Who Pays?

In my opinion, the homeowner shouldn't be having any common elements repaired. They should simply report to the Association what their repair person has found and the Association should act quickly to fix it.

That said, there are emergencies that may require the homeowner to have the current repair person repair to prevent further damage.

The Board should have a clear written policy on this to prevent the issue you describe.

If they do not have a clear policy, then I believe that the Board should pay for the repair until a policy is put in place.

Good point, an itemized invoice (including itemized labor $ investigation, $$ for repair of pipe a, etc.) would be the first thing an Association should ask for.

I've looked through our documents and don't see anything that specifically refers to a situation like this but I will need to look more closely. We do have a clause that requires only licensed contractors. We do have a Maintenance Responsibility Matrix that spells out who is responsible for what.

This will be on the list of items when we restate our documents next year.

We have a property manager and there is an emergency number for repairs. This situation has happened in the past and they have a list of vendors they use for various maintenance issues who will come out after hours and on weekends. The homeowner did not contact the property manager and it was not after hours. I guess they just felt it was their responsibility until a friendly neighbor informed them otherwise.

A detailed invoice will be requested.

Thanks for the response.

With Tim make a very clear policy that residents phone the PM first and then its emergency #.

The residents should have read your matrix when they moved in.

It might be a good idea to blast a quick reminder to all resident and non-occupant owners that they must contact management as per the matrix and include a copy of it.

Your only need to make a simply rule add-on, if your won't something stormer than what you have. No need to wait for revising your CC&Rs.

You'd need to send out to owners the proposed rule for a 28-day comment period. Easy peasy.

with the expectation that the owner pays the water bill.

Unless the owner was informed of a specific procedure to follow, they were allowed to follow whatever procedure to properly repair the situation and bill the association.

Spotted this years ago: "In our business, a flush beats a full house."

I say if an immediate fix was needed (flooding pipe) then the homeowner can contact a vendor to repair and bill the association. The trick is establishing an immediate repair

If it's the common area, the homeowner should follow the procedure and contact the property manager. If there's an emergency number available, there's no reason to hire your own person.

If this was an emergency situation (something that threatens health and safety IS NOT the same as something being inconvenient or unattractive), I'd contact the property manager first to have it on record (document what you do because you'll need it) and then call the contractor. You'll also have to prove this was a health and safety issue that required immediate action - have the contractor write a statement to that effect.

A double standard. The board is trying to amend the gov docs to allow them to go on private property to clear brush and fallen trees they think is a fire hazard then bill/lien the homeowner.

You're written, LmT, that maintenance/repair/replace obligations are specified in your CC&Rs AND in a Maintenance Matrix. It's an owner's job to read these and to understand that they aren't permitted to take ANY action re: the common areas. My HOA's recently restated CC&RS delineates the obligations of the HOA & Owners and we have a Maintenance Matrix too. But there's no wording in it that says OWNERS MAY NOT ARRANGE for maintenance/repair/replacement. I'm thinking that's maybe not stated in any CC&Rs. If someone DOES have that wording in any governing doc, I'd love to see it.

I think the simple thing is to blast all owners & renters that ONLY the HOA may, blah, blah. Or ocassionally insert such notice in your newsletter.

To me, ignorance of the governing docs is no excuse for a resident "billing" the HOA in maintenance/repair/replace work done by a vendor who might not even be licensed or insured. I do think that LmT's CC&Rs say that if Owners cause damage to the common areas (e.g., hiring a vendor who screws up a common area item), the owners can be billed. See, perhaps under Indemnification in your CC&Rs, LmT.

Owners & renters, LmT reports, have the contact info that's always staffed for emergencies that occur in the common areas. We don't even know if the owner who wants reimbursement was in an emergency (a threat to life or property, basically in CA) situation. Was their home being flooded?

To me, it would be very, very rare, that a resident would be forced to call a vendor because their emergency info contact isn't available. So in these extreme and rare circumstance, the board would need to decide how to proceed re:possible reimbursement and may need advice from their HOA attorney.