We have a 3 story condominium complex we assist in managing, in Michigan. Recently, a home owner has been out of state, to assist family. The last time the unit was occupied was in the summer. The thermostat was turned off, and the unit froze the plumbing in the ceiling of the unit without heat, damaging 4 other units. We have a master insurance policy, and each home owner has condo insurance. We had several problems in the last week. Trying to sort this mess out. The condo association pays for preventive maintenance to walk around the exterior and check all units and notify Management of units without gas or electric. The association attempts to prevent flood as much as possible. The association can turn on utilities in the name of the association and back bill unit owners / banking lenders in cases of foreclosure. To maintain heat and prevent floods. Our bylaws allow entry of any unit in the event of emergencies to prevent damage to another unit of access to common areas, ie: between floors for access to plumbing and electrical etc. The association normally covers plumbing up to the shut off of the appliance. 1) Who is responsible for the repair of the plumbing system for a frozen pipe in a common element (between floor joist of 3rd floor and ceiling of second floor) where a unit owner failed to maintain heat. Is the co owner liable for damages to the other units for failing to maintain heat? The unit owner (by phone) refused to allow maintenance to enter the unit, to access the situation and board members had to arrive to to convenience a family member who had a key to allow maintenance into the unit. In the future, if we are having an issue should we authorize maintenance to enter by any means possible if we cant get co operation and the unit owner is not home? ie: Kick the door in, break out a window. and afterwords re-secure the unit. Do we automatically contact a water mitigation contractor and allow them access to extract water and start clean up of flooded units? The association or its agent has the right of entry, maintenance is the agent who was called to address the situation. Our maintenance man is great he has saved our association $240,000 in 2 years. The unit owners representative left the condo before mitigation contractor arrived on scene. The unit below was still dripping water because the unit above refused to allow contractor in to clean up water, do we force our way in because the home owner is "maintaining a nuisance" which is preventing the co owner reasonable use and enjoyment of his property below? How can we prevent this from happening again? Additionally, the units have fire suppression system in them and the association maintains that as well. What about a unit that is in foreclosure and the owner has abandoned the unit and the bank has not taken possession? What is the right thing to do?

Here are some creative initiatives your condo board can take on with your condo association.

Leverage the Condo Association with Direct TV. 
Maybe your property has a mix of cable and internet providers and can leverage group buying power through the condo association or HOA. If properly wired, Direct TV can have all residential units feed from one satellite dish, eliminating the satellite dish skyline and wiring mess in and on top of your condominium building. You have to call Direct TV’s MDU Division (Multi-Dwelling Unit) for this kind of deal. I think its worth checking out. Here is the link to the Direct TV MDU webpage Direct TV MDU.

Use a Condominium Association Credit Card
Pay condo association bills on time while helping with the cash flow by charging it. Go through the condo association vendor list and find out who takes credit cards. If your vendors accept credit cards, your condo association can rack some points over the year that can be redeemed at place like Home Depot for new community grill. If you’re a small condo association, American Express provides great financial reporting at the end of the year that will certainly help you keep the books.

Collect Condo Fees from Credit Cards
Your condo association can do this through most banks. This is a great way to collect total funds needed for larger capital assessments. It’s another way to increase your condo association reserves and minimize accounts receivable and default risk.

Secure an HOA Loan or Condo Association Loan
Regardless what your condo reserve or budget looks right now, every condo association should have one have a HOA Credit Line. The cost is nothing or minimal to open a HOA Credit Line and it’s becoming more acceptable practice for condo associations and home owner associations to use one. Current HOA loan rates can be anywhere from 6.5% to 8% and condo associations usually have a choice of amortization schedules. HOA loans and lines of credits are usually secured by the right to assess condo owners.

Take your Condo Association on a Green Initiative
How can this be a bad thing? There is a plethora of content available on the Internet on how to go green, but basically it’s about energy conservation in our condo buildings, which I’m sure we can all do greener. Maybe switch from oil to gas or other alternative energy sources, use faucets and toilets that use less water, put in energy saving light bulbs – they’re more expensive, but will last a lot longer.

Start a Condo Association Website
There are many different condo association website service providers that specialize in hosting condo websites and all you need to do is update it on a regular basis. A condo association website will help raise the property value and enhance communications with condo boards and condo owners.

Start your own Condominium Association Loyalty Program
This is interesting – I stumbled upon this the other day: www.condoperks.com. Evidently this service combines a condo association website with a shopping portal, where as condo association members make purchases at affiliated retailer, the condo association gets a percentage of the sales. Looks like its only available in few metropolitan cities right now and they’re still growing their business concept.  They're definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Does your Condo Association have a strategy to go green? 

If you live in an older condo building the answer is most likely no, but that can change quickly after understanding a number of fairly easy to implement green initiatives found on the EPA's Energy Star website.  No one expects the condo association an older residential building to go 100% green tomorrow, but there a many small steps that can make your building more energy efficient and a healthier place to live right now. Here are some ideas for condo associations boards and property managers.

A Condo Association Can Do a Energy Self-Audit On Their Condo Building

Energy Star has a self evaluation tool called the Home Energy Yardstick, which helps you determine the overall energy efficiency of your property.  It works well and actually only takes about 5 minutes, like the website claims.  Although it's intended for a single family property, you can make it work for your condo building by calculating an average condo unit, then extrapolating the information to meet the size of your condo building.   

It's a quick and useful calculation of your energy usage, and requires some knowledge of your energy usage over the past year (which will be on your monthly bill), so just make sure you have your energy bills for handy before you get started.

Install Energy Efficient Light Bulbs or Fixtures On Your HOA Property

Replacing old light bulbs with Energy Efficient Light Bulbs is a no-brainer.  There are a host of Energy Star rated light bulbs that are a little more expensive than your traditional light bulbs, but they should last for a very long time.  According to the EPA, "ENERGY STAR qualified lighting provides bright, warm light but uses about 75% less energy than standard lighting, produces 75% less heat, and lasts up to 10 times longer." 

Seal the Windows and Doors In Your Condo Association's Building

Energy Star estimates that a homeowners associations "....can save up to 20% on heating and cooling costs (or up to 10% on their total annual energy bill) by sealing and insulating."  If you live in an older building, it can be much higher percentage than this.  Our building is over 80 years old and when I moved in the building, I could feel a breeze with the window shut.  We sealed the windows and felt an enormous difference.  The sealing of windows and doors should be high on your green priority list.  Here is a link to educate you to the impact of air leaks in the envelope of your condo building.

Switch Your Condo Association from Oil to a Gas Burner

We switched to a gas burner two years ago and our energy bill dropped about 15% per annum over the past two year.  Old oil burners are grossly inefficient - emitting more pollution because they don't have modern controls standard today on new boilers.  Due to its size, our old oil burner needed its own room in the basement.  Our new gas boiler is smaller than a footlocker and was mounted to our wall, rendering the room pretty much empty.

There are many other green initiatives you can take, but these few that I mentioned are certainly worth looking at today. 

Over the last couple years, we have scheduled and participated in some really useless condo association meetings.  I think the biggest culprit for the bad meetings was the lack of communications between the condo association board and members that should have been flowing in between our meeting dates.

Scheduling condo association meetings is not a substitute or band aid for poor communications.

Most condo association by-laws require an annual meeting.  Other than that, I think there are plenty of communication tools for condo association directors and association members to get the point across, with out the pomp and circumstance of a meeting. 

Does your condo board:

• Have a condo association email distribution at least once per month - even to say no news is good news?
• Maintain a website that gets updated regularly?
• Manage a message board where association members and residents can voice concerns and ask questions when they see fit?
• Have your property manager publish monthly updates or financials that get sent out to all condo association members?
• Use web technology to poll condo association members to understand what's important to them.

There will always be the need for meetings...and that's when they should occur. 

I think most association board members are forced into more meetings because they don't practice good communications with association members regularly.  The above are some proactive communication tips that a condo association board can leverage to keep communications flowing all year long.