences, or your opinions, or fact.

Thanks in advance,

Annoyed, and underwater in Colorado!
AnnD2 (Connecticut)
Posts: 76
Posted:
I live in a condo. I moved in 30 years ago and I have the same leaks in my roof that I had the day I moved in. Of course, they are bigger and have caused more interior damage....I cannot hire anyone to fix the roof and I am in constant contact with the board and management company about this. Every now and again, they send some guy up on the roof with a bucket of tar he spreads all over. I want them to hire a roofing consultant to come up with a plan for actually fixing our 100 year old tile roof. So far, I have been ignored, I suspect because the board isn't directly affected by these problems and doesn't want to spend the money on the roof. they like painting the halls every other year.... I figure it will take my getting on the board myself one day to deal with this. (All my efforts to become a board member have been thwarted so far, but I continue to work on this project.) Welcome to HOA living....
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
Here's an inside reason why your HOA is not doing the repairs...It's because an HOA is ONLY funded by it's members FOR it's owners. It's NOT an endless supply of money. The board's options are to raise the dues in according to the documentation. Ours only allowed a 5% increase annually to cover cost of living expenses IF approved by majority vote to do so. You can imagine the uproar over the idea of raising dues can raise even IF necessary.

The other option is to make a SPECIAL ASSESSMENT. This means that if there is an extradordinary expense the regular dues or raise in dues won't cover they can vote to assess. Which is most likely what your HOA is going to have to do to cover the repairs to the roof.

All of this is done by voting either amongst the board or amongst MAJORITY of homeowners. IF the members agree to pay in a special $500 to cover the repairs or other issues the ALL the owners have to. Of course in the real world you have members who refuse to pay or can't afford to pay. So until the HOA can gather ALL or most of the special money they can't do the repairs/improvements.

My suggestion is to ask your HOA if this indeed is the case and are afraid of the reaction of the homeowners. If so, you may want to propose this as an option to the board to see IF indeed the other owner's are against it or not. Once you plead your case then maybe the repairs can be done. Good luck!!!

Former HOA President

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