HOA stands for Homeowner’s Association

In highly populated areas of the developed world, a large proportion of society live in condominiums, apartments or tower blocks. Such structures are part of the sky lines in cities such as New York, Paris and London and they are increasingly popular. Since such structures house a large amount of people in a relatively small area, governments are keen to insert as many of these building as reasonable to help to counteract the worldwide housing crisis.

If you are the owner or developer of such a building you will understand the importance of having a successful homeowner’s association as part of that development.

A homeowner’s association is a group that all residents within a shared building must be part of. Usually, the membership of the group costs each household a small percentage of their rent and is paid separately to the management team. This small fee goes a long way to helping to care for the building.

Why are they important?

There are 3 main benefits of having a successful homeowner’s association.

Routine tasks are managed and necessary improvements are carried out – the homeowner’s association will regularly maintain the facilities of the building including monitoring general wear and tear. This involves the careful organisation of everyday tasks such as garbage removal for example.

Keeps the tenants happy – by installing regulations that all tenants must abide by, homeowner’s associations are extremely important in fostering a neutral and comfortable environment within shared buildings. Residents all agree to rules and usually abide by them which helps to reduce the amount of tension between neighbours. This is extremely important in the current climate as there is an increasing trend of unhappy flat owners attempting to sue their housing developers.

Secures (and usually improves) the value of the flats – by consistently managing the amenities and complaints within the building (and local public areas), homeowner’s associations can help to at least keep the prices of the properties stable, if not help them to increase. This is a benefit that not only you as a stakeholder will appreciate, but also the individual owners of each flat or apartment.

Outsourcing HOA management and the benefits

It is clear that homeowner’s associations bring a huge range of benefits to both the developers of the shared building and the residents themselves.

Despite this, many developers of buildings and residential sites struggle to manage a successful homeowner’s association by themselves. This usually leads to a lot of stress and frustration from all parties involved. The cause of this is often just inexperience in running such a complex service. For this reason, many chose to outsource the management of their housing associations to consultants that are able to cover all aspects of the role in an expert manner. This reduces the amount of stress for the building’s owners and allows them more time to focus on other important issues instead.  If you struggle to run a homeowner’s association, you can outsource this aspect to Cedar Management Group.