Dealing With Absentee Owner Neglect

Does your Declaration say the roofs are the HOA's responsibility to maintain?

Reason 1,072 why I’m not a fan of some (not all) absentee owners (letting the place go to hell happens way too often).

You said the owners are difficult to reach – is that because the addresses are sketchy or phone numbers keep changing (or both?) If phone calls haven’t worked, try sending a certified letter with a return receipt requested, so you’ll know for certain if someone’s there.

You might also check the tax rolls to see what it lists as the owner. Be careful if they’re LLCs because figuring out who to contact can be a big problem. LLCs are often set up to run businesses but protect the personal assets of the owners. I came across too many of them when I was board treasurer, and usually, the only asset the business had was – the house they let go to shit, and ultimately, they’d let the thing go into foreclosure for the next owner to deal with.

Speaking of which – money issues may be exactly why you haven’t heard from the owners, so it may be helpful to check if there are tax liens or other types of liens against the house, including foreclosure or bankruptcy. When people are in that kind of trouble, there may not be anything left for the HOA to go after.

But before you begin, you do need to check your documents to see who’s responsible for roofing. In fact, ALL homeowners should already know who’s responsible for what and never say “I do believe the association is responsible…” If the association IS responsible, you may need to get your attorney involved to see what your options are. If not, maybe the city can get involved - try whoever enforces the building code.

Rich

If the owners are gone, why not just have the roofing company do an external inspection. If problems thae mail a certified letter to the owner of record requesting they make roof repairs.

If you say "certified letter first," it sounds like no one's contacted the owners, so if you have a phone number or email, try those to begin with - and start keeping track of when you made your contacts, how you made them, who you spoke to, etc. If necessary, you can take photos of why you see from the outside and send them copies. The photos should be time and date stamped (keep a copy of that as well) - and STAY OUT OF THE HOUSE UNTIL YOU GET AUTHORIZATION.

All of that said, if the roof is the owner's responsibility anyway, I'd call the city or county building department and see if they can take a look. Unless the damage is causing or has caused some sort of safety/health hazard, there may not be much anyone can do. in addition to winged creatures possibly flying in and out of the roof (along with vermin like raccoons taking up residence), it may be helpful to watch for signs of break-ins because you don't want squatters, meth-heads or those folk running in and out either. If that happens, police may need to be notified.

Our 17 one-story condo units w flat roofs are separated into 3 groups...each group unit shares a common wall w its neighbor...the roofs are separated accordingly. Hope this helps.

How do you repair a roof, if you don't know where it is leaking on the inside. I have dealt with this issue many times over the years.

I doubt you would find a contractor willing to enter the property without permission of the owner or resident.
Doing so can, and should, lead to the criminal charge of trespassing.

Our attorney, in a similar situation - inspection of the property, advised us not to enter the property without a court order because of the potential criminal charges.

Rich

My advice would be to send the owner of record a Registered Letter informing them that the HOA will be conducting a roof evaluation of all units on so and so dates. You will be notified if your roof is not in good working condition and it must be repaired.