Friday, January 22, 2010

General philosophy regarding homeowners associations

[I originally wrote this article in December of 2007 near the end of a previous term on Park Lane's Board of Directors. I've republished it here so readers can have a better sense of how I view my role as a director.]

Most recently, I've been dealing with the homeowners association at our rental property. I'm not only a member; I'm also the president. Recently, it became necessary to remove trees from the common areas in the community because of the invasive root systems that some of the trees have. We made the mistake of failing to notify homeowners of the action prior to beginning the removal, and people just went nuts!. Never in my life have I seen (granted I've only got about 28 years under my belt at this point) people be less reasonable or more childish, and the passive aggression (from grown adults!) is just astonishing.

I don't want to relate the whole saga of the tree removals in our community, though. Rather, let me address something related, and that is what seems to be some fundamental misunderstandings/myths about what a homeowners association is and how it functions.
  • A homeowners association is not the board of directors that governs it.

    A homeowners association is exactly what its name implies. It is an association of owners of a given set of homes. All homeowners have an equal right (and in my opinion, responsibility) to participate. The board merely acts to handle the day to day business of the association and see that business gets done in the event that homeowners do not participate (usually the result of apathy, of which there appears to be a great amount). Homeowners who don't speak up should not be surprised when the board acts in a manner inconsistent with what they might have done.

  • A homeowners association does not absolve homeowners of individual responsibility.

    If the neighbors' kids are playing too loudly, ask them to quiet down. If a resident lets her dog poop in the common area, ask her to pick it up. The homeowners association has become an excuse for people to stop dealing directly with each other, and I would argue, actually serves to decrease the sense of community in an area. There are cases when the association needs to involve itself, but when registering a complaint, consideration should first be given to the course of action in the event that there was no association.

  • Being a member of a homeowners association is not an excuse to be petty and unreasonable.

    I've seen people complain about everything from a wreath hung on a front door, to trash cans being placed out too early, to having too many doormats. Nobody wants their neighbor to paint her house pink or to have to deal with raging parties every weekend, nor should they. Sometimes, though, a homeowner may forget to put her hose away after cleaning the car or will put the trash cans out early due to scheduling conflicts. These are not reasons to involve the association. See the previous point.

  • The homeowners association is not out to screw individual homeowners.

    The board of directors of an association has a fiduciary duty to the association, not its individual members. Decisions are made in the interests of the association. While the board should make an effort to be as accommodating as possible, eventually unpopular action may become necessary. This can have a disproportionately negative effect on individual homeowners, but that does not automatically make the decision a product of malice.

  • Homeowners associations help keep property values high.

    How often do you hear, "I'll never live in a neighborhood with a homeowners association [again]"? I rest my case.
Over the past two years, I've learned a lot about business and people, in general. I believe that a homeowners association can be a good thing, but it takes the involvement of its members. It takes a reasonable group of people acting on the board of directors. It takes a membership, including the board of directors, that understands that the relationship between the board and the members is not an adversarial one; it has to be collaborative. Most of all it takes a group of people working toward solutions rather than pointing out problems.

1 comment:

  1. Your assessment that the presence of a Board and HOA tends to decrease the sense of community is highly accurate - people would rather complain to the board so they can avoid confrontation - but in that confrontation you can build bridges, if you approach the issue the right way. There's simply no incentive to do so when you can just go to the management company or the board. And that's such a shame.

    Heh. Serving on the board is a thankless job, to be sure. Thanks for running and serving again. You're a better person than I.

    I love your last point. I've lived in this community for 14 years now and will never again live in an HOA neighborhood. I just hope we'll be able to sell when we're ready to build!

    ReplyDelete

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