Posted:
Tim: Good idea on the "Did you know...?" feature in the newsletter. Think I'll steal it. (-:
In addition to that, what we're talking about is something more in depth - maybe a half day on one Saturday per quarter. We have a decent meeting room with a wireless Internet connection, and I have a laptop, projector and screen that I use in giving presentations for business. I plan to introduce all of the documents and useful websites, do the standard handout thing, etc. I also plan to cover some actual sample issues that got completely out of control here, precisely because board members did not have a solid grip on what their duties were.
How about this one:
Years ago, we had several rotations of boards that did not want to raise association fees. The people on the boards were mostly retired, living on fixed incomes, so naturally they were hesitant on a personal level to spend more money each month. And, of course, when someone would suggest that it might be necessary, someone at the meeting would talk about the sad shape of the economy, the hardships an increase would mean to retired and elderly homeowners, etc.
Unfortunately, the infrastructure and buildings were beginning to show signs of some serious construction defects, and even though the association had sued the contractor, sub-contractors, and even the City, they were forced to settle for far less than was needed to correct all of the defects. Then the attorneys got 1/3 of the settlement, to add insult to injury.
Result: Not enough money in the reserves to correct the water intrusion problems, and since no one wanted to raise the monthly fees, they sure as hell didn't want to do levy a special assessment, so they...
Deferred maintenance until things got better.
Because of the deferred maintenance, water kept leaking behind the siding of the buildings, and into the wooden eves and soffits. The dry rot, wet rot, fungus and termite problems began to accelerate. More and more areas needed major repairs, for which there was now even less money in the reserves.
And the boards said, we can't raise the association fees to cover this. It will take even more money than before, and people will get angry with us. Times are rough. But how can we do the repairs? Let's paint the buildings, instead and...
Defer maintenance.
And so the years passed...
Then Rob moved in. The Association had just painted the complex, and I had just become the Architectural Control Committee chair. The agenda item said, vote to pay the painting contractor. I said, wait until I look at the paint job.
And so it was decided that I would survey the paint job, and report back to the board. The next day, around the complex I went. Not bad, I thought. It's all carefully painted white, and the trim all neatly cut in. I was about to pronounce the job satisfactory, when I spied something odd on one of the walls of a townhouse.
I walked up to the wall to see better, and guess what I found? A weed, growing through the siding - not through a joint, but through the siding itself - and very carefully painted white. I poked the siding next to the weed, and my finger went right through the wall.
Well, this changed the entire nature of my report. My report led to a community crisis of biblical proportions, and ultimately - and this took several years - it came down to either allowing the city to condemn the entire complex, or raise the funds in a massive special assessment to save it. It was nip and tuck, and we almost lost everything, but those of us who wanted to save it prevailed against those who wanted to delay the special assessment as long as possible, hoping they would move on before having to pay.
And the bottom line? We successfully passed a special assessment election that was the highest in California HOA history:
$57,000 per unit, times 177. $10,089,000.00 And all because of...
Deferred maintenance.
And a mistaken belief that hard decisions ought to be avoided when people might get upset about them.
Rob
