Maintenance issue or neglect?

Started by NicoleO4 • 4 replies • 1199 views

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NicoleO4 (California)
Posts: 160

Posted:

Hello all,

Earlier this year I was NOT on our current board and my husband took a picture of the cement overhang on our property. It extends out from our pool area and hangs about 12 ft from the sidewalk outside out buidling.

The picture clearly showed a huge crack with missing pieces of cement exposed on the underside. Our board was made aware back in January. NOTHING was done with it, placed on the back burner. When I came on the board with the new year we all were aware of the issue. Yet, I was the only one concerned. It didn't seem like a big deal to out HOA.

Well yesterday something big happened. that crack with a chunk of cement gave way. We now have a huge huge massive peice of missing decking... and better yet it just fell right on the side walk and flower bed. Thank goodness our gardners weren't there! The block weighs at leat 100 pounds..

ALl of a sudden.. the board is oh my gosh.. oh no.. this and that... come on folks? I told them about this in February, due to lack of response according to our maintenance crew this is going ot cost thousand to repair now....

Really is this a maintenance issue or neglect?

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

While it is unfortunate that it wasn't handled in a more timely manor and fortunate that no one was hurt I'm not sure what you're looking for here. It is a maintenance issue and it was neglected until it became urgent but someone could have looked at it and erroneously thought it was not urgent at the time and put it on the back burner. There are any number of factors that could have caused it to dislodge at this time or it could have lasted another ten years. Working in construction I've seen things that looked like the wind would blow over, be incredibly hard to demolish and things that looked like they would last forever simply crumble to dust.

I doubt very much whether there would have been considerable cost savings if it were done in February. A simple "patch job" wouldn't have been sufficient; all the unstable material including the large chunk would have had to be removed before it could be repaired anyway. You also will probably need to have a building permit and have the repair inspected by the city to make sure it meets code.

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TonyM3 (Arizona)
Posts: 170

Posted:

I'd bet if someone was hurt the Hoa would have been sued for negligence. At the very least the defect should have been inspected by an expert and the area cordoned off until it was deemed safe.

NicoleO4 (California)
Posts: 160

Posted:

I WAS LOOKING FOR OPINIONS THAT IS ALL. nothing more nothing less.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

When you came on the Board, you needed to be more forceful about this issue - since YOU thought it was so important. You needed to get confirmation on whether or not this was an immedate danger.

You could have made a motion to have someone look at the overhang and report back to either the Board or someone with authority to fix it. If it was an "emergency", a vote (even by phone) for repair could have been done (to be ratified later.)

So . . . your responsibility is the same as the entire board's.

The best thing you can do now is to make sure there are clear and concise steps in acertaining any structural problems in a timely manner.

(Letting something go like this without an official position from the board (you said it was placed on the "back burner") did last for 7 months. Neglect? Hard to prove.)

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