Virginia Condominium & Homeowners Association Lawyer

Q.        Our condo is a moderately priced community which was built in the 80's and is now beginning to look dated.  The new condos of the same approximate unit size and same general location have a better curb appeal.  We are afraid that as interest rates creep up our owners will have more and more difficulty competing with other units.  Our board of directors wants to take action, but we don't know where to begin in deciding what to do first to make improvements.  Our ideas might not be shared by other owners who may question our plan.  How can we address this critical issue and not make a big mistake that will cost us and our fellow homeowner’s lots of unnecessary money?

QUESTION: In my community, the work performed by hired contractors has been poorly done.  The most recent project involved painting the doors of individual units.  This work was performed just six months ago, and the paint is already peeling.  In Virginia, what steps can be taken to protect our community against hiring companies with poor job performance, and do arbitration clauses make it difficult to obtain monetary compensation once the contractor's bill has been paid?

RESPONSE: Thanks for your question.  This isn't necessarily a community association question, but is instead a general contract law question.  In other words, the advice I might give your association would be the same I might give an individual homeowner who got a bad paint job but doesn't live in an HOA or condo.  Therefore, if your association is looking to hire an attorney to go after this contractor, it wouldn't necessarily have to be one who specializes in community association law.

An issue causing significant confusion in many condominium associations is "Who is responsible for maintaining or repairing what?" The best method of spelling out the answer to this question for the unit owners is to create an easy-to-read chart based on the pertinent provisions in the documents and the Condominium Act.

The first step in determining and clearly communicating maintenance and repair responsibilities is to create a chart that shows every item that will need replacing or require maintenance or repair. This would include such items as roofs, asphalt, pools, exterior siding and fences, as well as all of the other common elements. The list should also include all of the limited common elements and portions of the units such as drywall, flooring, cabinets, doors and windows.

The next step is to go through the list and make a determination as to whether the item is a common element, limited common element or part of the unit. The association's Declaration should define which items are common elements and which are limited common elements or part of a unit. You should also review the recorded condominium plats and plans in order to make this determination. At this point you should get your attorney to review your preliminary work to make sure you are reading the documents correctly and are on the right track.