Your HOA Board is the entity that always needs to have its act together. For your community to run smoothly, working with a professional HOA management company to avoid common mistakes should be top priority.
Mistakes Your HOA Board Members Should Avoid
When a professional HOA management company steps in, they avoid these common DIY mistakes that happen in their absence. Here are five mistakes that we see HOA Board Members make and how SBB Community Management can help your Board avoid them.
- Not Reading Governing Documents
- Inconsistent Rule Enforcement
- Not Collecting Overdue Fees in a Timely Fashion
- Not Reviewing Financials
- Not Maintaining Proper Insurance
1. Failing to Read the Governing Documents
Your community bylaws and CC&Rs are important documents that help you avoid getting your community in legal and financial trouble. By not knowing the ins and outs of the Association Documents, an HOA Board could try and enforce rules which aren’t rules or miss important procedural requirements.
Working with a professional HOA management company like SBB Community Management is an easy way to stay on top of important documents and reminders that your HOA Board will need to follow to operate properly.
2. Your HOA Board is inconsistent in enforcing Community Rules
Even when some HOA Boards know the rules and what is required of them via governing documents, they can seemingly ignore the rules. Association rules need to be enforced fully, consistently, and in compliance with the requirements set forth in the documents. If an HOA Board is specifically not going to enforce a certain rule due to personal bias, that not only opens up the Association to liability, but it also isn’t fair to the other owners who joined the Association under the assumption all rules would be enforced.
Your HOA management company can help your HOA Board with handling community issues like violations and ensuring that scheduled meetings run as planned.
3. Taking Your Time with Overdue Fees
Your HOA management company can also help your HOA Board successfully collect any overdue fees. We understand that an HOA Board is made up of volunteer community members that now must take on the responsibility of collecting money from their neighbors. Remember, letting one owner get away with paying late because you want to avoid confrontation with your neighbor is not fair to the other community members you represent. Let us play hardball for you, while you work to keep your community happy and successful.
4. Failing to Review Your Financials
Failure to review your community financials or failing to truly understand them can be devastating for the community members relying on the HOA Board. Your main goal is to invest your members’ hard-earned money into the community correctly and account for every single dollar spent. This can be a taxing task and working with a HOA management company that specializes in community finance is a great way to stay on track without making any critical financial errors. SBB Community Management knows that most HOA Board Members are not financial professionals; so we go out of our way to explain financial reports and general industry practices in financial record keeping so that HOA Board Members are comfortable with their financial reports every month.
5. Not Maintaining Your Insurance Coverage
Failing to stay on top of your Association’s insurance coverage could leave the Association open to huge expenses. Even if coverage is in place, be sure to know what it covers and what it doesn’t. Take the time to work with your HOA management company to review your current D&O insurance policy, what it covers, and when it lapses.
Get the Professional Help Your HOA Board Needs With SBB
Mistakes quickly add up for an HOA Board. Don’t let your community suffer because you didn’t look to a professional for help. At SBB Community Management, we help your Board improve its community while also ensuring that the essentials are all taken care of. Get in touch with us today to find out more about our HOA management services in your area in Texas.
