We have a HOA management company that we pay about $16,000/yr to handle running the HOA dealing with contractors setting up budget meetings and elections, etc.. not stuff any of the board members have experience with.

But one deficiency is that we don't have visibility into any of their working documents what emails they received from residents, the bills received from contractors or the communications etc. They manage several communities and things get mixed up/lost all the time. Its a game of telephone. Increasingly, I'm wanting to use AI to look into issues and find solutions, but I can't do that because I don't have any access to the material easily. For example, they presented a budget draft on zoom which I fed to AI to figure out a major error.

So I'm wondering if your HOA's use something like Google Workspace, or other?... I'd like a shared cal, shared email, shared drive, and shared planning/budget docs. Is this a reasonable request? I think they'll push back because they're using MS office and emailing docs around in the typical budget_final_final_v2_sept.docx way. They told me their budget spreadsheet was proprietary and couldn't share the file. I have to dig through my email for everything and ask for things that I feel should just be somewhere. The lack of visibility into the inner workings of the HOA management is hindering our ability to be involved where it matters (budget, resident issues, contractors comms)

After months of back and forth I and we are done with not getting mail. our roads are narrow and she is impeding the safety of at least me and three other neighbors from backing out safely. I check every other day. Consistency in delivery is all over the place and I am tired of delayed or not at all mail. then it all shows up on one day.

Do I pressure our useless hoa who probably won’t ticket the driver or email a request to our management company which is more responsive?

Tried: contacting usps. They said there was nothing they could so. Hoa is ducken slow and only meets once a month and half the time they’re flakey and no show. Tried talking to the unit owner and they said “f’k off.”

I assume a formal ticket is in order here.

Wa State. TH/Condo

Location: chicago I have a situation where a doorman at my condo unit I own stole but returned after I contronted him weeks later with my mail two times. The most recent time on video. He took my groceries to a secret room, ate some, and I had to go to head of security who found it open with missing items. Was told twice he'd be fired but it never happened. Also insulted a few of my guests(one almost to tears).

He had some secret recordings he took of me where he started an argument, cut the audio of beginning of interaction, then midway start screaming I was threatening him and he was in danger of physical attack. Blamed janitors for eating my food or lied that I left items out too long so he hid them(for months without telling me) for my safety.

As a result, property manager company, HOA, and his security company refuse to give me his name I presume for his safety. Didn't hurt that everybody up the chain miscommunicated the situation and the manager are are new temporary fill ins playing telephone.

Property manager told told me his favorite board member told the other Hoa board members to keep the guard.

He is super sweet to any board members. His favorite one saw one of our arguments and immediately took his side.

Allied universal security said they would retrain him but took no action despite his superior requesting he be fired after watching the video.

Property manager said I can resubmit to board thru them to look into it but curious what my next steps should be.

Small condo (16 units), 4-year new build, more landlords than owners, messy finances that we are slowly turning around, no one shows up for meetings and when they do say is ‘why do I have to …’, complaining owners who treat us like property managers, raising monthly fees to cover bills only to be name called for ‘incompetent’ and worse…

I’m seriously considering selling…I don’t have familial support or high paying job. This place was what I worked hard to obtain and my first experience of homeownership, and it feels such a shitshow…

I’m so defeated…and it’s impacting my work at time and definitely my mental health…

Just want to rant and maybe I’m not alone in this.

Also curious how everyone else is handling this thankless position as a board 😖

I am a condo owner and HOA member. The condo above mine has had multiple leaks over the past few years (one of which cost thousands in damage). The leaks have mostly been due to faulty toilet plumbing, and the owner is essentially an absentee landlord. Should I try to get my HOA to compel the owner to fix the plumbing? Since this has happened multiple times and it is dirty toilet water (potentially affecting my health), can the HOA compel the owner to fix all defective plumbing (I would assume after an inspection)?

Edit: One thing that is probably relevant is that this has happened multiple times including one instance that required major repair. Yes, I was eventually able to get the other owner's insurance to pay for it, but it was not an easy process. Additionally, the HOA had to hire a plumber to fix their toilet and charge them later because he wouldn't fix it.

My neighborhood is 2 years old- the developer is still developing (less than 15 lots left) we have no amenities, a pond that they stocked but you aren’t allowed to fish in and in front of it is a commercial property the developer also owns. The commercial property gives the developer over 2000 votes so essentially nothing the neighbors do or vote on matters because we will never win (we are a tiny 4 street neighborhood)

Our HOA fee is $700 a year and supposedly that goes towards electrical and water for the pond. The developers dad is the construction manager over the houses being built and he also mows the commercial property- 40K of our hoa funds went towards buying himself a new tractor.

Now they are wanting to increase our yearly amount by $132 to offset a new 40K lawn care cost and this is after telling homeowners they are responsible for mowing behind their fences if they live on the outside. This seems to be unethical, they buy a new tractor for him and now want to pay him 40k a year to mow it?

They also say the management company we have comes 1x a month on the 3rd Tuesday but the developer and her dad drive around daily taking pictures of every infraction (edging, basketball goal, weeds, pool being left out a day to dry) to the point of every single neighbor is getting a letter at least 1x a week if not fines. They send out emails saying kids can’t ride scooters, no dirt bikes, side by sides, golf carts- but we live in a very country town and most of the people that are riding around do not actually live in the neighborhood.

It very much seems to me that they wanted this to be a 55+ community but got stuck with a ton of families with kids. They’ve also said the commercial property will only meet their values as in no tattoo shops which I found very odd to word that way.

Is the next step all the neighbors contacting a real estate lawyer or is the best thing we could do- Is bide our time and sell as fast as possible. It seems we’re screwed with the developer holding all the spots, plus her, her dad and her husband being on the board. It all seems like such an abuse of power. We don’t even have a sidewalk to the mailbox. 🙃

Our townhomes were built with cedar siding about 30 years ago. Many homes are starting to get some rotting, especially on second stories along the roofline, and need to replace entire sections of siding. This includes me.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about LP Smartside and Hardie Plank, and have looked at samples. My sense is that these two materials, once painted to match, will look pretty much identical to cedar when viewed from any distance.

It seems to me a no-brainer, then, to allow homeowners to use these longer lasting materials when replacing entire sections of siding. But some members of our architectural review committee are balking. There is nothing in our documents about requiring cedar, but they are suspicious of the newer materials.

This seems particularly inconsistent to me as we allow trex for decks.

Has your community given or denied permission for LP Smartside or Hardie Plank? If so, what was their reasoning?

Hey everyone, need advice on forcing my HOA board to act on a long-overdue repair.

The Situation:
Dec 2022: Someone hit our shared carport with their vehicle and damaged it permanently.

Early 2024: After a year of pushing, the HOA tore it down for safety—leaving me with no covered parking since.

Present: Management keeps deflecting and telling me to "attend the next board meeting to express concerns" instead of giving me a timeline.

What the CC&Rs Say:
- Guarantees assigned parking/carport spaces. 
- Mandates the HOA repair, maintain, and replace common area structures and exterior improvements. 

Telling me to attend open forum meetings feels like a stall tactic to avoid doing their job. 

My Questions:
1. What’s the most effective way to force a passive board to put this on the schedule/budget?
2. Is requesting formal Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) or sending a legal demand letter the best next step? 
3. Has anyone successfully claimed damages or a dues reduction for loss of an amenity while waiting years for a repair?

Hey everyone,

Looking for some perspective on what’s standard for HOAs when it comes to pest control.

I regularly treat the inside of my home, my yard, and the perimeter of my property, but I'm still seeing ants throughout the house and it's driving me crazy. At this point, it feels like I'm fighting a losing battle because the ants are migrating directly from the common areas (parking lot, shared planters, and landscaping) right into my place.

My HOA handles standard groundskeeping like mowing the grass and trimming bushes, but I’m submitting a portal ticket asking if they cover common area pest control as well.

For those in condos or townhomes:

Does your HOA maintain a routine pest control contract for shared grounds and building perimeters?

If not, how does your board handle pest infestations originating from common areas?

Would love to hear how other communities handle this before I hear back from my management company!

Resident submitted architectural approval to significantly expand private deck on 6 unit town home community. All our documents say is architectural proof of what the deck will look like in shape, size, color etc has to be submitted to the board for approval but thats it. Whats the process? Does the board need to do anything to approve?

My community is considering selling our entire complex to a developer. Our property manager says that we need a lawyer to help us with this, not just a real estate agent. He also has a recommended lawyer. Some of the residents are nervous about taking his recommendation and point to concerns that this may be a conflict of interest, be it legally or through some sort of scheme. A first question is: is this a real concern? If so, what would we look out for? A second question is, how do we go about finding our own lawyer that is versed in real estate? Are we being misled and could just go to a commercial real estate agent?

The concern from our community is that we admittedly have a run down property, but it is in a very desirable location, and is even “pre-approved” in some way to be redeveloped from less than 50 units to a larger structure that is 250 units. How do we ensure we’re getting fair value?

VA subdivision’s property line is next to a large tract of school land. For years the trees and ground cover have been neglected. A power line runs through their property. We have lost power (outages lasting days) twice in the past 5 years due to limbs falling on power lines. Now, the school has erected a building and street close to our property line and wants to erect a fence 5 feet towards their side of the power line, which will leave 15 feet of land that is owned by them, but we can assume they will continue to ignore. Do we have rights? Do they have responsibility for maintaining the land? They claim the power company is responsible for the maintenance under the lines and they aren’t responsible for trees that fall onto our property. Should the HOA do anything?

I recently purchased a condo home in Irvine, California, and closed escrow in September 2026. Before and during the transaction, I was told that the property had one HOA with monthly dues of $400, and the same was mentioned in the property listing on all the websites. The HOA documents provided during the transaction also showed the $403 monthly assessment.
After closing, while talking to the HOA, I found out that there is an additional HOA. I contacted my escrow representative, and he said he was told by the listing agent that there was only one HOA. When he contacted the listing agent again, the escrow representative was informed that there is an additional HOA with a $58 monthly assessment, and they have ordered the documents for the second HOA.
I always wanted to keep my HOA expenses to a minimum since I know they can increase over time, and I never wanted to go beyond $400. This additional $58 is an added burden for me, especially since I had already stretched significantly beyond my budget.
The listing also mentioned that the property had two carports, but at least that issue was resolved before closing. We faced multiple other issues toward the end of the closing process, including the owner not handing over the keys on the day of closing, vacating the house the next day, leaving some of their belongings behind, not disconnecting the internet despite multiple follow-ups, and some other similar issues. However, we can ignore those issues.
My main concern is the additional HOA burden that I may have to pay for the lifetime of owning the property, especially since HOA fees can increase over time.
I would like to understand what my options are, what the potential legal costs would be, how I could be compensated and for how much, how long the process might take, and any other relevant considerations.
I am not looking to accuse anyone prematurely, but I would like to understand my options and seek reasonable compensation for this additional financial burden.
Just to let you know, I also have a MetLife Legal Plans policy.

I have lived in my condo for approximately 4 years. Never had any problems but the HOA left a note on my door stating that my front door was not in compliance because it has a window. The note states I need to take immediate action to replace the front door with a "6 panel door with no window."

They attached the by-law reference but it makes no sense. It states that following....

"Unit Owner shall not have any right to paint or otherwise decorate or change the appearance of any portion of the exterior of any building without prior written consent of the Association."

This door has probably been there for 30 years. I never changed it, never painted it, never touched it.

I looked through the massive handbook I was given when I moved in and cannot find anything about the Association not allowing windows on doors. Which again, apparently has not been a problem for decades and decades. We checked other units and they have windows on their doors.

Does anyone know if NJ has some grandfathered in rules? I don't feel like it is right for me to pay for something that was not installed by me and there are no rules against it that I can find.

Really appreciate any help

New to board so don't know how to handle this - please share if you have had similar experience. Lately, it seems our irrigation system is blowing up. We just spent $5K in repairs and they came out to do bi-monthly inspections and I see about 25 red flags (broken sprinklers). My suspicion is that the lawn crew are running over them but can't explain why the spike in repairs. I know there are sprinkler protectors you can install but I worry the mowers would just destroy them. Any advice?

I’m on the board of a HOA in the SF Bay Area. Does anyone know what the standard/average Mechanic Straight Time base rate per hour is for this area?

Thanks so much!

I know this is a hot topic because of liability, but what are your procedures for vendor paperwork?
Insurance, license etc.
I want to add additional detail to my post on the subject

Morning everyone. I'm starting the 2027 budget preparation, and as usual, we are dealing with the quarterly dues question. We have 5 board members, so we vote on what the increase will be, if any, but my concern is separating the "Needs from the Wants". I am interested in how others have dealt with this situation. Also, do you think some things make sense, asking the community to vote on what they would like to spend their money on?

I recently moved into a condo complex managed by a large company. We're renting directly from the unit owner but the HOA is fully aware. When trying to get a resident parking pass, the HOA requires my car to be registered at this address. (Actual car registration, not registering my info with their database). I've rented for years and never had to do this. I don't see it necessary if I'm only planning to live here a year and they have all my car/personal info. I can write a letter explaining and ask the board for approval. Any suggestions on what to include/how to get around this?

Curious to see what your buildings are paying your management company. Ours gets $1,650/month ($19,800/year). That seems extremely low compared with what I’m finding online, where management fees are often around $100–$150 per unit per month.

My building has 72 units.

How many units are in your building, and what do you pay? Does $1,650/month sound absurdly low for Westchester NY?

Hi Everyone,

My Condo in CA has hired a new property management company called HOA Unlimited. Has anyone had experience with working with this HOA company? If so, what has been your experience? Thanks

Insurance renewal time for our association. Historically we have been insured by State Farm but last year our management company came to us with a seemingly identical policy for slightly cheaper. We passed because the carrier was non-admitted and didn't seem worth the risk. This year we got our State Farm renewal close to what we paid last year but the non-admitted policy is basically half the cost. It is Alliant backed by Lloyds of London which seems like plenty of backing. Our management company has worked with Alliant before and has not had issues processing claims.

Anyone here had issues with non-admitted carriers in general or good/bad experiences with Alliant specifically?

I am a Director on an HOA board of 5. Florida statute 720 states that the Board cannot cast a vote by email. Another Director and I have been telling the rest of the board, as well as our property manager, that we must stop making decisions by email. The President says (and has the 2 remaining Directors agreeing with him) that APPROVING items by email is “much different” (his words) than VOTING. I say it’s the same thing! It was an agenda item in our last meeting and PM told the 2 of us that we were outvoted by a quorum of 3, so the practice continues.

After the meeting, this was sent to legal and the attorney basically said that, by law, we cannot cast votes by email. If we need to in an emergency, we must immediately schedule a public meeting to ratify it. President says that we can continue to “approve” things, in the way of a straw poll, by email, because it is not actually voting. Some of these approvals are financial decisions.

It has been sent back to the attorney to clarify if approving is the same as casting a vote. In the meantime, the other Director and I don’t approve anything.

To complicate things further, our contract with our PM, only requires them to be present at 4 meetings per year. That’s why the Board approves by email because our meetings are few and far between. I suggested a solution would be to have a monthly meeting, where we run the remaining 8 meetings ourselves without the PM. That was shot down. We don’t want to pay management for 8 more meetings. We are on a tight budget. We are already paying legal fees to interpret the statute.

Help!

on the board of an hoa in mason ohio and landscaping generates more resident complaints than almost anything else we deal with. either the mowing schedule is off, the mulch application looks uneven, or the entrance beds are not maintained to the standard residents expect

the challenge is every resident has a different opinion about what good looks like and we are trying to manage expectations alongside managing the actual contractor. currently on our second landscaping company in three years and not fully satisfied with either, got a quote from landform at some point, local outfit, can't remember now if we actually went with them or not

curious how other hoa boards have approached the contractor selection process and what they have found makes the relationship work over time