Q: I live in a suburban community association made up of condominiums and town houses. The community has a master association to administer common areas that both properties use, such as the swimming pool and tennis courts.
More Top Picks Nuwave Brio
The master association board has sent a letter to the community that they have decided that the swimming pool will be closed three days a week this summer to cut costs. This is an amenity of our development and does not seem right. Can the master board do that?
A: The master association board has a fiduciary obligation to administer the common areas pursuant to the terms of master association declaration. To the extent the swimming pool is a listed amenity in the declaration that the board must administer, the decision to permanently restrict the number of days the pool will be open is unreasonable and could be challenged.
It is also not a sound business decision to eliminate a primary, recreational amenity used by owners in the community to save operating costs, especially since the swimming pool probably was a factor in the purchasing of a unit in the development and such a decision could negatively affect the value of units.
Q: I live in a small, self-managed condominium association. A question has arisen about the painting of window frames of some, but not all windows, because some windows have exposed window frames and others do not. Are such charges a common expense or an individual unit owner expense?
A: Windows and window frames are deemed a limited common element. The condominium declaration of a particular association governs the maintenance, repair and replacement costs of limited common elements. There is no statutory law on the issue.
Most of the time, but not always, declarations state that the maintenance, repair and replacement of windows and window frames, is a unit owner expense; however, the board is usually authorized, in its discretion, to perform such work and assess the cost to the affected unit owner.
Q: I live in a small condominium association with three board members. One of the members has violated the association’s governing documents and is subject to a fine hearing. Must the board member who is the subject of the violation recuse himself from voting on a fine against himself and if so, if there is a tie among the other two board members, what happens?
A: A board member that is the subject of a fine proceeding must recuse himself due to the inherent conflict of interest. In a situation where the remaining directors cannot agree on a fine, there would not be a majority vote in favor of a fine, thus, a fine may not be levied.
The voting board members must uniformly enforce the association’s governing documents and not give special treatment to their board member colleague.