Community Association Matters

Special Assessment!  I am sure those two (2) words alone got your attention.  It probably even made the hairs on your body stand up.  Condominium and homeowner association Boards hate those words, but it is a necessary evil.  Especially for associations that do not have reserves in place to cover their major assets, such roof, pool equipment or resurfacing, replacement of gates, painting, or resurfacing of the roads.  However, if your community has to replace its roof and you do not have the reserve funds available to cover the cost, your association must pass a special assessment.  What happens if you have to replace the roof now and cannot wait until the special assessment is paid in full by all members?  Is a loan the right fit for your association?  Only you as a Board can determine what is the best solution for your community, but if you decide that getting a loan is the right thing to do then I recommend that you listen to this week’s podcast of Community Association Matters.  I sat down with Cesar de l

  During one of our previous podcast and blog, we discussed how to properly vet your vendors to help ensure that you have picked someone reliable and who will execute a timely and professional job for the association.  But who manages the vendor?  Who inspects and creates the punch lists throughout the job?  Who checks up on inspections and the results of those inspections?  In short, who supervises the supervisor?  In the end, the vendor will be the expert and it is imperative that the right company is chosen for the job.  While Board members and property managers are not project managers, there is a list of things that they can do to help keep the project in question moving along. Meet with the vendor often to discuss what was completed and what is next.  The vendor should provide to you an understanding of the work, which was just completed and what to expect next.  You should be able to track the work and look for proper workmanship.  Did they clean up after themselves?  Were they timely, did they proper

I went to a presentation before an HOA a few years ago. I remember being all excited about the presentation and the possibility of picking up the business. We had just opened Allied Property Group and any business at the time would have been welcomed. The Board for that community had decided to schedule the presentation during a Special Assessment meeting. From the moment I walked in to that meeting, I felt the tension. The owners were all talking at the same time and some were even screaming. The Board was engaged in this screaming match with the owners. I kept thinking of my mother and how she calls me everytime there is a condominium meeting gone wrong being showcased on the Spanish news. It truly felt like this meeting was evolving into its own telenovela. After sitting in the meeting for 30 minutes, and all of a sudden, a board member picked up a chair and was about to throw it at an owner in the audience. Needless to say, I walked out of the meeting and did not make the presentation. All too often this

Now a days everything is smart?  We have smart phones, smart TVs, and even smart watches!  But smart cameras?  Believe it!  Most communities have surveillance cameras to deter crime or property damage.  Something happens in the community and then we look at the video footage to see if it captured the event.  What if the cameras can be reactionary and not just preventative?  Jason Mulhilvill of Kent Services sat down with us this week to discuss Kent’s vertically integrated services.   By introducing analytics, they now offer smart cameras.  Analytics can turn a traditional passive system to a smart camera.  This allows them to provide real time information and is a proactive security measurement.  Now you are thinking that this can be expensive or you will have to purchase new equipment, not so says Jason.  They can go into most existing systems and add that analytics platform to the cameras. A community will most likely not have to purchase new equipment to make it match with the new software.  So what is vi

It’s the middle of the night. Everyone is fast asleep and all of sudden you hear the water trickling down. You wake up thinking that you left the kitchen faucet on but you wake up to find that your entire apartment is flooded! You immediately get out of your sleepy haze and wake up to the sobering reality that a common area pipe has just burst. Do you know what to do? More importantly, does your property manager and maintenance staff know what to do? More often than not, this situation is overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. According to JP from Super Restoration, having a plan of action and preparing for these scenarios can make an unbearable situation a little easier to deal with. In addition to ensuring that your association has an Emergency Plan of Action and a Maintenance or Preparedness Manual, it is equally important to train your staff and run thru a drill on a quarterly or semi-annually basis. Front desk personnel, the concierge, maintenance staff, the manager, security personnel, as well as

Terrorism!  It is a scary word and to think that it can happen anywhere is an even scarier thought.  But it is the reality we are faced with today.  Despite the increase in terrorist threats in the United States, not a lot of condominium or homeowner associations are discussing this and even less have a plan in place in case a terrorist attack occurs in their community.  In this episode Ana Sanchez Rivero of Allied Property Group interviews Victor Guembes, Corporate Manager at Regions Security Services.  They discuss the methods used by terrorists and the key role that we can play in prevent a terrorist attack.  Information on how an Association can formulate an Emergency Plan are also discussed.

You would think that association board members know better than to hire a contractor that is unlicensed.  But sometimes in an attempt to save money, associations hire unlicensed contractors.  In the long run, however, this practice can be more costly than hiring a licensed contractor.  Here is an example: An association in Miami Beach contracted a construction company recommended by a homeowner to remodel the association’s lobby.  The homeowner swore up and down that this contractor had done a great job remodeling their unit and by far was the least expensive. Because the contractor was recommended by a homeowner, the board did not vet the contractor and did not have their attorney review the contract.  After all, the contractor was highly recommended by this very active homeowner and the contractor’s price was well beneath all other proposals.  This was too appealing to pass up.  The project was a disaster!  The contractor was over budget and took three times as long to complete the job.  In the end, the con