Condo Association Management Blog

Condo association financials dont add up. Is budget unbalanced?

What do I need to ask my hoa board for in order to see how much money we are actually taking in from our dues? I recently received a financial statement that didnt reflect how much we took in. "Actual" means billed according to my President. Our actual and our budgeted always match and just isnt possible with 29 late payers and 10 who owe us a lot of money.

Condo board did not transition well from property developer

I'm in a condo association in Pennsylvania. We have a new board, elected about 15 months ago. Upon taking office a transition occured. The new board refused to use a lawyer to review the transition from developer to association members. To datethe only info owners get is.....don't worry it's done. Recently, November 2011, my building that is 5 years old was found to be infested with termites. To date, the board has spent $42K of reserve fund to repair the damages. This excedes their 5% limit. They refuse to take legal action against the builder, provide any documents spelling out services rendered, and are telling residents in the infected building that they don't need to disclose if their particular unir showed no signs of damage. Can legal action be taken against this board?

Owners are using residential condos for commercial purposes

Our association bylaws specifically state: "All units shall be utilized for residential purposes only." At least two units in our complex are conducting businesses: one a carpet cleaning business and the other a gutter replacement business. Both list their condo address on their ads online and both have commercial vehicles parked in plain view: one with large ladders. I've just attended a board meeting and asked for that bylaw to be enforced. The board said that the bylaws were so old and the world had changed so much that they couldn't enforce this stipulation. However, it is on the books. What should I do next? I'm afraid of lowering my already plummeting property value in what the bylaws say should be a "fine residential community."

Does owner need association approval to do work on condo?

We are purchasing a condo unit in Baltimore County MD - Annen Woods. We are still awaiting condo documents to review before settlement. I am planning to totally gut the 30 year old kitchen and remodel, lower two interior walls to open the unit up and install hard wood. I know that 80% rule on the floor and plan to use oriental rugs. I have hired a licensed contractor to handle all efforts. i have been told I must obtain approval of the Condo Association before work begins. How much true control over what I do on the interior of my unit can they have? There is no impact on the exterior of the unit. Thanks for your comments.

Can condo owners sue association board

I'm in a condo association in Pennsylvania. We have a new board, elected about 15 months ago. Upon taking office a transition occured. The new board refused to use a lawyer to review the transition from developer to association members. To date the only info owners get is.....don't worry it's done. Recently, November 2011, my building that is 5 years old was found to be infested with termites. To date, the board has spent $42K of reserve fund to repair the damages. This excedes their 5% limit. They refuse to take legal action against the builder, provide any documents spelling out services rendered, and are telling residents in the infected building that they don't need to disclose if their particular unir showed no signs of damage. Can legal action be taken against this board?

Increased costs: how does association share financial burden?

I am part of a 12 unit Townhome Association here in Nevada. Our current CC&R's provide for maintenance of all common areas such as Landscape, parking lot, trash, insurance, water, etc. and we all pay the same amount right now. We are now considering making building maintenance as part of the association responsibility. This would include siding, roofs, decks, outside lighting, gutters and metal flashing, painting etc. Since the individual Townhomes differ in size and some of the units would cost more to maintain then others, what would be an equitable way of charging for monthly assessments. Would it be by square footage of the unit, architectural footprint of each unit, the tax assessment of each unit or what. It doesn't seem fair to charge everyone the same monthly assessment if the smaller units are forced to pay the same as a large unit and I don't think this would even be legal to make someone pay for the maintenance on a larger unit that they have no ownership rights to. I am wondering how other units are assessed and what method you used to arrive at this. Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

Condo association wants to secretly install security cameras

Can our Board of Directors install security cameras in our common share parking garage to catch a thief without telling the other condo owners? The camera would be paid for by the condo association funds. Our 15 unit condo association in Washington State has had some thefts of owner's personal property from the common shared open parking garage. It is secured and locked so only owners supposedly have access. The board believes it is one of the current owner's relatives stealing items. They want to "catch" the person and not just use the cameras to deter the thefts. As a board member, I am concerned about infringing what I believe would be assumed privacy of the owners while they are in the garage if they do not know about the cameras. Or since it is a common area - is there assumed privacy? The camera feed would only be viewed if there is a theft problem.

Becoming a non-smoking condo association or HOA

Our current Board President has begun talking about making our community a non-smoking community. While I do not smoke any longer, I am concerned of what may happen if this action takes place. This community was not non smoking when it was built so there was no intent for that. Therefore I would like to think that those of us who were here before now would have to be grandfathered in. I mean what if I have a friend who smokes and then I'd never be able to invite them to my home again. Who would I need to contact to protect my rights? Or is it simply that I have no rights? Thank you for your help.

When owners legally fight condo associations: who wins?

For the past some twenty years our Condominium Association has charged the unit owner for repairs to the siding of his unit a limited common area. This charge was illegal according to our Declaration and Washington State law. Our condominium Declaration and the Washington State law specifically state that the Association is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the common area including the limited common area. The Association is also responsible for any financial costs associated to that work. My neighbor filed a lawsuit to force the Association to live up to its obligations and won the lawsuit. I helped put the lawsuit together. The Association retaliated by stating that I will lose certain owner privileges and be forced to pay for repairs that my unit may need if I help anybody else with a lawsuit. I am quite sure that this is against USA law, but I am on Social Security and cannot afford a lengthy and costly legal battle. The Association is aware of this. Question: Has anybody else been involved in one of these legal fights whereby the Association has access to unlimited funds to fight members who stand up for their American rights?

What bank accounts should a condo association or HOA have?

What accounts should we have at our bank? We now have 5 different accounts. 1) Insurance fund 2) reserve study fund 3) contingency fund (for emergency maintenance, 4) ongoing exterior maintenance (items that are at zero life as stated from our reserve study and 5) our 30 year component reserves. Shouldn't 4 and 5 be combined as our reserves?