HOA’s are planned developments and are subject to various building and planning department codes and regulations that independent properties may not be subject to. Yes, even paint colors or landscape, lighting and other items need a review by the city or county before implementation.

Example: A well meaning HOA needed to replace exterior light fixtures, more than 2000 in total. They found a fixture they liked, and installed them at a cost of approximately $190,000.00.  A few weeks went by and the HOA was advised that the city had received a complaint that the new fixtures diffused light into a neighboring property causing discomfort to the adjacent property.  The city advised that the lights did not meet the requirements of the planned development and would have to be replaced with fixtures that meet all conditions of the code and planned development. This was a bitter pill for the HOA and ultimately the rejected fixtures made their way to eBay where they were offered at pennies on the dollar.  Meet with the city or county planning and building officials who are there to assist you and maintain the established conditions of your community, do it early and review your concepts with them, including them will ultimately save you time and money.

In this case, a “roadmap” is a simple tool that illustrates the planned future of an HOA.

• Budgets
• Schedules
• Special Projects
• Agendas

They are designed to give the viewer a quick and accurate understanding of several possible complex operations at once – visually.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Today’s on-the-go lifestyles demand the ability to receive notifications and access information 24/7/365 which is what the “roadmap” is designed to do.

CIDology ® systems combine roadmaps and tracking systems custom built for your HOA accessible via the web by any device without software or training, keeping you informed, educated on what to expect, when and how your HOA is tracking on the planned “roadmap” for the future.

If additional or more detailed information is needed, it’s there on the website fou you to access and drill down into any issue.

Updated regularly with actual vs. planned data, the operations of your community are transparent, keeping you and your neighbors informed for greater confidence and control of your property.

So what’s the difference between Reconstruction and Repair? Generally it’s scope of the work combined with quantity and the ability to take advantage of more modern materials, techniques and efficiencies in planning and operation into the future.

Example:

REPAIR – If a project has one deck to repair, the HOA will generally repair the one deck with an “in-kind” process and materials that are readily available at the local material supplier by a local tradesperson with and entity right-sized for the project.  The work is completed and then next year when there are 2 more decks, if the same vendor and materials are available and codes or condition have not changed, there might be a similar repair.  However, if any of the variables change, the repair will be different this time around and that process will continue until the variables change again.  This typically leads to a greater and greater challenge to manage all the variables and forecast the lifecycles and maintenance of all the assorted conditions the decks might have on the project over decades.

RECONSTRUCTION – If a similar project had 100 decks that needed attention today and another 100, 300 or more predicted to need attention in the future, a reconstruction process would be the appropriate approach.  Due to the quantity, a detailed more modern design with all the features that would make the deck reconstruction project a greater value would be included. This will drive the lifecycle longer, with less maintenance and at lower cost than typical “in-kind” repairs can be made in quantity.

The reconstruction process would assess the condition of all decks in this case and any adjacent structures that could be affected by the process to understand a one-time complete reconstruction. Plans and specifications would be generated and a tracking process instituted so that a long term process can be managed in harmony with today’s repair. Warranties and right sized vendors would also be utilized to insure the work at this scale was successful.  The role of the property manager, owner or successor would be simplified by being provided with appropriately qualified manufacturers, enforceable warranties, proper building permits, quality construction as-builts and effective care and maintenance instructions.

A low price is very seductive, however it seldom results in a lower cost, in fact it’s usually the opposite.  It can be very difficult to understand the difference on complex or large scale issues and it’s important to understand the difference before signing on the dotted line.  In the HOA environment the dollars and complexity of many issues can multiply quickly due to the scale of the property coupled with the expectations of performance we call useful life or lifecycle.

To minimize risk and make understanding bids easier with more confidence, make sure you:

1. Scoped the project correctly;
2. Have a good specification and plan set for the bidders;
3. Know what you want;
4. Provide a bid form designed to generate the information you want and don’t accept bids that are not on your form; and
5. Carefully review the bids, ask questions and fully understand the answers before you consider an award.

If the repair/maintenance/improvement issues are large, hire a professional Construction Manager to represent you and provide the insight and experience necessary to guide you through the process, their fees are a fraction of the project costs and generally their experience will lead to better decisions, greater value and a longer lasting product making their fee a value.