HOA Boards Have a Duty to Properly Maintain Common Areas

A common conflict between homeowners’ association management personnel and association members relates to the failure on the part of the association’s board of directors to properly maintain various components that are part of the association’s common areas (i.e. roof, wood siding and trim, decks, etc.). In the typical scenario, homeowners are upset with the fact that the association’s board of directors is not performing its responsibilities relative to maintenance of common area components. The owners contend that their individual units are suffering damage as a result of a common area condition that is not being taken care of and/or that their property values are suffering as a result of the lack of maintenance. Such homeowner complaints frequently get disregarded by the association’s controlling board of directors for various reasons including lack of funds to perform the necessary maintenance, disputes over the need for the maintenance, and disputes over whom is responsible for the maintenance.

The responsibility for common area maintenance within a common interest development that is controlled by a homeowners association is detailed in both state statutes and the common interest developments governing documents (generally the Declaration and/or the CC&Rs). The state statutes and an association’s governing documents typically impose a responsibility for repairing and replacing common areas on the association, acting through its board of directors. Although many associations have property managers that are given certain maintenance responsibilities, the managers are mere agents of the directors and the ultimate responsibility for making sure the common areas are properly maintained falls on the board of directors and not the property managers.

In order to generate the funds that are needed to properly maintain the common areas within a common interest development, the association’s board of directors has the added responsibility of imposing regular and special assessments on the association members in an amount that is sufficient to carry out their maintenance responsibilities. Additional related responsibilities that are imposed upon association directors include a duty to periodically inspect the common areas and prepare a reserve study that lists all major components, the remaining useful life of each component, and the cost to repair or replace them. The inspection and assessment of the common area components is generally done by retained third-parties who are experienced in such evaluations and who provide the necessary information to the association’s board of directors.