Maintaining Maintenance

HOA’s have an obligation to take care of the community maintenance. These obligations should fall within the community documents. Like most everything in life, time can take a damaging toll on your community; wood begins to rot, roads need repaving, roofs that don’t exactly keep the elements out, and concrete that has seen better days are just a few issues that an HOA will have to deal with when it comes to community maintenance. It’s important to stay on top of these things to keep the community from literally crumbling and to maintain the value of the property within the community.

Here are some ways to maintain your HOA’s maintenance:

Avoid Band-Aid Repairs: It’s important to avoid quick fixes for problems just to check them off the list. Those problems will never truly be off your list of things to fix for very long. Ultimately, you’ll end up costing the community a lot more money to fix those issues than it would have cost if it were handled correctly and done professionally with long-lasting repairs.

Budget Correctly: The most important thing to take into account when dealing with maintenance is the budget. Make sure that the budget fits the maintenance program and not the other way around. If it were the other way around things would start to fall apart.

Inspect the Work: It’s important to inspect the existing work for repairs and also to stay on top of the new work being done to ensure it’s being done correctly. When looking around the community for things that could be in dire need of repair, ensure you are surrounded by the right type of people to recognize disasters in the making. Contractors, engineers, and architects are a good place to start. When dealing with new work, make sure that the timeline for projects and maintenance is being followed and that the work is up to par. Have monthly inspections and keep a paper trail of any observations — both good and bad. This way people are held accountable.

Build A Working Relationship: As with anything that is service related, it’s good to build and maintain a relationship with the company that you are using. Once a healthy relationship is formed, they will know their way around the community and how to get things done in a time and cost efficient manner — especially since they will always want to have your business secured.

You can also check within your community for volunteers that have experience in a related and suitable field when it comes to maintenance to help keep an eye out for things that are falling apart. If done properly, HOA maintenance doesn’t have to be a never ending headache of unexpected catastrophes. Preventative maintenance is the key to a longer lasting, more prosperous, and happy community. Remember, don’t skimp on things in an attempt to save a little more money, spend the money necessary now to save a lot in the future.