Houses in disrepair. What to do.

I know this has probably been brought up lots of times on this forum. But I'd like to know what other HOAs are doing to get homeowners to repair their houses that look like crap. We are a HOA of 122 townhouses with three courts. Many homeowners are trying to keep their places up. But there are some that are not. We use to have a nice community but in the last few years new people have moved in and their homes are in disrepair, i.e. trim in need of painting, front doors in need of painting or repairs, rotted trim, torn window screens, yards without grass in places.

Our HOA board is looking into changing our manager, who is now doing very little to help our community. We did a walk thru in October and he never sent the homeowners the lists of things to be repaired.

How do you get homeowners to repair their houses?
Is it legal to bring contractors onto property to make the repairs if they are not done say in 60 days? That is the time limit we want to give them.

Hi Paul:

see my comments on the previous post regarding landscaping. On the property I mentioned, we have birds defecating on the front of the same house; after sending notice per our enforcement resolution, had a contractor go in and clean it up and get rid of the bird nest above the front entry, and charged the homeowner.

Normally, I would hit them in the pocketbook with fines, rather than going in to do the repairs, unless they are out of town owners; even then, if they rent it out, I would hesitate with renters in the home.

Pictures along with a letter would be helpful.

JPM

There are options. (READ YOUR DOCUMENTS!) The HOA can do the necessary repairs themselves if they have the money to do so. That's what our HOA can do. Fines aren't allowed to be liened or foreclosed for in most states.
The HOA can notify the owner that their EXTERIOR is in need of repair. Those are things such as siding(damage/wrong color), roofing, or some landscaping issues basically. If the owner does NOT fix the issue, the HOA can step in and do the work at the OWNER's Cost! Which means the HOA does/pays for the work to be done and sends the bill to the owner. If the owner refuses to pay, then the HOA can LIEN for this money. This is the ONLY other situation a HOA can place a lien on a home besides NOT paying dues.
My recommendation is to send them a notice plus some possible contractors to contact. They don't have to choose your contractors but atleast you can head them in the right direction to get the repairs done.
If your HOA is like ours, your most likely NOT going to be able to afford to do any of the repairs nor pay for the lien. In that case, you can still send the notices out and if your state allows fines pursue that. However, it's going to have to be some "peer" pressure applied if it can't be afforded to improve.

As I have stated before, just because the CC&Rs state the association may go onto an owners property and effect corrections doesn't mean they should. I recommend that a court order be obtained prior to doing this. Otherwise you are trespassing. With a court order I would have the MA accompany the contractor along with a sherrif's duputy. Otherwise harm may come to someone.

Plus you have to consider, once the HOA makes the repairs, you now have a collcetion problem.