HOA owned ladder

I am in a 36 unit HOA, I have been the President for the past year and something is concerning me. The HOA owns a ladder that homeowners use to access their swamp coolers on the roof above their units. I am concerned about legal repercussions if a homeowner has an accident while using our ladder. I have talked about making the ladder 'not available' to homeowners because of this concern, but this has caused a lot of tension. Would it be possible to have homeowners sign some legal waiver that would clear the HOA of any wrong doing? Any advise if greatly appreciated.

Jared

I also agree with Carol to check with your insurance company. What are the 36 units? Condos, Townshouse or individual houses. Do the Assn dues pay for repairs to the building. If they are condos or townhouses where the Assn does repairs to the roof or buildings, the owner of the unit shouldn't be on the roof. It would be the Assn duty to repair, replace whatever to the swamp cooler and should be part of your budget. You say HOA which to me means homeowners and if they own their home and do repairs themselves to their building then the Assn should not allow them to use the ladder. Hope this helps.

Larry thanks for explaining what a swamp cooler is.

Jared,

Based on my past experiences with evap coolers in Arizona, I would think that these are not a very good choice for a condo complex where the owners are expected to maintain their own coolers. These things take a lot of maintenance, with a minimum of installing new pads in the spring and preparing for winter in the fall. Thirty six owners climbing on the roofs twice a year creates a lot of potential disasters. You not only have the possibiltity of people falling off the roofs, but also dropping things from the roof, dropping things through the roof, and putting holes in the roof. If the owner does things wrong, you can end up with water running on the roof, under the roof, into the trusses, or down the ducts into the condo.

The best solution would be to encourage owners to replace the evaporative coolers with refrigeration-type air conditioning. Since that is a hard sell, your next best solution would be, as you suggested, to allow only licensed contractors to do the job. I would, however, take it one step forward and have the association hire a single contractor to bring all units up to snuff and keep the coolers maintained. I think you should be able to make a pretty good deal for regular monthly maintenance on 36 coolers. This means that the assessments go up to cover this new expense, but the deal you make ought to cost less than each owner hiring his own contractor.

When I first moved to Phoenix in the late 1960's, swamp coolers were in widespread use. Today, they tend to be relegated to older homes in less desireable areas. Evap coolers do not do a good job when the humidity goes up and the added moisture in the air does a fair amount of damage as it rots wood and rusts metal. The units themsevles will eventually rust out and water leaks from them can cause serious structural damage. As I mentioned above, there is a fair amount of maintenance during cooling season. By contrast, refrigeration keeps the home cool without the moisture and the units run forever with little maintenance. I have not had a swamp cooler in over 30 years and do not miss them a bit.