Road Repair/Gated Community

I am a property manager for a 721-home gated community (individual homes) in Texas. As a gated community, the streets are not maintained by the city/county, but by the association (as is specified in the CC&Rs). As the community was developed in 1997, the roads are still in good shape.

The board has been made aware of a few areas in the community where water sometimes pools on the street near curbs (low spots) during wet weather. The general feeling among board members is that these low spots will be corrected at some point in the future when the road repairs are needed in the area. In the meantime, since there are no actual repairs needed or problems other than the low spots, correcting the cause of the pooling is not considered a priority.

One homeowner in particular has, over the course of several years, complained about the problem. The first time, the President of the Board went and met with the homeowner to look at the area, and suggested that they either sweep the water into the road or have their yard service blow it away from the curb as the HOA would correct the problem when other road repairs were being done.

This morning, the same homeowner came into the office (the management office is located in the Rec Center in the community) to complain about it again. He said he was sick of the problem, that he paid his annual fee on time every year, and expected to see something since he'd been paying in all this time and getting nothing in return.

I explained that he got quite a lot in return for paying his dues (such as the 24-hour security guard, street lights, landscaping, etc.) and gave him a copy of the annual budget (which he didn't even look at and left on my desk). In any case, I explained that I would let the board know of his concern, and invited him to the next board meeting which will be held on June 11th. I informed him that it would have a lot more impact if he made a case directly to the board.

As he was leaving, he said he doubted he would be able to attend the meeting, but that if he didn't get the results he was looking for, he would take legal action.

Beyond the whole suing the HOA is suing yourself thing, my opinion is that he does not have a case. While the HOA is to maintain the roads (....Section 18. Roads. All roads and esplanades within the Subdivision are private roads and esplanades and shall be maintained and regulated by the Association.), I would think this refers more to actual repairs and maintenance, i.e. cracks, potholes, etc. - not to raise a low spot in the road that is not even visible to the eye unless it has rained recently and there is a puddle there.

Also, if the HOA were to make the repair in that area, it would have to be done in the other areas that we know have the same issue; it just seems like it would end up costing a great deal of money for a minor issue.

Opinions and/or thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Patricia,

Welcome to the forum.

We have similar issues in our development (we also maintain the roads) which we recently received bids on. It's actually a dual problem of road and curb settling. If you haven't gotten bids, the Board should at least do that so they know the costs involved.

The issues we were concerned about were:

1) Additional damage to the road and road base due to water seepage and freezing/thawing of standing water
2) Damage to vehicle tires that were assigned parking areas that had standing water.
3) Liability if someone slipped and was injured due to the standing water or ice caused by the standing water freezing.
4) pest concerns (mosquitoes, etc.) that breed in standing water.
5) How many other areas needed repair over the few who complained about it.

The bids actually indicated that we needed to budget for it next year (vs. address it this year). However, we were at least able to inform the owner the time frame and the reason (as we now had hard numbers). This seemed to satisfy them. They weren't happy but they were understanding.

My suggestion:

1) Follow up the meeting with the member with a letter extending the invitation to attend the meeting. Yes, he is probably bluffing about legal action but if not, you should document that you invited him to the meeting to discuss the issue.
2) Do a survey of the area and take photos where water is standing after a storm (i.e. identify the extent of the issue).
3) Urge your Board to authorize you to solicit bids so they have a true idea of the cost.
4) Make the Board aware of the potential issues mentioned above (and any others)
5) Wait. If you do the above, you have now down your job of giving enough information to the Board so they can make an informed decision. The ball would now be in the Boards court.

Here are some links about standing water that may be informative:

City of Arlington TX Gutter Pond program
Stormwater Management
Road Curb Ponding: A Drain on Chinatown by NY State Senate

What does your reserve study have to say on repair of roads? Typically studies provide for an allowance each year for repair/repaving of a portion of the roads. If your reserves are funded to make this type of repair, why not go ahead and do it?

If you do not have a reserve study how do you know you will have the funds available when the road repairs are clearly needed?

You've received some fine replies, Patricia. My favorites are:

Ask him to make his request to the Board in writing if he cannot attend the meeting.

Present to the board the amount now in reserves for your roads--there may be two-three categories and the Board may (unfortunately) be unaware of the amount now set aside in reserves.

Recommend to the Board, whether he makes his request or not, that they let all homeowners know via letter their "preliminary" "tentative" plans for the roads perhaps in a timeline format.

I assume your salary includes collecting bids? Ask the Board if they'd like you to send out RFPs. They should instruct you what the basic scope of work should be.

Sometimes? I think "often" would be a better word. Well, at least for me

We have a gated community too and one street had a complaint of small cracks. Our streets are newer than yours, so you likely are in need of repair. We fixed the first street as soon as we had money in the next year's budget. You cannot resurface the whole community in one swift action, you have to close each side of the street for each street repair. You have to notify homeowners of the intented action and dates and ensure they do not have extra traffic (like a moving van or family reunion or remodeling trucks), then reroute traffic and homeowners cannot enter and exit their driveways for a certain number of hours after the application. So you will need to resurface in phases by closing one side of the street at a time. For a large community like yours, you would be best to do the one street now - get the process down on how to get advance notice and authorization from Board and each Resident/owner. You will want to ensure there are no large commercial vehicles on the street for a couple of days after the resurface. You cannot do the whole community at once. So my advice is to do the street that needs it now and gradually do each street that has an issue when the issue occurs. People will be upset that they have to park away from their homes even for a few hours, so be prepared by disclosing the action ahead of time and reschedule when you know there are moving vans or other heavy traffic like home repair trucks.