A regularly applied maintenance plan and program combined with a properly prepared and funded reserve study can lead to safe, desirable, financially secure community associations. This report highlights: building maintenance programs; roles and responsibilities of the developer and homeowners; the intersection of reserve studies and maintenance; and sample maintenance checklists.
INTRODUCTION
The primary purpose of this Foundation for Community Association Research Best Practices Report is to outline the importance of regularly applied maintenance plan and program for community association board members, community managers, and service providers. It is imperative that board members not only understand their essential obligation to maintain their communities but to also have the education, resources, and tools necessary to succeed.
Without maintenance, your community will begin a process of degradation until each building and common area ultimately deteriorates and eventually becomes uninhabitable. The key to fighting this process of building and common area degradation is to apply maintenance in a thoughtful and planned manner which would result in a safe, healthy, fully functioning community where property values are maintained or even increased year to year. The planned application of maintenance through an ongoing maintenance program is the best way for a community association board to achieve its mandate to maintain, protect, and enhance their community.
The idea for this Best Practice Report on maintenance arose from the work of many industry experts who helped create Community Association Institute’s (CAI’s) Condominium Safety Public Policy Report in October 2021. The report was a proactive response to the Champlain Towers South collapse and tragic death of 98 people in June 2021 in Surfside, Fla. During task force meetings for the development of the report, CAI smartly recognized that greater clarity was required about the role of maintenance planning and programming in communities around the world.
The Foundation assembled a dynamic team of professionals from across the country to write this Best Practices Report. The team includes a national developer of new communities. It also includes two authoritative Reserve Analysts (both of whom are past CAI past presidents), one with a specialty in structural inspections and the other with a specialty in capital budgets. The final team members include an attorney and a fellow in CAI’s College of Community Association Lawyers (CCAL) who has been practicing community association law for almost 40 years as well as a licensed maintenance contractor and consultant who has worked in the industry for over 30 years.
CONTENTS
Introduction to Maintenance
Definition and Types of Maintenance
Community Maintenance Plans
Building Maintenance Programs
Inspections First
Roles and Responsibilities: Maintenance for Developing Community Associations
Community Transition Issues Affecting Maintenance
Reserve Studies and Maintenance: The Intersection
Financial Impact of Maintenance Plans
The Legal Obligations
Hiring Contractors
Appendix
Maintenance Cost Savings
Sample Inspection Checklists
Sample Operation and Maintenance Manuals
Additional Resources
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Foundation for Community Association Research is indebted to the task force members who developed this material:
J. David Rauch, ProTec Building Services, San Diego
Steven Brumfield, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, Toll Brothers, Inc., Fort Washington, Pa.
Mitchell Frumkin, PE, RS, Kipcon, Inc., North Brunswick, N.J.
Jon Epsten, Esq., a CCAL fellow, Epsten, APC, San Diego
Gary Porter, RS, Facilities Advisors International LLC, North Las Vegas, Nev.
The Foundation thanks Associa and Avalon Management for sponsoring this report.
ABOUT THE BEST PRACTICES REPORTS
The Foundation for Community Association Research is proud to offer function-specific Best Practices Reports in the community association industry. The Foundation has developed best practices in select topic areas using a variety of sources, including, but not limited to, recommendations from industry experts and various industry-related publications.
The outcomes of the Best Practices project include:
• Documented criteria for function-specific best practices.
• Case studies of community associations that have demonstrated success.
• The development of a showcase on community excellence.
The benefits of benchmarking and best practices include: improving quality; setting high performance targets; helping to overcome the disbelief that stretched goals are possible; strengthening cost positions; developing innovative approaches to operating and managing practices; accelerating culture change by making an organization look outward rather than inward; and bringing accountability to the organization because it is an ongoing process for measuring performance and ensuring improvement relative to the leaders in the field.
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