hoatalk
Posts:490
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| 07/19/2005 7:26 PM |
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What do you see as the biggest challenges facing today's community associations?
HOATalk is building a resource library and we want to focus on areas that our members see as most important.
Thank You. |
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ds111
Posts:7
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| 07/20/2005 2:36 PM |
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Seems like one at the top of the list may be encouraging people to volunteer to help with the association. This may be running for a board seat, joining a committee, etc.
Any ideas in that area would be helpful. |
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BeckyL
Posts:0
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| 07/27/2005 4:11 AM |
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| I've just become the President of a voluntary HOA. My biggest challange is getting residents to pay their annual dues (a whopping $35 a year, I'm not kidding). If anyone else is on a voluntary HOA board, any suggestions? Thanks! Becky |
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BeckyL
Posts:0
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| 07/27/2005 4:13 AM |
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| The only thing I can think of, I'm new at this, is...whenever you're talking with a resident and they mention an improvement or suggestion to you, turn it around and say something like, "Great idea, we have a committee which handles those issues and I'd love to have you on board." I was able to get someone on our Membership Committee doing just that and, so far, it's working out well. Becky |
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hoatalk
Posts:490
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| 07/27/2005 7:32 AM |
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Posted By BeckyL on 07/27/2005 4:11 AM
I've just become the President of a voluntary HOA. My biggest challange is getting residents to pay their annual dues (a whopping $35 a year, I'm not kidding). If anyone else is on a voluntary HOA board, any suggestions? Thanks! Becky
If it's voluntary, I guess one place to start is to focus on what people get when they join and pay (and what they miss if they don't). It almost turns into a marketing effort. |
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kxsulli
Posts:0
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| 07/28/2005 12:40 AM |
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HOAtalk replys to posts, & it is great that a representitive from the web site has imput. Do you mind me asking, What is the industry & educational background of personel working for HOAtalk ?
Is there a way to at least show the state the user is refering to when asking questions ? |
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hoatalk
Posts:490
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| 07/29/2005 6:49 PM |
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HOAtalk replys to posts, & it is great that a representitive from the web site has imput. Do you mind me asking, What is the industry & educational background of personel working for HOAtalk ?
I am the facilitator here and will sometimes answer questions too. I do not claim to be an expert in the field, however I have been involved in real estate investing for many years, have a keen interest in this field and have been involved in many HOAs over the years. As the facilitator here, I also do quite a lot of research, so I may have some answers available and be able to save members time. My main goal is to help keep the conversation flowing and help the members. Thank You.
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HOATalk.com, A free service of Community123.com
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LisaS
(Illinois)
Posts:339
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| 08/30/2005 9:35 AM |
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One of the biggest challenges facing HOA's in general is the fight against them. There is an entire organization in California that has a website and a national marketing campaign against associations of all kinds.
If you search the web you will find all sorts of people that lament about the management of their neighborhood, mean Boards, bad rules. These people had the choice not to live where they are, but they bought nice homes in nice places (which is largely due to associations keeping it that way!!)and now suddnely don't like that the rules apply to them. It's the 'it's not my fault' mentality that is pervading the country in all arenas. Our association spends so much time chasing the rule breakers (the big ones..) that we have no time to do anything fun!! |
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KathyS
(California)
Posts:142
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| 09/02/2005 1:55 PM |
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Living in California and testifying at many hearings in front of the legislature in Sacramento, I would be interested in knowing who this "group" is.
C.A.R.A. and the Gray Panthers fight the formation of these associations because of the Davis-Stirling Act and the results of that legislation. |
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JackJ
(Florida)
Posts:40
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| 09/02/2005 4:19 PM |
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To Lisa S You are quite right. We have a small HOA in FL, 241 members and 20 years old and while we are not a 55 and older community it is made up primarily of retiress like myself and my wife.
It seems that some of we older people tend to develop a real grouchy attitude in our declining years and take particular exception to HOA boards to the point that there is constant hostility whenever the board wants to spend any money (except on them of course) by way of improving the area for ALL members. It's just something we have to live with I guess but it can be very frustrating. I am the HOA Treasurer so I don't get diectly involved in the dialog with the naysayers but I do have to sit at board meetings and listen to them. |
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RogerM
(Florida)
Posts:18
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| 09/03/2005 8:18 AM |
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| Combating apathy. My association, in Central Florida, has suffered from years of being dominated by two people. Every year the AGM is held and a quorum is never achieved - no quorum, no elections, no change. Because this has gone on for so long people have lost interest and as a result don't participate. |
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LisaS
(Illinois)
Posts:339
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| 09/04/2005 8:50 AM |
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the group I referred to is American Homeowners Resource Center. It's as anti-HOA as you can get. Too many biased and inflammatory items. I have posted a few responses and been blasted for not believing in the big bad HOA conspiracy.
They're at ahrc.com |
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KathyS
(California)
Posts:142
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| 09/05/2005 9:31 AM |
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I don't think it appropriate to bash other websites because ones view on associations doesn't agree with someone elses. I belong to at least seven other forums beside this one. Every single forum has homeowners seeking answers to what is happening in their association, to them or to their neighbors.
I have a forum on Yahoo that is made up of lawyers and homeowners that believe HOA's have gone overboard with their enforcement issues, foreclosures and their endless need for new rules and money.
Instead of complaining, my husband and I go to Sacramento and testify at hearings in front of our Senators and Assemblymembers, We have testified in front of the California Law Revision Committee. Our testimony on architectural changes resulted in the law being changed in California. We testified at the foreclosure hearings because this associationn tried to foreclose on us four times, never for being behind on our assessments, costing us thousands and thousands of dollars. All the attempts were illegal by California law.
We personally know Marjorie Murray, Senator Denise Ducheny, California Public Defender Wilbur Haines, and have personal contacts with the Attorney General I know the owner of the AHRC website and what her association did to her to cause the formation of AHRC.
Anti-Hoa? No. Anti-CAI, CACM, PACM, ECHO, and others who try to take our homes, empty our pockets and destroy what America stands for-Yes. |
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LisaS
(Illinois)
Posts:339
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| 09/07/2005 5:36 AM |
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While I appreciate your enthusiasm, I respectfully disagree. As well, I do not 'bash' anyone or their site in my post, but rtaher gave you the info you requested. Others may judge the content on it for themselves and make their own judgements. I don't presume to judge for anyone. But I do have an opinion, and like you I am not afraid to share it.
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EdR
(Texas)
Posts:170
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| 09/07/2005 7:43 AM |
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| The biggest challenge for HOAs as I see it today is getting residents (or anyone--our assn. allows outsiders to be on the board) to run for the Board. I agree with previous post regarding anti-CAI. These organizations help the management companies to keep the board from doing their jobs effectively. The want to decide who to contract with, and what to pay and I personally don't believe all of the monies are always accounted for. I was on a board for several years and served every position except President, and served very well at that. I was assaulted by a disgruntled homeowner and maligned and defamed by his group of dissidents because they didn't want to abide by the CC&Rs, and wanted to be shown favoritism so they could be allowed to violate deed restrictions. The county officials did nothing because they referred to it as "a community dispute". That's what they call it when they don't want to deal with a situation. But no matter what it was, it was illegal, and something should have been done about it. Further, the board banded together to take sides with this dissident because he served a purpose for them--that purpose--taking over the common areas (pool, clubhouse, tennis courts) that EVERY HOMEOWNER pays to use, and allowing outsiders to use them for free while the very homeowners paying for them are told "the facility is tied up right now for this or that purpose--including total control of the pool for swim team practices and meets. So, you can see where being on a board (or being opposed to one select interest group taking over others' monies and facilities) can be dangerous--so ergo, being on the board is dangerous. They say that 1 in 25 people in a neighborhood is a sociopath--the whole percentage of them live around my house. Read the book--The Sociopath Next Door--sometime. The bad part and rest of all of this story--hold onto your hats--the president of the board and management company were involved in this calculated deliberate act for their take-over purposes. Sweet? You bet not! |
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TomO
(Nevada)
Posts:2
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| 09/10/2005 7:04 PM |
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| Ditto Lisa. We have exactly the same problems within our 151 single-family home community. We also have a high percentage of rental properties, 45 out of 151. |
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GaryC3
(New Jersey)
Posts:2
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| 12/14/2007 6:18 PM |
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I just moved in a NEW (over 55) communittee. I was appointed to the "Judiciary Committee" we are putting together a list of "Judiciary Committee duties". I am asking that you, please send an attachment to me with your community "Judicial Committee Duties".My email address is:
I'm hope that you send will help guide us.
Thanks,
Gary Case |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:2525
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| 12/14/2007 7:36 PM |
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Gary,
Strongly recommend you read through a lot of current post to get a general idea of what you need to find out. Then on the Discussion topic page is a search feature, so select words that concern you problems. The Judiciary committee is a very small part of the big picture and you need to know the big picture in your association to understand how you are going to be involved. Your question has to contain specific information about your association and you will find it is not a "one size fits all" solution. |
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MicheleD
(Kentucky)
Posts:1867
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| 12/14/2007 8:26 PM |
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We really only have one big "issue":
Owner apathy. It's hard to make this thing work when only the same 10 or 12 people out of 450 step forward to do all the heavy listing.
If we had to think of something else, I suppose it would be Rental Properties.
We are a single-family home development and not a condo development. One of the things creeping up on us is home flipping. With the increase in foreclosures, we're having many homes bought up by home flippers who then rent them out. Our CC&Rs did not account for this and we will need to do some legwork to see if this is a concern and what, if anything, we can and should do about it. |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:2525
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| 12/15/2007 4:26 AM |
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MicheleD,
All significant problems and you are not going to solve #2 without taking care of #1, meanwhile, #2 becomes worse and worse with no end in site.
Have you tried breaking your development into sections and with some requirement for each section to serve the community. That way you will make the neighbors more personal those around them. Require each section to have one member at each board meeting. Do you have bridge clubs, exercise clubs, book clubs, that king of thing. If so try to work with them. How about a saturation advert kind of notice and distribute each week for a straight number of weeks or days. If you have gate guards left them hand out adverts to each car for a set number of days. If you have more than one entrance, put a stop sign in middle of road and pass out information.
Probably the associations #1 problem will not cause the real problems the #2 problem will, if the economic mortgage conditions don't approve. Each individual association should take #2 very very serious and try now to mitigate the practice of run a way rental property. It is an old old problem that will over time destroy the character of the neighborhood and none of these forced changes bring good news in the long haul. IMHO |
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DonnaS
(Tennessee)
Posts:2951
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| 12/15/2007 5:25 AM |
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My Opinion? APATHY,! APATHY!, APATHY!. Many of these posted problems disapear once you get the masses involved. Knowledge and education solves problems, not bashing and ignorance. |
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SusanW1
(Michigan)
Posts:2316
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| 12/15/2007 5:33 AM |
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I think the biggest issue is the Them vs. Us mentality of members and Board that develop over the years because 1) the Board has not communicated with the members about what it is doing and how things get done AND 2) a membership that thinks the Board has more power than the membership does, and does not understand the concept of a non -profit.
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JoeW1
(New York)
Posts:728
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| 12/15/2007 6:38 AM |
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Posted By hoatalk on 07/19/2005 7:26 PM
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing today's community associations?
HOATalk is building a resource library and we want to focus on areas that our members see as most important.
Thank You.
Challenges that face communities governed by association boards:
1) A quorum of owner apathy
2) A quorum of Board members that are satisfied with owner apathy
3) A lack of Board member understanding of fiduciary duty and good business judgement
4) Reserve transfers before discretionary spending (meat and potatoes before desert)
5) Ability within the governing infrastructure of a minority to impose their wishes to amend or not enforce the governing documents. Often accomplished by unilaterally placing agenda items before the masses.
6) Open lines of communication
7) Infrequent open meetings (1 or 2 a year)
8) Level of consciousness of Board members about ins and outs of governing and history of association, need for education and guidance.
9) Luck that a quorum of owners without an agenda will join the first Board.
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PatrickH
(California)
Posts:197
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| 12/15/2007 9:15 AM |
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A good thread for this board. Of course, the first problem is owner apathy. It may be easier to get folks to volunteer for their Board in a single family home association where the workload isn't too great, but when it comes to townhouses or high rise condos, the amount of time and effort needed to operate the HOA grows enormously.
I live in a townhome community and we have to beg people to volunteer for the Board or any committee. We lose at least one Board member every year from burn out, so the other members know what a tough job it is. Often, the new volunteer is also a new owner wanting to help their community, which is great, but they usually don't know anything about HOAs and need a year just to be brought up to speed. By the time their second year is done, so are they!
The other issue is the lack of adequate Reserve funding. Many HOAs are approaching that 20-25 year age when major renovations will need to be done. Many have under funded their Reserves to keep the dues as low as possible and are now facing major issues of special assessments or deferring major repairs even further into the future. |
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:2525
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| 12/15/2007 12:08 PM |
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To all those that posted on this thread and to Joe especially, because he went back and copied his entry from 2005, I have this to say.
IMHO none of you are out of line and all show knowledge, experience, deep thought and something that stands out like gold in a Hock Shop.
There is a whole lot of subject in the question and all that posted had a good handle on the answers. It also helps to see others have the same considerations. Good job, a Gold Star for everyone, in fact Joe gets two Gold stars. |
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DJ1
(Ontario)
Posts:460
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| 12/15/2007 12:32 PM |
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Communication between boards and members. Failure to listen and then to consider that input, from both 'sides'.
I can see how many problems on boths sides of the coin develop. |
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JamesC
(Maryland)
Posts:128
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| 12/15/2007 1:24 PM |
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HOATALK:
Frustration (PERIOD).
I am the VP and sit on the Board of Directors along with eight other volunteer members of a Private Community having 167 homes in Maryland.
I see where several other post here have addressed not being able to collect association fees.
We have about nine homeowners who just blantly refuse to pay up. The worst owing $3459.05.
Our fees are only $60.00 a month. We have one homeowner who only moved in a couple of years ago that has not paid a cent. Owes $1290.00. He owns two brand new BMW's, a brand new truck, and has just recently bought a new van for his business. He has lettering all over the van advertising his heating & plumbing business which he runs out of his home. We are zoned residential, and our rules say you may not park commercial vehicles on the common area parking lot, unless the letterings are covered. We also allow only two vehicles to park within the alloted spaces. He has four vehicles.
Currently we have been addressing a storm door that is laying over his front porch railing, and onto the porch. He refuses to at least remove it to the rear of his house.
By not paying his fees he is stealing the services given the other homeowners who do pay for garbage pick up, water, snow removal, and lawn maintenance.
We cannot garnish his pay because he is self employed.
He has not met one of our guideline rules, yet our management company representative keeps saying there isn't much we can do, other then the attorney making his attempts to collect the fees.
Any thoughts?
Jim
Baltimore County Maryland
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RogerB
(Colorado)
Posts:3726
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| 12/15/2007 3:01 PM |
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| James, if your CC&Rs allow foreclosure it should be done if there is any equity in the property. |
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Roger Borcherding
Official HOATalk.com Sponsor
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RobertR1
(South Carolina)
Posts:2525
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| 12/15/2007 4:20 PM |
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Jim,
You might think about getting a new Management company.
You can Google "Maryland Home Owners Association Laws."
I used to live in Maryland and there have been many posters here from Maryland. Use the search feature on the Discussion Topics on this site.
Off hand I strongly suspect this is: "There is no will, so there is no way" on the part of the Board. The guy legally owes you over 3k and you are asking him to move a ladder from his front porch. Then are upset because he don't do it. Read what I said and see if it makes any sense to you.
If you read this thread you would notice it is titled, "The biggest Challenges in Todays Association." Might find it interesting to read some of the comments here and see if you can apply them to your Board. Read and understand the State Statute, all your documents, all your county requirements and if I am not mistaken there is a recently appointed state committee that you can contact directly.
We are always glad to try and help, so as your education evolves, post back and see if we can help.
I can not believe you are providing trash pick up, water, snow removal and lawn maintenance to these people and use the other owners money to do it. Do you realise how vulnerable this makes each Board Member personally. You need to get a hold on this. |
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JamesC
(Maryland)
Posts:128
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| 12/16/2007 5:24 AM |
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RobertR1
Bob:
I have been a regular reading (sometimes poster) of this site for quite a while.
When I saw the Hoatalk post, I replied, because challengees on trying to collect association fees seem to be a very big problem with private communities.
The reason this homeowner, and about six others are recieving theses benefits are that we pay Baltimore County, for sewer, and water because we are a private community. Same lines to all residents, so no seperate shut off valves. The same with snow removal, and trash pick-up. We pay one company, and everyone puts their trash on the common island property.
We have called him to a hearing before the board, but he simply ignores us. He is fined, but does not pay. We add it to his asessement fees, but he won't pay them either.
The attorney, says don't worry, because we will collect when he sales. What if he never sells? He also owns two homes in Baltimore City.
Thanks for the read:
Jim |
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