What Is and Isn't Your Job

Your Job As An HOA Board Member

There tends to be a lot of confusion as to what is the HOA’s job and what isn’t. Oftentimes, HOAs are improperly perceived to police or handhold the community. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The purpose of an HOA is not to act as the figurative community parents. A lot of the responsibilities that community members think fall on the HOA actually fall on the members of the community. That being said, there are still tasks that the HOA needs to handle.

We’ll start with what isn’t your job to help relieve any potential anxiety.

Things That Are Not The HOA’s Responsibility:

1. Rule Enforcer
2. Menial Tasks

Each member of the community should know the rules that they agreed to when they signed up to join the community.

It’s a waste of the Board Members’ time to run around looking for rules to enforce. Not to mention, it can create distaste and distrust from community members. Trying to enforce all of the rules all of the time without any complaints would eat away too many resources. This is time that could and should be spent more efficiently on broader and higher-level items that have a more positive impact on the community as a whole.

This also applies to the daily work that goes into keeping the community clean. It is not the Board’s responsibility, for example, to personally pick up trash, litter, or pet waste. Most of these tasks end up being outsourced, provided the finances allow for it.

At the end of the day, it’s every community members’ responsibility to help take care of the community. This frees up time for the Board to focus on bigger picture items.

Things That ARE The HOA’s Responsibility:

1. Managing Finances
2. Maintaining Amenities
3. Future Plans

As an HOA Board Member, your first priority is to manage the community finances. If you are able to keep track of membership fees, maintenance costs, and any other transactions, all of your other tasks will fall into line.

With that in mind, it’s your responsibility as a HOA board member to put the community needs above your own personal needs should they benefit the community. For example, if the community needs to increase the fees to cover business expenses and you personally would have to make sacrifices to afford the new fee, it is your responsibility to personally bite the bullet and vote to increase HOA fees for the betterment of everyone.

Secondly, since you’ve made it your job to know how much money is coming in, it’s also important to know where it’s going. This brings us to the management of communal property and amenities.

Communal property and amenities need to be maintained to ensure that all members of the community have access to them. It’s the Board Members’ jobs to ensure that the grass is mowed, the pool table felt is not torn, the community pool is clean and properly maintained, etc. Remember though, it’s not on you personally to grab your lawn mower, or refit the pool table, or check the PH levels of the community pool. It is simply your responsibility to make sure that those tasks are handled and that they are handled at a reasonable rate without sacrificing quality of work.

Now that you know what money is coming in and you’ve taken care of the community needs and have tended to the amenities, it’s now your job to work with the community and other Board Members to plan for the community’s future. The only way to do this is to be active within the community. Even though you’re a Board Member of the HOA, you’re still a member of the community. So get to know your neighbors and you’ll have a better understanding of the future and how to plan appropriately for it.

Sounds Time Consuming, Right?

It can be, but don’t fret — this is something that we at Las Vegas Valley Community Management will help you with along the way. Just tell us what your community needs are and we’ll help make it a reality!