The Importance of Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance
Requirements of a Maintenance Plan
Categories of Maintenance
The Importance of Inspections
Building Envelope Inspections
Who Performs the Building Envelope Inspection?
You Get What You Pay For
Summary

Introduction

HOA Services Group believes strongly that all community associations should develop a written maintenance plan to serve as a guideline for the  performance of a timely maintenance program. All maintenance plans should be updated regularly as components age in order to reflect the changing conditions and maintenance requirements of the subject property.

In 2005 the state of Oregon passed legislation requiring a maintenance plan for community associations that meet certain criteria. The law which took effect on January 1, 2006, requires any association, under previously enacted statutes to maintain a reserve study, must prepare and maintain a plan for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of common area assets within the community.

In general only those associations that were formed after October of 1999 are required by Oregon law to prepare and maintain a reserve study and as such these same associations are required to prepare a maintenance plan. Both maintenance plans and reserve studies are required to be updated once a year under the same law.

This forward thinking legislation is a step in the right direction, but it only applies to a relatively small number of community associations. As a result the responsibility to develop and execute a plan for ongoing maintenance will often be a discretionary decision that is left to the association’s Board of Directors.

Since many Boards are reluctant to take any action which may be perceived as frivolous spending, the decision is often made not to spend money on a maintenance plan. Unless your community association was formed after October of 1999 or unless the association membership has, at some point in the past, adopted a formal reserve study funding plan for the accumulation of capital reserves then your community is under no statutory obligation to prepare or perform maintenance according to any prescribed plan. [Return]

The Importance of Maintenance

The importance of developing an ongoing plan for the execution of routine, ongoing maintenance can be summed up in one word…Cost!

With respect to multi-family, owner-occupied housing it is all the more important due to many factors which do not affect other types of property ownership. Among the considerations that are unique to community association ownership when it comes to maintenance:

• The need to maintain community property in a manner that will protect and enhance the present and future value of all members’ investment in the community
• The need to maintain common areas in a manner that will ensure minimum liability to the association
• The likelihood that other people will be responsible for maintaining your property
• The longstanding principle that preventive maintenance will always cost less than deferred maintenance
• The overwhelming tendency for deferred maintenance to result in the need for major repair or complete replacement of common area components that might otherwise not required replacement
• The chance that improperly maintained common areas may result in damage to the interior of a unit and that such damage may result in unfair financial burden to one or more unit owners; this is particularly true with respect to the maintenance and repair of the building envelope
• The tendency for community assets to wear out faster due to higher levels of use

With so much at stake it is a wonder more community associations don’t demand a comprehensive facilities maintenance program and the timely execution of planned maintenance procedures from their governing board.

Of particular concern is the fact that under present Oregon law, it is only the newest communities that are required to have a maintenance plan. Many older, aging communities with physical components that are already reaching the end of their useful life are under no legal obligation to prepare a maintenance plan or execute routine maintenance according to any prescribed schedule.

This situation often makes the purchase of a condominium in an older community a virtual roll of the dice. In many cases it isn’t until after the new homeowner has purchased a home in such a community that they find there is no community managed maintenance program. [Return]

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) is always the least costly and most effective form of maintenance. In addition it will ensure that the association’s assets are always maintained at the optimum level of condition for the benefit of all association members and the preservation of their investment in the community.

Preventive maintenance is the art of preserving buildings, equipment and physical grounds through a cyclical process of regular inspections and key tasks. PM is particularly important in the multi-family environment due to the higher level of use and potential risk to resident and visitor safety if problems should occur due to lack of maintenance.

PM consists of the timely execution of planned maintenance procedures intended to ensure that association assets function normally, without interruption and achieve the maximum useful life that is reasonable for the component in question.

PM does not stop the aging and deterioration of association assets, but it is the most effective method available to ensure that all components achieve the maximum life and performance cycle that can be expected. If properly implemented a PM will, in many cases, prolong the useful life of components beyond the typical life spans that are assumed. [Return]

Requirements of a Maintenance Plan

In spite of the fact that a maintenance plan is a statutory requirement for many community associations, debate continues on exactly what the requirements are for a maintenance plan. The fact is that the current statute is rather vague and in most cases the content of a maintenance plan is whatever the author chooses to include in the plan.

The result has been that the quality, content and usefulness of a maintenance plan can vary widely. The plan may be little more than an afterthought with minimal detail and little narrative to help describe the maintenance procedures that are recommended.

On the other hand the plan may be a multi-volume document that contains hundreds of pages of technical data, warranty information, manufacturer’s product information and other data that may or may not be useful in the execution of day to day maintenance procedures.

Given that there are few absolutes when it comes to the preparation of a maintenance plan it is all the more important that there be a systematic approach that produces qualified results. Otherwise a community may be easily mislead into thinking that they have an adequate plan in place when, in fact, the opposite may be true.

HOA Services Group believes that a maintenance plan should only be prepared by an individual or individuals who possess the necessary knowledge to adequately envision all of the needed maintenance that a facility is likely to require.

We also feel that it is generally the best course of action to retain the services of a consulting architect or design professional to assist in the development of a maintenance program for the majority of communities.

Maintenance plans prepared by HOA Services group all contain certain critical information that is displayed in an easy to read, easy to follow outline designed to be as user friendly as possible. We pride ourselves on producing maintenance plan and reserve study documents that can be easily read and understood by non-professionals without losing meaningful content in the process.

All maintenance programs prepared by HOA services Group are developed by Carson M. Horton, RS. Mr. Horton has spent over thirty years in the construction business. His extensive background in building maintenance and repair includes many years of work in the field of home repair, renovation and new home construction.

Our maintenance plan documents are organized into four categories of maintenance;

• Annual and bi-annual maintenance tasks that are expected to be performed by association employees or independent contractors.
• Less frequent maintenance that is scheduled to occur anywhere from three to ten years into the future
• All exterior painting and sealing procedures regardless of the frequency of the scheduled task
• Routine maintenance recommendations that may be performed by individual unit owners within their own home by association maintenance personnel when the conditions warrant

Also displayed in our maintenance plan is the anticipated source of funding for the task in question, the estimated cost for performing the procedure as indicated in supporting documentation such as a reserve study, and the next approximate month or year in which the procedure is expected to be performed.

All recommended maintenance procedures also include a brief narrative describing the maintenance procedure and the component affected by the maintenance. When appropriate, we also include contact information for service providers who may specialize in a particular form of maintenance.

All maintenance tasks are arranged in the chronological order of frequency beginning with routine annual and then bi-annual maintenance tasks. Procedures scheduled for three to ten year intervals are displayed next and finally in a separate section we include a comprehensive list of recommended routine tasks that apply generally to most wood frame structures. These procedures can be as simple as the cleaning of pavements to less obvious tasks such as opening and closing of foundation vents at the appropriate time of year. [Return]

The Importance of Inspections

Many times ongoing maintenance for many components will begin with the routine inspection of the component in question and the completion of maintenance procedures that are recommended as a result of the inspection.

The importance of ongoing inspections by qualified personnel is critical to the proper execution of any maintenance program. Professionals are trained to interpret conditions that can be visually observed and draw conclusions from these observations that may not be apparent to the untrained eye.

This is particularly true with respect to components that comprise the building envelope such as roofing, flashings, sealants, gaskets & weather-stripping, gutters systems, roof drains and other waterproofing details.

Many times these components will look fine to the untrained eye and it is only through an inspection by trained personnel that problems are likely to be detected in time to prevent major damage from water intrusion.

All maintenance programs developed by HOA Services Group will include provisions for roof inspections and exterior building inspections at intervals of one to three years depending on the unique characteristics of the subject property. [Return]

Building Envelope Inspections

Much has been said in recent years with regard to the need for a “building envelope inspection” when considering the maintenance, repair and replacement requirements for community owned property.

Generally speaking an association should plan to have a complete building envelope inspection performed as soon as possible after the turnover of the association to unit owner control.

For a variety of reasons this is a critical procedure that, if overlooked, can have serious financial consequences for the association for years to come.

All community associations should retain legal representation of their own choosing as soon as they have elected a unit owner controlled Board of Directors. Once legal representation has been retained, the Board should discuss the subject of a building envelope inspection with legal counsel. [Return]

Who Performs the Building Envelope Inspection?

Due in part to a sharp increase in the number of construction defect claims being made by community associations against the developers of multi-family, attached housing developments a virtual cottage industry has sprung up in the field of forensic building investigations.

Building envelope inspections are the poster child for this emerging field, with many firms offering a variety of levels of service to community associations. As with any rapidly growing endeavor there is a wide range of services being offered by many firms, some of whom are well qualified to perform such inspections and some who are not.

To further complicate matters the average person is unlikely to have much, if any, knowledge of the procedures involved and may or may not be in a position to make an intelligent decision with regard to choosing a service provider.

While HOA Services group believes that an envelope inspection is generally well advised, we also feel strongly that the choice of a service provider is critical to obtaining value for the community and its members.

Building envelope inspection services come in many forms, including;

• Inspections performed for “free”; generally by construction contractors who are hoping to find opportunities to sell construction services to associations that are determined to have construction defects requiring corrective action
• Exhaustive inspections performed by consulting firms who employ architects, engineers and construction specialists that prepare a detailed analysis of the conditions that are found to be present, along with recommendations for corrective action, but who do not offer any remedial repair services
• Service providers who employ a third party inspection service to perform a so-called “envelope inspection”, often times with little in the way of analytical standards that are required of the report’s authors
• Specialty contractors such as roofing, siding or painting contractors who will evaluate one or more particular components of the building envelope and render an opinion of those components, but who do not perform a complete envelope inspection

“As with most things in life and maybe even more so with respect to building envelope inspections, two tried and true clichés can generally be applied: “You get what you pay for” and “If you get something for free, it is probably worth what you paid for it."

Both of these statements contain a great deal of truth when considering the need for a building envelope inspection. If your community is facing a serious challenge such as a construction defect lawsuit or even a claim under warranty provisions from the original builder, then the matter of who you choose to perform a building envelope inspection is not a trivial decision.

In this situation the association should view the selection process as similar to hiring any other type of expert consultant such as an attorney, architect or accountant.

The individual or firm that performs the inspection should be a specialist who does not have a vested interest in the outcome of the investigation findings. They should have a history of specialization in this field and should be able to provide you with examples of their work and the type of reports they have prepared for clients in the past.

If your community is considering legal action against a developer, insurance company or other responsible party, the choice of inspection services is even more critical. In such cases you want to choose a consultant that is experienced in conducting “forensic inspections” and is familiar with the documentation process that will be required should you end up going to court. [Return]

Summary

HOA Services Group recommends that any building envelope inspection should only be performed by a consultant who is hired on a fee basis for the specific purpose of performing a “forensic analysis” of the building envelope.

Any firm representing that they are qualified to perform an envelope inspection should be able to provide examples of reports that they have completed for other clients and should utilize the services of an architect or engineer when conducting the inspection and preparing the final report.

The consultant should have no financial interest in the outcome of the investigation and should be retained directly by the association and should be responsible to the association and the Board of Directors for the results of their investigation.

Other service providers such as reserve study preparers and maintenance plan authors may utilize the findings of an envelope inspection in the development of their reports, but in general the association has nothing to gain by allowing a third party to intervene or establish the relationship between the inspection service and the association. [Return]