Condo Association Management Blog

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?

No one wants to be on the condo association board

As a Secretary of a Board of a small condo association, I have this question: I will not renew as Secretary because it's way too much work. We are self-managed. We don't seem to have anyone wanting to take on this assignment. There are 18 occupied and 4 unsold units. We have a President and a Treasurer. We all live in NH. What happens if no-one steps forward to fill this position? I can think of these possibilities: 1. We hire a secretary (question is this legal?) 2. We join a management organization, which would lighten the load on everybody but increase the condo fees. Might make the secretary's job more do-able. We are operating on a shoe-string budget that is why I am writing to you - asking an attorney would cost too much money. Any advise, pointers, references you could give would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Cornelia

Can condo association make example of delinquent owner?

If a Unit Owner in a 40 unit building has accrued fines and legal fees that the association has paid the lawyer for, can we post this delinquent person's name or inform all unit owners and our upcoming meeting?

Should HOA emails between owners be public or private?

The director at large is sending emails that are supposed to be between the board members to residents of the condo community without permission or approval from the remaining board members. Shouldn't this be privileged information? If he is representing himself as a board member and sends emails conducting surveys and requesting answers without the support of the other board members is that proper? If this person is cconstantly threatening the other board members and the PM as well as inundating everyone with emails to the point it is actually interrupting and hindering work flow, how can this be controlled? Other board members do not trust his rogue actions and know everyone has to consider if every thing they write is being sent out to the entire community. This has become very unproductive when the remaining board members are positive and and conduct themselves according to DBPR and in the best behalf of the community. Please advise, state y our opinion and or give assistance on how to make a negative situation into a positive one. The board members have even considered recalling him as a board member. Thank you kindly for your assistance with this matter.