Termites

Laura,

I also live in a town home development. Difference is that we are not a condominium and I own the lot and maintain everything associated with my home.

When my neighbor had termites, he told me. This prompted me to get treatment and I told my neighbor who also did treatment, etc. etc.

Laura,

In most condos, the unit owner is responsible for the interior of their unit and the association is responsible for the exterior and the structure of the buildings as well as common areas. Unless there is something in the declaration that explicitly puts the burden of termite control on the individual owners, the association is responsible as it is a structural issue.

The problem with allowing individual owners to deal with the termites is that most of them won't get off their dead butts and deal with it. Termites are unable to read blueprints so they do not know that they are supposed to stop eating the structure of your building when they get to the property line. If you have termites in one part of the building you will eventually have termites everywhere.

Part of the problem may be that the board members equate structural termite control with the "pest control" that sprays the spiders under the sink. Spiders may be yucky but they do not eat the structure of your home. Killing the spiders under the sink does not remove the termites chewing away inside the walls and ceilings.

When I purchased all my homes, past and present, the lenders required a structural termite inspection by a company licensed by the state Structural Pest Control Board. I do not know how lenders handle this for a condo but I would assume that they would want to see a recent inspection report for the entire building. With no certification that the building is free of termites no lender is going to underwrite a mortgage. This leaves your condo unit at near-zero market value. If the building collapses, you are still on the hook for making the mortgage payments.

If I were in your position I would do some serious saber rattling. I would consult with an attorney to verify that the association is responsible for termite control and structural maintenance. Then I would have him write one very heavy-handed letter to each board member threatening to get a court order to force them to eradicate the termite problem and keep it under control.

Board members usually have no civil liability if their actions are consistent with what a reasonable person in a similar situation would do. A reasonable person in a similar situation would not abandon a duty to the members. Thus, the board members may have a personal liability for any damages suffered by any member as a result of refusing to treat termites.

I also live in the south and the HOA that I sit on does a yearly inspection (inside and out). Like your set-up 2-6 town houses attached per group.

Our HOA is responsible for all outside maintance, we paint all houses every five years, replace roofs every 15-20 years, gutters, etc. We have a vested interest in keeping termites under control.

Early in your post you mentioned that the HOA had responsibility for "exterior structure"...I would think that they would also have a vested interest in termite control. I am assuming that your homes are frame with the framing going down to just above ground level.

Treatment every 2 months sounds like a little overkill but you may be further south where it is always damp and humid (relative to North Carolina).

I have been in one sort of service business or another most of my working life. One of my observations is that in every organization there is that Bright Boy who is going to make a name for himself by cutting costs. Preventative maintenance is usually the first thing the Bright Boy cuts. Deferring maintenance is always a risk and I was always amazed at how many Bright Boys were promoted up the ladder before the fertilizer hit the rotary ventilation device, leaving someone else to clean up the mess.

Our local school district once had a contract with a roofing company for annual inspections on all the roofs of all the district's buildings. A Bright Boy decided that this was a waste of money as each school had its own maintenance staff that could just as easily climb on the roof and take a look. So the school janitors were also assigned the task of roof inspections. The problem was that roof inspections are needed just once in a great while so the task was pushed further and further toward the back burner until it was no longer on the radar. The Bright Boy had not set up any sort of scheduling system or reporting system so no one at the district level knew that roofs were not being inspected until they started leaking. The damage caused by the leaky roofs far exceeded the "savings" from eliminating the contractors.

A contract for any sort of preventative maintenance, like termite control, looks like a waste of money at first glance. Because the maintenance is not an everyday task, it will get overlooked if left up to homeowners or even management staff. The real value of a contract for prevenative maintenance is that the job gets done on a regular schedule instead of being forgotten.

Just to clarify, my bug guy is getting spiders and other things (very well, I might add) but once a year he checks for termites and reported about the moisture issue. I also had a termite inspection prior to getting my mortgage, but that was when I was told that HOA's usually deal with termites because it requires the entire structure to be tented. However, when I asked my HOA president about termite inspections for the community he told me that it's up to each owner. However, most likely termites will affect the roof and exterior, which aren't my responsibility.

I will ask our property manager about it. I'm pretty sure that everyone thinks I'm nuts anyhow.

Multi unit townhouses