board responsibility for repairs

Issue: Board (via bylaws)is clearly responsible for all fence repair (including paint). Board states that because repairing fences is not 'on the agenda this year'... they will reimburse owners for materials, but not labor. Owners will be responsible for labor to repair fences.

This seems clearly illegal considering clarity of bylaws. Would the board not be required to provide some mechanism for owners to recoup those monies? Not sure how it would work - misc. expenses contributed by owner? Written statement by board of 'contribution'?

Ideas?

Playing devil's advocate for a bit:

The board has said that fence painting is not on the agenda for this year. This isn't unusual - the HOA can get better pricing from vendors for big projects, so it makes sense to bundle non-urgent repairs and maintenance. It's also not unusual for homeowners not to understand this if they want something done righthisminute. HOAs are often underfunded, they don't have a Magic Money Printing Machine somewhere, so strict budgeting is important if homeowners want assessments to remain in check.

It sounds like the board is attempting to meet the Rightthisminute Crowd half way by at least paying part of the cost of doing the fence work.

I agree that allowing homeowners to perform the work is a liability issue and shouldn't be done.

On the other hand, I wouldn't call it a violation of the governing documents. Many associations keep costs down by using homeowner volunteers to do some of the work. I personally think it's unwise for a variety of reasons, but as long as the HOA carries the enough insurance to cover itself when it gets sued over injuries, so be it.

If I were on the board, my answer would be "it's not on the agenda, we haven't budgeted for this expense this year, it will be done in 202x." End of discussion.