HOA Inspections: Maintaining Safety and Security
Safety is paramount for condos, co-ops, and homeowners' associations, whether in a crowded high-rise or a sprawling suburban community. Everyone must show concern for their neighbors, from management to the board to fellow residents. It is often the literal law of the land, as compliance with many safety standards is mandated locally and federally. An association must be intimately familiar with these standards, the schedules by which building components need to be inspected and evaluated, and the outside vendors that, when necessary, must be called upon to ensure everything is in working order.
Board Diligence
It falls within a board's fiduciary duty to maintain, repair, and replace common elements in a condo or common areas in a non-condo. This obligation means implementing best practices with a managing agent to maintain the components to extend their useful life. Everything a board does regarding safety and inspections should reflect these general principles.
Incorporate inspections into an annual management plan by identifying the services needed and scheduling them as appropriate. This document should include all central services, fire safety equipment, and security features.
Elevator inspections, for example, have to occur, whether yearly, every three years, or five years--whatever a particular code dictates. Whether you're dealing with an elevator, boiler, or any equipment requiring a mandated safety inspection, you must confirm that it's included in the maintenance agreement with the relevant vendor. It needs to be more than just included in the agreement; you must ensure the maintenance is performed.
Managers try to create a tickler file for all of these to ensure that an association is on top of their vendors and that the vendors are performing whatever needs be performed to carry out that inspection and get a permit, or whatever it may be in an individual case, renewed.
Screening Vendors
To achieve a safe space for residents, staff, visitors, and anyone else who may find themselves strolling by, it's imperative that a board find the right vendor for a particular job.
It can fall to the property manager to ascertain what needs to be maintained and who is appropriate. The property manager should be able to make a recommendation based on personnel skill and experience, as well as the size of the project and necessary funding. The key is to ensure that the manager knows when inspections are due and when permits must be renewed, then follow up on that. It's best not to assume that a vendor will do it.
Depending on what needs to be inspected or repaired and its uniformity, vendors may be abundant, but in specialized situations, an association may find them scarce. Asking similar-sized associations for recommendations can help in the latter scenario.
Returning to the earlier elevator example: look into the type of buildings a vendor has previously worked with. Are they primarily commercial high-rise office buildings, or do they deal with your association's type of residential property?
Also, elevator service companies have a group of mechanics that work in territories. Regarding scheduling inspections or service, a 90-30-60 schedule may be best. After 90 days, remind them again that something is due. Then follow up at 60 days; if necessary, stress the urgency if you reach 30 days.
Public Safety
While in the suburbs, the likelihood that something will come careening off a building exterior and strike a passerby is minimal—but in the city, it is a significant concern. Anything that can cause an injury, whether from the scenario above, a trip-and-fall, or anything else that can afflict a person of any age, must be considered and its safety maximized.
Concerning what's of vital import, associations should not peel away paint or brittle caulking to items like displaced masonry or failing masonry joints.
I recommend that my clients get a three-ring binder and photograph the areas they monitor whenever the seasons change. Associations only need to rush into something if there's an apparent cause, but keep an eye on the areas that concern you most, such as the rooftop and the sidewalk. Boards should also monitor curbs, driveways, door step-ups, railings--any component of the exterior of a building because it ages.
Cost Versus Benefit
While constant monitoring and maintenance would be the safest option for any association, that's only sometimes feasible in terms of time or money. A board must prioritize maintenance and work by its budget. But more time to perform necessary work can lead to more significant headaches.
"Boards can defer maintenance, but it needs to avoid doing so for too long in a way that costs extra money or inflicts extra pain," warns Dakoff. "And it can happen. Sometimes a board will defer a top capital project. Think of an exterior, masonry, roofs, and windows. When they defer a year, they don't pay anything during that year, but the labor costs tend to increase annually, and the same for materials. So there's already an incremental cost to deferring. And when that scale tips too far, it can cause additional damage. For example, a roof can start leaking. A board has a fiduciary duty to implement best practices to extend the useful life of its principal building components, which means the mechanical and exterior. I've written about decisions boards make during tough financial times that can be problematic. And deferring necessary maintenance may become a breach of fiduciary duty.
Finally, should a board need help regarding how often things need to be maintained and inspected and what resources are available? Check equipment manuals and warranties and contact government agencies. Contact us for more information!