Association Responsibilities for Building Maintenance

A benefit of living in a condominium community is that you don’t have to worry about property maintenance. Someone else mows the lawn, trims the shrubs, and paints the building.

Ultimately, someone must be responsible for ensuring that these sorts of actions taken place for the multitude of property aspects such as the site, buildings, and amenities.

For Condominium Associations, the Board of Directors a/k/a “BOD” is charged with ensuring the ongoing condition of the public areas. These can include the land, landscaping, and property aesthetics which provide a pleasant atmosphere for those that reside at the property. In addition, care and maintenance of the buildings and amenities is an important part of this responsibility.

The actual responsibility of any property element is defined in the Condominium Documents (i.e. Declaration or Bylaws). Replacement of all common components or “elements” is the overall responsibility of the Association and the BOD must act to ensure that appropriate repair or replacement occurs so that the common elements function as intended.

A process of regular review and evaluation of the common elements to confirm are in working order or need of repair is an important and necessary action. The BOD serves as the motivator that these actions occur. Ultimate approval of specific repairs or replacement expenditures falls on the Association as a whole.

A Reserve Study performed every 3-5 years can provide the information about the common element condition as well as supporting the BOD’s efforts for planning for large capital expenditures that will occur as the common elements age, fail, and need replacement.
Team Engineering performs Reserve Studies for communities of all shapes and sizes. Give us a call, we’d be happy to talk about how we can serve your associations capital planning needs.