Forget the slick advertising and glib sales pitches. Community association living is not maintenance-free.
Owners are directly responsible for the repair and upkeep of their units and are indirectly responsible for the common elements, through the assessments they pay.
The board makes the actual maintenance decisions, and has a fiduciary duty to the association to do so.
Different approaches
Most boards follow one of two approaches to maintaining association property. Some, to hold down costs, wait until something breaks down. Then they have to find either a big bandage or a lot of money in a hurry.
Others prefer to make ongoing inspections, tuneups and fixes–similar to changing the oil in your car every 3,000 miles.
The idea is that they will extend the lifetimes of their common elements and catch small problems before they turn into big ones.
“An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure: Deferred Maintenance Versus Preventative” was one of the seminar topics at the recent 20th Annual Conference and Trade Show of the Community Associations Institute Illinois Chapter. The presenters were Keith Weber, vice president of B.T. Lakeside Roofing in Addison; Dan Klindera, arborist and vice president of Autumn Tree Care Experts in Glenview; and Richard Goulet, sales manager for Hayed Mechanical in Chicago.
Deferring maintenance chores may be less expensive in the short run but can lead to greater problems later on and premature aging of your buildings, said Weber.
A leak in someone’s unit could have been working its way through a building’s structure months before it appears. When insulation becomes saturated, it loses its ability to keep out cold air, resulting in higher energy costs.
“If you find gaps in your flashing or siding or caulking joints, seal them up now,” he said. “If the caulk around the window isn’t there, water gets in and can rot the windowsill and framing.”
As another example, cleaning gutters is a messy, bothersome job. But not doing it can create mosquito havens and help cause ice dams. Also, the weight of the debris can pull the gutter away from the fascia and damage both.
“Regular inspections will address issues before they become problems,” he said.
Preventative maintenance is imperative for trees because they cannot be replicated, particularly mature ones, said Klindera.
If diseased limbs or entire trees must be removed, the look of the property is changed.
“When dealing with living things, we’re often at the mercy of the weather,” said Klindera. “But we can be proactive to make sure trees and plants are ready to handle changes in weather.”
The type of care depends upon the type of tree and its susceptibility to disease and environmental conditions, he said. The simplest way, and a highly beneficial one, is to keep trees mulched. Mulch can often be obtained for free.
Elm trees need to be inspected regularly because no cure exists for Dutch elm disease.
Trees differ in their pruning requirements, but many can be pruned any time, he said.
Many tree contractors prefer to prune in the winter because they can better see the structure of the tree. Also, disease is less likely to be spread at that time.
Flowering trees are usually pruned after they flower; otherwise, you’ll lose a lot of buds.
“If you’re pruning properly and regularly, you can do mature trees every three or four years,” he said. “Sometimes younger trees grow more aggressively and you have to go in there every two years.”
Keeping your mechanical equipment in top-notch condition will save money in several ways, said Goulet. Thin coatings of soot or scale on a 100-horsepower boiler cost thousands of dollars in higher utility bills.
Improper connections and loose parts result in insurance claims for electrical failure and damage.
“Do the maintenance right and all the costs come down,” he said. “Your maintenance people will be able to spend their time operating the building, not concentrating on HVAC.”
Murphy’s Law being what it is, when a system goes down, it doesn’t go down on a Monday afternoon when everyone is at work. It happens on New Year’s Eve.
“The cost of replacement on overtime is not just the labor differential,” he said. “It’s the cost of getting things together that takes more hours.”
Goulet’s advice: If your association has a maintenance contract, make the mechanic assigned to your building part of your operational team.
“Get him a coffee cup with his name on it and he’ll give you his home phone number,” he said. “If you’ve got a problem, he’ll say `call me tonight and I’ll save you a service call’.”
