8 Common Homeowners Association Problems (and How to Fix Them)
As a board member or officer, you probably help manage a successful HOA. However, even the best homeowners associations and neighborhoods run into problems from time to time.
It’s a community association manager’s job to protect and advocate for condo community associations, including responding when issues come up and helping the board avoid future problems. So whether you’re part of a long-standing HOA board or building a new association, here are eight common HOA management problems (and how to fix them).
- Financial Challenges
A few late fees or unpaid fines and poor budget management can lead to significant financial problems for your condo owner association.
If you need to raise fees or reduce services to maintain your HOA, a community association management company that works with HOAs like yours can apply technology and recommendations to overcome financial challenges. - Legislation Changes
Regulations governing homeowners associations can change without notice. Keeping up with legislation changes can be challenging for communities, but failing to comply can lead to fines or other penalties for your HOA. A community association manager can work with an attorney to stay up to date or hire an HOA management company to keep your association in compliance. - Poor Maintenance Practices for Community Resources
While homeowners or condominium owners are responsible for maintenance for their homes, community associations must keep up with community maintenance, including scheduled repairs and completing quick fixes before they become big problems. If your board struggles to keep up with ongoing property maintenance, facility upkeep, or even seasonal things like snow removal or landscaping, professional HOA managers can work with a property management company and vendors to keep up with these tasks. - Inconsistent Rule Enforcement
Homeowners associations are community-managed, which means they need community buy-in to be effective. Playing favorites with board members or homeowners when it’s time to enforce the rules (including parking rules) can lead to unhappy residents and complaints. If your community is divided over enforcement of community rules, community managers can work with homeowners association management companies to experience consistent rule enforcement. - A Lack of Good Communication
A lack of good communication between the board and community members leads o mistrust and unhappy residents. Your HOA board should remain open and transparent with homeowners and within the board, be proactive about keeping good documentation of relevant conversations, meetings and decisions, and send notices promptly, so people know what’s happening. - A High Volume of Complaints
Without a good process to receive and resolve complaints from condo owners, issues and complaints pile up. With community association managers and community-led rules, board members should be available to community members and offer an easy way for residents to make complaints or suggestions. Treat community members with respect when they make a complaint and handle every issue as quickly as possible without making people feel bad about bringing up issues. - Poor Community Engagement
A condominium management board is only effective with strong member engagement and commitment. When no one wants to sit on the board, or the same members have held seats with no interest from other residents to get involved, the board can become less effective and stagnant.
If your HOA board needs more community member involvement, one option is seeking community volunteers through community service events or other community gatherings that encourage engagement. You can also ask existing board members to participate in committees and give your most engaged board members the opportunity to lead committees like communications and finance where their skills can help the HOA thrive. - Technology Changes
Along with legislation changes and the changing needs of your community over time, community associations must keep up with technology changes. Outdated software and processes can make it difficult to collect regular HOA dues, keep track of expenditures and budgets, communicate with residents, schedule maintenance with vendors, and operate efficiently and effectively to serve the community well. Take time to review websites and software platforms for accounting, documents, and keeping homeowners informed. Work with an association management company to update technology or handle bookkeeping and vendor management through software systems.
Hire An HOA Management Company to Avoid Common Community Association Problems
Hiring an HOA management company can help your community stay current on available community resources and avoid or effectively resolve many common problems. The right management services include support for board member training, conducting meetings, accounting and financial reporting, property management for community facilities, recruitment, rule enforcement, and more.
Working with a professional homeowners association management team like Trestle Community Management gives HOA boards peace of mind about putting the community first and serving residents well! If you’re ready to see fewer problems in your community, reach out to learn how our management services can help! Whether your board could use assistance with financial management services or benefit from our full-management options, our team is here to help your association thrive!
