Demystifying Maintenance and Repair Roles for Residents in Your Condo Association
Create Your Responsibility Matrix
You might think that responsibilities for maintenance, repairs and replacements would be straightforward enough – what’s inside the condo unit is the unit owner’s, and what’s outside is the association’s. However, it’s not always that clear cut in a condo building. Some areas can be confusing to residents.
Even board members sometimes misunderstand how responsibilities are divided. They may pay for jobs that aren’t the condo association’s responsibility or refuse to get work done that is. These errors can lead to unnecessary spending or legal battles for the association.
You can avoid potential issues by taking the proactive measures we describe in this article. These recommendations will help make it easier for residents – as well as current and future board members – to understand who is responsible for which maintenance, repair and replacement jobs in your building.
Become familiar with (and teach residents) condo terminology.
• Units. These are the individually owned portions of the condo that are designated for residential occupancy.
• Common elements. These usually consist of all areas other than the units. Common elements include the areas in and around your building(s) that are designated for use by two or more units. Members of the condo association own these areas together.
• Limited common elements. Sometimes referred to as “exclusive-use elements,” these are elements that are located outside an individual unit but that serve only a single unit. Examples of limited common elements include balconies, shutters, heating and cooling units and awnings.
Know applicable laws and relevant policies in your condo association’s governing documents.
Where you’ll usually run into problems is with limited common elements. In some cases, or even just for certain elements, the condo association may take responsibility. In other cases, it may be up to the unit owner. It depends on your governing documents.
Amend your governing documents if responsibilities aren’t clear.
Create a “Responsibility Matrix.”
Here’s how to create it:
1. Gather all your maintenance-related paperwork.
2. Enlist the assistance of your property manager and attorney.
Your attorney will help protect your association from unintentional legal exposure because of something you did or didn’t specify. A disclaimer that the matrix does not represent a comprehensive list of all elements or responsibilities is something your attorney will probably recommend including up front.
3. Draft a preliminary list of maintenance items.
4. Specify responsibilities for each item on your list.
If unit owners and your association each have responsibility for different aspects of an element on your list, break that element out into multiple items. For example, perhaps the association is responsible for general maintenance of air conditioners, but unit owners are responsible for replacing the filters. You would need to have one item called “Air Conditioner Units” and another one called “Air Conditioner Filters.”
5. Put it all together for a final review.
6. Distribute the final Responsibility Matrix to all residents.
If you are working with a good property management company, your condo association should have access to property management software that can streamline the digital distribution of the matrix. You can also ask your community manager to help distribute the hard copies around your property.
Clearly defining everyone’s responsibilities within your condominium association may seem a bit tedious at first. However, you’ll be saving your board a lot of time – and headaches – in the long run. Residents will appreciate knowing their responsibilities, too, and many of the disagreements over property maintenance and repairs will become a thing of the past.