HOA repairs subverted by homeowners repairs

Our HOA is responsible for all exterior maintenance, repair and replacement.

We continually have homeowners who insist upon performing their own maintenance and repairs believing they are saving the association money and preventing the fees from being raised. I am so totally frustrated with the mindset of people who act independently of the association.

Too often these makeshift repair efforts are discovered either after a homeowner has sold his unit, or the homeowner claims to know knowing about it......

How does one get across (without imposing fines) that these make-shift repairs often compromise previous maintenance/repair efforts together with costing everyone more when the unapprove unauthorized repairs fail? Simply telling them this doesn't seem to register.

Joyce,

Roger has posted some very good questions. I think you just need to communicate more with the community. Tell them all in your news letters. Inform the residents that their work is appreciated but it is required that you hire a licensed professional to do all the work needed. They have to be hired by the board in order to perform the work, for insurance purposes. If they are a licensed contractor, then they would need to contact the office to permit such work to be done. The residents are only trying to save themselves money and time. They just want what ever is in repair to be fixed ASAP! They would rather not wait. I’m sure many that do the repairs are only trying to help, but their attempts are causing more harm than good!

Keep us posted.
Chuck W.