AL HOA: House Fire

We had a house burn down end of last week. What steps, if any, can the HOA take to make sure that the property get cleaned up quickly? How hard is it to enforce building restrictions once the home owner decides to rebuild?

I would like to be proactive regarding this matter, but I don't want to be a hassle for homeowner.

Thanks!

I agree with William in that the HOA should concentrate on being supportive in this matter. Surely the homeowners are devastated and will be very stressed out for quite some time.

Rebuilding and repairs will take quite awhile. The homeowner will need to go through the ACC approval process but I would let the city/county handle the rest.

Sorry, for my rash response. I understand and appreciate your concern for the homeowner. I realize that there may be HOA that are that unfeeling, but we are not one of them.

Kenneth, no one was rude to you. No one called you selfish and unfeeling; those are your own words.

You asked for advice and you received it from three people so far, in a very positive manner. The advice was to first take care of the homeowner, and instead of taking offense at the advice, I would have expected that your response would have provided us some details on what your HOA and neighbors have done for the homeowners.

Provide us with some details on what your board of directors, representing the HOA, have elected to do for these unfortunate people, and what the neighbors have done to help them.

The more detail one provides, the better advice the members of this forum can provide. Also if you share the details of what your HOA did for these homeowners, it gives everyone ideas on how they can help their neighbors in times of crisis like this.

However, your post just said the fire happened at the end of last week, which is a very short time ago, and the only concern you expressed was about cleaning up the property "quickly" and enforcing the building restrictions. It said nothing about being concerned for the homeowners who were devastated by the terrible loss.

It seems to me that your concern about the fire mess is premature. The homeowners must first go through an arson investigation and an insurance claims investigation process to determine the cause of the fire, and the insurance company responsibility. That will take time.

I'm sure the owners want to quickly clear the property and rebuild more than anyone. However, they will not be able to do anything until they receive clearance from the fire department and the insurance company. After they receive those clearances, they may be able to get the property cleared of the fire residue.

Then there is the process of designing a new house. The homeowners will have to find a general contractor that they're comfortable with. Then they'll have to find an architect they're comfortable with to design the plans for the new home. The house plans will have to be approved by the city or county, depending on your locale. They will also have to be approved by the HOA ACC. All of this will take a lot of time, and there is nothing you or the HOA can do to rush it.

It is not your job to enforce building restrictions. That is up to the city or county and the HOA ACC.

You will have an opportunity to voice any objections to the building plans at the proper time.

The city usually sends out a notice to neighbors of plans to build a home, especially if there are any variances, and any objections to those plans can be voiced in writing and at the meeting the city holds to discuss the plans before final approval.

The HOA ACC should also send out notice to the HOA members when they receive the plans, and at that time the members will have the ability to voice any objections in writing and at the ACC meeting where the plans are scheduled to be discussed for approval/disapproval.

Those are the only two instances where you will have the opportunity to voice your objections, if any, on the house building plans.

Also, consider that the homeowners may not wish to rebuild there. So they may clean up the residue when they have clearances to do that, and put the vacant lot on the market.

Thank you all for your replies. They have been very helpful.

WilliamT,

Thank you for the more detailed reply. I am sorry for the limited details, but I felt that the taking care of the homeowner/neighbor part was a no brainer and that it didn't need to be mentioned. I thought I could ask a general question and get a general answer like RogerB gave. I appreciate your concern for the homeowner and also the helpfulness of the post to others. My goal was to get a general answer/timeframe in mind so that when homeowners eventually question how long it will remain that way I will have a response.

Again, WilliamT & JulieS I appreciate all your contributions to this forum and think you both are very helpful. I simply took your responses an accusatory way and apologize for my rash reply.

JanM,

That’s the way a community should come together in a time of need. I‘m sure they were extremely grateful. I know I would have been.

That’s crazy that they didn’t even have Homeowners insurance. That’s a shame. It’s the unfortunate stories like this that are the ones that make so many people change their minds about so many different things.

That is a great suggestion and a very encouraging story.

Chuck W.

As the owner of a condo which was partially destroyed by a 6/30 fire (my neighbor lost an entire condo), I must lament that even starting the cleanup was a nightmare.
Now, 3 months later and still displaced, we have not seen one ounce of repair--just board meetings and promises and a very lethargic, non-proactive property managers. Despite the hard work of some, the results are disappointing so far. Just yesterday, a gen.contractor was signed on--but only after the Board determing that we also needed an independent overseer from an architectural
firm.

HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD SUCH A SLOW START? Just how much can or did you get from the hired management company? We are
lacking in that area so far--bigtime.

I am surprised that nobody mentioned the responsibility that the HOA has to see that unsafe situations are addressed for the safety of other residents.

We had a fire in our HOA last night and I wondered what our board should do in this respect. The home is a second home that was not occupied at the ti e it was struck by lightning.

I am concerned that a friend whose house burned down in a different area said that his insurance company would not cover debris removal unless they opted to rebuild the house. So there is the prospect of a burned out shell sitting in the community until the county choses to act. Our covenants are pretty weak and provide little in the way of enforcement options.

No insult intended, but newbies often have a tendency to revive old posts.

Welcome to the forum Adriana from Georgia. Most of those who regularly post on this forum would give you the same advice that Melissa did. Best to post on recent topics or start a new thread. If you've gone beyond the first page or two of topics, you probably have gone too far.

Tim!

I'm surprised at you. This is an old post. With a post count of 27 since 2006, I doubt that Ken is still around.

Yep, I missed that one even though others had pointed it out before I posted.

It's been a bad week.