HOA won't remove snow from streets

If the board said it was too expensive, your first step should be to look at the budget. How many roads are we talking about and how much has snow removed run over the last two or three years? What else is your association responsible for and how much are your assessments (they may be too low)? What other major repairs/replacements have been done and how much did they cost?

You say winter in your area is unpredictable and I know the East Coast in particular has been slammed in recent years, so you may have to live with high maintenance costs for your roads. After a really hard winter, you problem have issues with repairing potholes and such and that can also go up and down.

Finally, do you have any delinquent homeowners? If so, how many and how much do they owe? When the revenues are done because of delinquencies, everyone else, including you have to pick up the shortfall. Meanwhile bills in other areas go up and like you have to do with your own budget, the association has to make tough choices as to what it must pay for.

Your concern about insurance is valid - we've had some slips and falls in our community, some due to snow and ice, and our premiums did spike. That's why you may also want to talk to the insurance company about practical steps you can take to help reduce risk - starting with walking around the community to identify the more accident prone areas and figuring out if you need to do something like apply more salt in those areas.

Once you take a good look at the budget, talk to the board to brainstorm alternatives. It may be your community will need to budget as best it can and homeowners pay a special assessment at the end of winter to cover any shortfalls. You might also want to see if you can buy salt in bulk and make sure it's spread in the most dangerous areas. Finally, how do you enforce traffic on these streets? If people are galloping down the hill, of course, they risk slipping on ice and hitting trees, other cars and, God forbid, other people and houses. Maybe you need to enforce the speed limit and stop sign rules a little harder - some people need a smack in the wallet before they straighten up.

I agree. It is no one else's fault if your association has no money to maintain its property. I suspect that your board budgets based on what they think owners are willing to pay instead of basing the budget on what it costs to operate. If your board is not willing to raise money for operating expenses, it's almost a sure bet that there is nothing in reserves for capital repairs.

A HOA is ONLY funded by it's members FOR it's members. If the HOA can't afford the removal, then they need to raise the dues to cover it IF the owners agree to the increase. You may also gather some volunteers who may be willing to snow blow the side walks or find a cheaper contractor. No one says someone can't submit bids to the HOA for an affordable contractor. Don't have to depend on the Management company. They are sub-contractors to the HOA. The HOA should be making the budget and then making sure to gather enough money to cover those costs. Be prepared to pay for the things you want or do it yourselves.

I am sorry but the HOA is NOT "They or Them"... It is YOU and your neighbors. So when you say HOA is responsible that means YOU and YOUR NEIGHBORS!!! The Management company is one that the HOA HIRES to handle their business because of many reasons. They are to do what the HOA tells them to do. If your HOA board doesn't understand that relationship or the other owners, then you all start to depend on the management company to run your business as if that is right.

The problem here is a bit more deep rooted. You and the owners need to take back control of your HOA and re-establish the right kind of relationship with your MC. Which right now is being allowed to run the place like they own it. The reality is that it is YOU and your neighbors that own the HOA. So yes you and your neighbors are responsible for the conditions of which you live. Want snow removal? Then you go get bids, vote on best one, and then budget for it. Otherwise you get what you got by letting "They" run your life and HOA.

JW 7 (Tenn) :

If you were iced in for 5 days, the issue isn't how much/how little snow & ice Tennessee typically gets but whether public safety is addressed. Degrees of ICED OUT may have been emergency responders/essential deliveries/ the widest range of essentials eg heating fuel deliveries, furnace repairs etc. Occupiers liability issues were noted by others above.

Having lived half my life in a snowbelt - eg 1970-71 winter snowdump 14.82 FEET - I see a big difference from low snowfall areas like Tennessee with typical annual snowfall searchable online.

Most here use winter tires, sometimes even legislated & backed by police ticketing in an adjacent jurisdiction. There are huge budgets here for snow & ice control; people have portable or freestanding generators just for this risk.

You have VERY legitimate safety concerns. Hope someone listens to them in your community.

JW7 (Tenn) :

Only you and your other owners are in a position to know whether ice control (or any other common area road issue ) is meeting the standard of prudent management. Maybe it does. Maybe not.

1- Upfront check your Declaration & governance documents to see what - IF ANY - is the literal wording of any duty to perform in maintaining the private roads.

2- What I think may be labelled "premises liability" in Tennessee, is no more ignored nor under-performed with impunity by an individual than by an organization if under some duty to perform. Again, maybe the standard is being met; maybe not.

3 You mentioned "condominium". Take a look at Tennessee's Code 66-27-201 “Tennesssee Condominium Act of 2008” http://communityassociations.net/tennessee-condominium-act-of-2008/

66-27-407. Upkeep of condominium.

(a) Except to the extent provided by the declaration, subsection (b), or § 66-27-413(h), the association is responsible for maintenance, repair, and replacement of the common elements

Further Code 66-27-413 of that Act requires

. . . . (2) Liability insurance, including medical payments insurance, in an amount determined by the board of directors, but no less than any amount specified in the declaration, covering all occurrences commonly insured against for death, bodily injury, and property damage arising out of or in connection with the use, ownership, or maintenance of the common elements.

Further (G) of 66-27-413 requires that a Certificate identifying the master insurer, must be provided by the condo corporation to a requesting owner.

If the standards really are being largely ignored, relying on that liability insurance may be unwise.

so we have the money budgeted - more than enough but due to a indemnification clause the vendor is insisting on, the HOA said remove the snow yourself. This is problematic on a number of levels - 1) what about the roads and gazebo/mail areas and associated liability? 2) we have a business owners policy (BOP) - Board hasn't checked into coverage and whether there are exclusions for vendor rendering a service that is absolved of liability by virtue of acceptance of the indemnity
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Kimberly did start a new thread.

see: https://www.hoatalk.com/Forum/tabid/55/forumid/1/tpage/1/view/topic/postid/377416/Default.aspx#377418

div class="NTForums_Quote">Posted By KimberlyG2 on 12/30/2024 12:23 PM
so we have the money budgeted - more than enough but due to a indemnification clause the vendor is insisting on, the HOA said remove the snow yourself. This is problematic on a number of levels - 1) what about the roads and gazebo/mail areas and associated liability? 2) we have a business owners policy (BOP) - Board hasn't checked into coverage and whether there are exclusions for vendor rendering a service that is absolved of liability by virtue of acceptance of the indemnity
clause