Anyone doing something about Coronavirus in their HOA?

As far as I know, nothing's changed. I don't attend as many meeting as indie when I was on the board, and the few I have attended only had the board members (3), the property manager, the security officer and myself.

I think a lot of this is about common sense. We all know or should know to wash our hands (although I've seen some women's restrooms that make me wonder!), and stay home when you're sick. I do think it's a good idea to check on senior citizens because they've at higher risk, but may not be aware of things like grocery delivery services or be able to access them because they don't have internet access, like my 94 year old mother who lives out of state (fortunately, we have several residents who keep an eye on her.)I

There's also a conversation on phone and video conferencing for board meetings that I think people should consider, especially if there's an annual meeting in the horizon.

Ha! I mentioned planning for this a few weeks ago and got poo-poo'ed. I don't like to say "I told you so" but.... :-)

Our annual meeting is scheduled for this coming week. Fortunately we never have anywhere near 100 people (our governor has banned gatherings over that size) and the meeting room is large enough to allow people to spread out. However, I'm social-distancing myself because of my age, so won't attend this year.

Also fortunately Ohio is not an open meeting state, so we can go to email meetings if necessary. I do think that a lot of business practices are going to change as people are forced to conduct business remotely, so even states like mine should look into services like Go to Meeting. That's just good contingency planning and every board should think about how to keep things moving in the event of a disaster.

Think about your amenities such as a clubhouse or workout room! They are great virus transmission vehicles if not kept clean. If your state bans large gatherings, you may have to cancel activities. It couldn't hurt to put up signs reminding people to wash their hands, wipe down the exercise equipment and the like. Assume people will ignore the signs, but at least the HOA is being proactive about resident safety. If HOA approval is needed for a yard sale, you may want to think twice about it even if your state hasn't banned large gatherings yet. This epidemic is moving so fast that an activity that seems reasonable today may be completely irresponsible in just a week. You want to avoid any liability.

This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better - we're about 2-3 weeks behind Italy - and we should think about possible disruptions or delays in things like trash collection, responses to maintenance requests and the like. Our residents have already discovered food delivery - there was a steady stream of delivery trucks starting at 8 AM yesterday. Our board members are all dog owners/walkers, and that group functions as an informal neighborhood watch.

I can believe that traveling in an enclosed space like an airplane is more risky than walking about outdoors, even in a busy market. Still the disease is so contagious, and the practical costs of becoming infected are so high, I would be inclined to postpone the yard sale.

Rec centers and libraries closed this past week where I am. I will miss the gym and pool but I know the closings are the right thing to do. Which brings me back to being outdoors: I intend to hike a few times a week, on fairly well-traveled trails. For sanity. I do not think I am at risk the way I am when I go to the grocery store (or, if push comes to shove, wherever food is being distributed for a few weeks and hopefully not months).

I compare today with what happened in 2009. Anyone remember what happened then. The swine flu affected the healthy and the young. The old people's immune system fought it off. Back then, age WAS a benefit. In 2009, 1 in 5 were infected.

Today, unlike 2009, we are shutting down completely. Actually, kids being in schools might be the best thing. They would be away from the one's most vulnerable, older people with underlying medical condition, the complete opposite of 2009.

But, then, maybe a two month vacation is needed.

I don’t thimk I would be going to a gym ... sanitizing sweaty grips in a sweaty environment with high lung exchange rates seems .....??

40%, not 4%.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/water.html

Big issue with pools is not the water, it’s people being close, sneezing, spitting, touching ...

We had a St. Patrick's Day dinner at our clubhouse canceled due to "health officials' advice against large gatherings". 26 people is hardly a "large gathering" in a Clubhouse with a large 40' x 40' room and a maximum occupancy of 90. I'm pretty sure (but not 100%) that the head of the social committee just didn't want to deal with it. That committee usually doesn't shop for food until the week before an event and the grocery stores were crowded for much of the week. I wasn't going anyway so I'm not complaining.

We'll see what happens to our Board Meeting scheduled for the 24th. Normally I'd expect it to be canceled but we have our annual insurance policies to consider and they need to be in place by May 1 and our agent usually puts in an appearance around this time of year to explain insurance-related matters to the new board and also new homeowners. That's always something homeowners are interested in hearing and is well attended. Not sure how all that's going to go.

The governor issued a State of Emergency Declaration last week and I know the Florida HOA statute gives boards extraordinary powers in such times. I looked at the statute and thought the first part of FS 720.316 "Association Emergency Powers" was interesting. It starts with, "... the board of directors, in response to damage caused by an event for which a state of emergency is declared pursuant to s. 252.36 in the area encompassed by the association, may exercise the following powers:"

Following that is a list of things like short or no-notice board and members meetings, canceling/rescheduling meetings, appoint assistant officers who are not members, levy special assessments without a vote of the owners, borrow money and pledge assets without a vote of the owners, and so on and so forth.

The language, "in response to damage caused by an event for which a state of emergency is declared," seems to be tailored for natural disasters like floods and hurricanes. With no such event having transpired, and the existent state of emergency declared in a precautionary manner, I wonder how many of the provisions actually apply during this "emergency". The pandemic is certainly an "event", but "in response to damage" is open to wide interpretation, I think.

I'd be very concerned if the virus outbreak coincided with an early-season hurricane. That season is still 11 weeks away (knocks on wood).

We have cancelled the Easter social event and are trying to figure out how to have the annual meeting with virtual access. Residents are NOT happy about the Easter event being canceled. Our pools don’t open til May 1, so there’s time to wait and see there.

Geno,

All populations are not demographic equal ... what is the average age of your group?

Over 60 overall, but the people who were going to the St. Patrick's dinner were, on average, 10-15 years older than that. About 20% of the owners/residents are probably between 50 and 60. That last group are usually the ones who attend the board meetings.

Why on earth would a HOA not be doing something about coronavirus?

For all HOAs:
* Banning in-person meetings and group events
* Banning sick employees from coming to work
* Requesting that HOA residents who get coronavirus to inform the HOA
* Replacing doorknobs and locks with "touch-free" ones
* Putting hand sanitizer and cleaners at various places in public areas

For HOAs in multifamily buildings:
* Requiring that deliveries of food and small items be left at the building entrance

My office has banned all outside visitors, banned sick employees from coming to work, banned deliveries, etc. And my office building has nice hand sanitizer dispensers at various places. Why would an organization that governs someone's home do less?

2009 in US ... 12,000 deaths, 59,000,000 infected ... 0.02% death rate

2020 in Italy ... 1,809 deaths, 24,727 infected ... 7.3% death rate

2020 in Germany ... 12 deaths, 2620 infected ... 0.2% death rate

Sure, the denominator is still not certain, perhaps not even close to what we know about the 2009 virus ... even the German numbers at 10X the 2009 US numbers ...

We’ll have to watch and wait ...

Is this in response to my post?

Do you want the US to end up like Italy? If not, we need to act forcefully about this.

I think either your math skills are weak, or you are not paying attention. Of course seriously.

Our twin 25-story high rises has about 600 door handles on our residential floors, probably 150 on the lobby & 2nd amenities floor, including the gym, locker rooms & pool gates. they, our 3 P-levels probably have another 200 to elevator lobbies, into parking garage, stairwells, and numerous storage locker areas.

So, maybe 1,000 handles. We don't reserve for them. Wonder what the cost would be including labor, Paul?? How much did it cost for your "office?' Your mean your own firm's offices? Or the entire office building?

Exponents.

You win

We scaled back our annual membership meeting to include only voting. We encouraged everyone to vote absentee or just drop off their ballot and leave. Our elections are completely by ballot, so that made it easy. The only other thing we do at the membership meeting is present the budget (previously approved by the board) and report on what we have done over the past year.

We cancelled out spring event in early May, not worth the risk, and we delayed opening the pool.

Great idea.

Why wouldn't HOAs have that anyway? A Zoom or FreeConferenceCall.com account is totally free and the meeting can be broadcast using someone's iPhone.

CathyA3, great link- thanks.

Thanks to this thread, my HOA is starting a “care team”: a few owners who will check on elderly neighbors.

How would you do that in your HOA: just email the HOA’s residents (we have a HOA-wide email group) to ask that names/addresses of potentially vulnerable people be submitted to the care team leader, and then team members just call or knock on doors? Team members could maybe just say, “just checking on you- wanted to make sure that everyone is doing OK”, and leave some prepackaged food such as dessert or something? It seems old-fashioned and intrusive, but I don’t know how else to do this. Thanks.

Hi Cathy,
I hope all is staying healthy during this time. I too am from Ohio. I have seen a few of your comments and you really inspire me with your knowledge in the HOA department. My board just recently did away with the property management company and everyone (but the president) is new to how things work. I would like to be able to chat with you via email about some ways we should handle situations per Ohio r&r’s and bylaws if you have time. Please email at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you.