Association’s Right of Entry into an Owner’s Unit

A community association’s right of entry into an owner’s unit is a necessary power in order to correct violations of covenants and to facilitate the repair and maintenance of the common areas. In the absence of state statutes that mandate such power to the association, it is incumbent on the association, especially associations that govern condominium projects, to have appropriate provisions in its governing documents that authorize the association to enter an owner’s lot or unit for specified purposes.

A homeowners association’s management personnel (directors and property managers), as well as individual owners, must be familiar with both the applicable state statutes and all provisions contained in the association’s governing documents that address the topic of the association’s right to enter into units. If there are conflicting provisions, and the language in the state statutes does not defer to the association’s governing documents, the association must comply with the provisions contained in the statutes and the conflicting provisions contained in the governing documents should be modified by an appropriate amendment.

Properly drafted language that grants the right of entry into an owner’s unit should contain appropriate provisions relative to advance notice that must be provided to the owner before an association representative enters into their unit. The amount of advance notice typically depends upon the reason that access to the unit is necessary. If its for normal maintenance of common area components, a few days to a week prior notice would be reasonable, but if a particular situation (i.e. a broken water pipe) necessitates immediate access to an area that requires entry into an owner’s unit, no notice would be reasonable.

The right to enter into an individual’s unit to inspect for and correct violations of an association’s governing documents is often more problematic than entry to maintain and/or repair common area components, and frequently results in conflicts between the association and the affected unit owner(s). To minimize such conflicts, it is important for the entry rights to be clearly defined in the association’s governing documents and uniformly and properly enforced. Absent a clear statement of the rights of entry to inspect for and correct rules violations, an understanding of those rights by both association representatives and unit owners, and the proper exercise of those rights, there can be confusion and resulting risks of liability to the association based on claims by the unit owners resulting from alleged wrongful entry into their unit.

The following are examples of language that might typically be found in an association’s governing documents (typically the Declaration or CC&rs) granting the power to the association to enter into an individual owner’s unit: