Be cautious about HOAs

I am now considering selling a condo property solely due to the deplorable quality of the HOA.

About 2 years ago, due to lots of deferred maintenance, I heavily lobbied to get the 67% approval vote to double HOA fees from around $200 to $400. Yet, shortly before that vote, the roof leaked, negatively impacting portions of my bathroom ceiling. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, the HOA documents stated that I must cover those repairs myself, even if it is clearly a case of negligence on the part of the HOA that the damage happened.

Next, the HOA settled with a major building maintenance contractor on outstanding $250.0000 ion repair bills. This is a crazy amount to ever have had outstanding, and for the contractor to have continued performing any work at all after the amount outstanding and unpaid topped around $20,000. My suspicion is that the contractor continued performing work but at incredibly inflated bills, knowing that in the end they might have to settle for a portion of the amount owed, and that inflating charges would bae an effective hedge against getting shorted on payments. Of course, the HOA once again went broke paying this outstanding debt, such that the increase in HOA dues didn’t really help the HOA start tackling the mountain of outstanding maintenance items to tackle.

There was an owner in the building who called the city on a code issue that was under the control of the HOA but that the HOA was not addressing. That was 2 years ago.  Lately, that owner tried to re-raise the issue, and the HOA just chose to completely ignore the matter. That owner told me he waited for a few weeks to elapse and then emailed another query, threatening to involve a lawyer if there was a continued non-response.  More crickets. His solution: sell. It’s too easy to spend lots of legal fees without getting better habitability conditions. It’s easier to take the money and move on.  Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware) with respect to HOAs.

How to avoid this problem:

Review HOA board minutes for the past 2 years. Look for themes of the same issues coming up again and again.

Contact owners/members of the HOA who seem to be vocal in raising issues for their unvarnished take on the matter. HOA board meeting minutes are frequently written by the HOA management company, which reports to and is paid by the HOA board, thus the minutes may be sanitized somewhat and not reflect the true specifics of the matter.

Call the city/county and ask for a history of unresolved and recent resolved code compliance matters.

Consider if buying a single family property where you get to make the decisions that match your best interests, rather than relying on an elected board of HOA members who may not have your competence around maintenance, decisiveness, smart spending, and prioritization.