Maintenance at Your Property
Karel Costa-Armas, PCAM? - Consultant
HOA Consultant & Expert Witness in the Community Association Management Industry - Helping HOA's, Insurers, and Legal Firms
The maintenance of the property is of the utmost importance. Timely repairs can avoid accidents and therefore unnecessary claims. Whether repair work is done in-house by the maintenance staff or contracted to an outside vendor, the level of risk for an item should mandate the speed (priority) at which it is resolved. Therefore, it is good to have your on-site maintenance personnel well equipped to handle what is within their job description. Along the same lines, it is very important to have a dependable list of contractors that can respond rapidly to have items resolved quickly.
When hiring a contractor for repairs, part of the association’s risk management policy is to confirm the contractor is licensed as required by the State, is insured properly with a liability and a worker’s compensation policy, assigns the association as an additionally insured party to their policies, and provides indemnification to the association for the work being performed.
Inspections and repairs should be documented properly. Inspections will be able to alert the association to work that needs to be performed or put the association at ease when receiving a passing grade on the inspection itself. In the event of a loss, the association can provide documentation that maintenance and inspections are routinely scheduled, and that the association is always seeking to stay on top of its assets.
Many inspections are mandated by local, State, or Federal authorities. Some of the other inspections can be requested from a vendor such as your landscape company, AC Company, or any profession that is hired to maintain or repair important machinery or areas. Here are some, but not all, that can be requested from a vendor or mandated by an authority:
o Pool Inspections – County Department of Health or State
o Fire Safety
o Fire Alarm and Sprinklers
o Fire Hydrants – Fire Department or vendor depending on ownership
领英推荐
o Licensing (management, restaurants, kids club, amenities (spa))
o Landscape Trees - vendor
o Landscape Irrigation - vendor
o Pool Machinery – vendor
o Air Conditioning for common areas – vendor or qualified maintenance technician
For more tips and relevant articles to Community Associations, see www.HomeownerAssociationConsulting.com