California is home to over 50,000 HOAs, covering the needs of around 14 million homeowners.
When you live in an HOA, you expect to benefit from a well-run community with helpful leadership. The leaders of the community comprise your HOA board, which is responsible for handling everything from HOA fee collection to vendor coordination.
Whether you're thinking about joining your HOA board or you're wondering how it can be improved, it's good to understand just what these people do. In today's post, we'll go over the roles and responsibilities of the board.
Keep reading to find out if your board is doing a good job or not.
HOA Board Structure
Every HOA board is comprised of a group of volunteers who want to care for their community. There are four core HOA board leaders, but that doesn't mean more community members can't contribute.
The HOA president oversees the association and makes important decisions about upcoming projects and regulations. The vice president aids the president in their duties and acts for them when they're not available.
A secretary handles all of the HOA legal documentation, forms, and paperwork. They also take down meeting minutes for both HOA board meetings and community-wide meetings.
The HOA treasurer arguably has the most important job, collecting HOA fees and managing community money. They track how funds are being used and perform all of the tax duties on behalf of the HOA.
HOA Board Responsibilities
All of the roles in the HOA board combine to cover all of the responsibilities of running the community. Together, they ensure that the community is well-maintained and financially stable and that community members are generally pleased with their quality of life in the HOA.
Vendor Coordination
Maintenance in an HOA community comes down to good vendor coordination. HOA board members don't perform community maintenance themselves, but develop relationships and contracts with local vendors to take care of things like garbage collection, home repairs, and landscaping.
Governance
Every HOA board is subject to governing documents that tell homeowners how to act in the community. Whenever there are dozens of homeowners living under these rules, there will be bad actors. It's the board's responsibility to ensure that homeowners are obeying the guidelines.
Budgeting
No HOA members should question where their monthly HOA dues are going. The HOA treasurer must perform bookkeeping and budgeting duties to ensure maintenance and repairs can be paid for without hiking HOA fees.
There should also be enough money in the budget to plan for upcoming projects, like new roads or playground equipment.
Is Your HOA Board Cutting It?
It's important to remember that your HOA board is made up of volunteers. An HOA manager can bring a level of professionalism to the table and take the burden of these responsibilities off of the board's shoulders.
Finding the right association management companies doesn't have to be difficult. At PMI LA Pacific, we're Los Angeles' top homeowners association management group. Contact us today to find out how we can help your HOA.
