Community Communication Corner
by Bob Gourley, MyEZCondo Founder, Member of CAI CT Board of Directors

Maintain, Protect, and Enhance – and Tell Everyone How You Are Doing It!

Maintain – Protect – Enhance. This is the prime directive for Boards of Directors of Homeowner Associations across the country. By maintaining, protecting, and enhancing the assets of the association, the Board ensures that property values are maximized and owners’ interests are served. The majority of your association’s common fund will be spent on maintaining common elements of your association. The many details of this story are seldom told to homeowners yet they need to hear it.

Take a look at your association’s budget for the current fiscal year. Where is your money being spent? I am willing to bet you have several line items for large ticket items that involve maintaining your association’s assets. Landscaping, snow removal, Pool and Tennis Court maintenance, sidewalk and concrete, blacktop, roofing materials, gutters, etc. and on and on it goes. How many homeowners take for granted that the common elements of your association will be maintained, protected, and enhanced for them? All owners have a chance to look at the maintenance items in the annual budget at your annual meeting. Have you ever considered presenting them the story in a way that is both informative and timely throughout the year?

Why not take various line items from your budget and show residents how these maintenance items make their living experience at your association better? The $20,000 line item for pool maintenance can make for an interesting story when residents learn that the money does everything from keeping the pool water clean and safe to making sure the pump is maintained so that it will last for years to come. The $35,000 snow removal budget breaks down to $350 per unit for snow removal for the season. Imagine the savings over having to find your own contractor or neighborhood kid to shovel your walks, parking space, and road.

Do residents know the process for how vendors are selected to maintain, protect, and enhance your association’s common assets? In most instances, line items in budgets are the results of careful vendor selection via a process of bid and review. The Board is charged with making the best selection from the submitted bids of qualified vendors. Sharing this information with your residents can help them understand that their common fees are being spent in a judicious and effective manner. It also helps them understand the need to raise common fees when prices rise on line items in the budget. (Please note it will not help them LIKE that their common fees are being raised, but it will help them understand the process.)

Have there been significant changes to the maintenance strategies for your community? Has the termed “deferred maintenance” surfaced its ugly head at recent meetings? If you find your community is falling short of its economic goals, you should begin using your communication tools to start reminding members that it is everyone’s responsibility to help maintain, protect, and enhance the community common assets. On occasion, that means significant investment in those assets which can lead to increased common fees, special assessments, and even outside funding (i.e. bank loans) to meet those responsibilities. I have yet to see a community news story that travels faster than that of the Board that has determined that the association needs more money to perform its maintenance duties. Stop the Press!

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