THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501060364
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: COMMON GROUND
SOURCE: G. ROBERT KIRKLAND and MICHAEL INMAN
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
Q. I am a board member of a condominium association and we are having a dispute about certain maintenance problems. The buildings are about five years old in our complex.
Our documents say that each unit owner is responsible for maintenance of windows, and we are experiencing rotten wood around the frames of the windows, which is causing some air leaks and difficulty in opening and closing windows. If individual unit owners undertake these repairs, we may have a difference in quality and appearance from the outside.
The other problem we are having has to do with rotting wood on decks. The decks are limited common elements, which are the responsibility of the association as far as contracting for maintenance, but the unit owners are responsible for paying the maintenance.
The association can put a lien on the unit if the owner doesn't pay. Some board members and other unit owners want to be able to do the work themselves, as opposed to paying a contractor, since the work is being done on their individual decks.
What should we do about the unit owners making these repairs? Can we allow them to do so?
A. In your first issue about windows, it would appear to us that the repair needed is not really a repair to the window itself.
It appears that you have a problem with the wood surrounding the window, which is actually part of the common elements and would be subject to repair, supervision and payment by the association.
With respect to the decks, it is very tempting to allow unit owners to save money by doing their own repair work; however, there are two potential negative consequences to this approach: the quality of the work may vary drastically, and, depending on the selection of materials, there could be an immediate or eventual difference in your appearance, which will affect the overall esthetics of the complex.
More importantly, you must not vary from your documents, and if the board decides that it definitely wants to allow unit owners to perform their own deck maintenance, then the documents need to be amended to provide for that method and to take the responsibility off the association.
This would require a two-thirds or three-quarters vote of the entire membership, following a careful due process procedure in order to have an effective amendment to the documents.
In the meantime, the board should handle the deck maintenance. MEMO: G. Robert Kirkland, president of a Virginia Beach property management
consulting firm, and attorney Michael A. Inman specialize in Virginia
community association issues and are affiliated with the Southeastern
Virginia chapter of the Community Associations Institute. Send comments
and questions to them at Real Estate Weekly, 150 W. Brambleton Ave.,
Norfolk, Va. 23510. To submit questions by phone, call 446-2033; fax:
446-2531.
by CNB