June 2023

You would be surprised how many people want to be on the board of a well-run community.  If your community struggles with attracting owners to meetings or participating as a director, its time to look deeper at the real problems.

If the community hasn’t been making reserve fund contributions at a proper level for many years, there will be a budget shortfall at some point in the future.  It may be the need for a new roof, parking garage repairs, or building maintenance that ultimately creates a shortfall.  At that time the board will have to decide on increasing condo fees, a special assessment, taking on a loan, or some combination.  They may decide to defer necessary maintenance to conserve funds.  This causes cascading problems difficult to surmount after condo fees remain too low for too long.  The reserve fund, which everyone believed to be properly funded, will be found inadequate because of financial manipulations.

A special assessment, increased condo fees and mounting problems arising from deferred maintenance make life miserable for those serving as condo directors.  Most likely, these factors discourage good people from serving on the condo board.  Nobody wants to be tasked with fixing up someone else’s mess and unfairly faulted for current problems.  Anyone serving as a director at that time is likely to be viewed as the villain for taking steps to fix things.

Avoiding these intractable problems is easy.  Take steps to ensure your community is financially solvent so others want to serve on the board or take on duties for the community.

If unhappy with recent or current results, now is the time to ensure condo fees are adequate to pay for necessary maintenance and support the reserve fund.  Stop underestimating reserve fund study items, assuming an unreasonably low rate of inflation, and delaying necessary fee increases.   Make sure all future expenses are considered by ensuring the reserve fund study projects 45 years into the future.

Stable finances reduce board challenges and attract volunteers.  You will be surprised at how many are interested in getting involved with a well-run community.