compartment of my car. When I walked up to greet him, I asked him if he was able to diagnose the problem and how long he thought it would be before the car would be fixed. He looked up at me with a very bewildered look and said, “I honestly don’t know, I’ve never worked on a car before.”


W W


That’s when the thought entered my mind that perhaps I should have asked my neighbor if he had any experience working on engines before tossing him my keys. Nonetheless, I was now faced with a driveway full of engine parts, and a “mechanic” who had no idea how to put it all back together. Thankfully - and in reality - I called a tow truck and had my car taken to a mechanic I trust so the work could be done correctly, even though the cost was going to be higher than had I enlisted my well intentioned but wholly unqualified neighbor.


Saving money by utilizing the generous efforts of a volunteer can be very attractive. However, if the volunteer is not qualified or lacks the skill to successfully complete the work that is required, there may be very expensive consequences or even worse, resulting safety issues. Imagine if I had the neighbor work on my brakes! Let us move on from my story of the car that didn’t start and apply the same lessons to a community association.


Consider a community association board undertaking an extensive common element repair project, and in an effort to save money, the board decides to use volunteers from the list of unit owners instead of paying a licensed, bonded, and insured contractor. Perhaps a board has recently decided to become “self-managed” as the volunteer board members were unhappy with how the licensed manager had performed. Imagine the potential risks in these scenarios, both financially and from a safety perspective when volunteers attempt to complete the work that should only be completed by a professional.


I have encountered board members over the years with stories of regret over attempting to complete repair work themselves or deciding to do without a professional manager with the goal of saving money. The reality was that in many cases, they ended up spending more to fix the issues they created by not hiring a professional. Some items might be well within the bounds of a volunteer’s skill set such as minor repair work, but when undertaking larger projects enlisting a professional is always the best choice.


The most common choice I see board members select in an effort to save money is eliminating professional management, particularly in smaller to mid-size associations. This is usually an expense item that gets a fair amount of scrutiny and criticism. After all – and please note my sarcasm - how hard can it be to manage an association? And while the consequences of self-management are not always dire or tragic, what I have seen over the years is a


12 | COMMON INTEREST®


hen I arrived home from work later that day, I noticed a series of large and small engine parts laying on my driveway with my neighbor’s head and shoulders deep inside the engine


steady decline in the quality of oversight and attention to detail by volunteer, self-managed boards of directors.


Depending on the skillset of the board members, some good may actually be accomplished. Those things might include keeping the association in good standing with the state of Illinois, filing an annual tax return, maintaining meeting minutes and having accurate financial statements. However, other issues that may pose greater liability for all include having the proper insurance in place and not running afoul of the governing documents, including an association’s declaration and the applicable state statues such as the Illinois Condominium Property Act.


Laws are passed every year at the state level and in some cases at the county and city or village level that can have significant implications for the association. For instance, both the state of Illinois and the City of Chicago have very specific laws in place for how to handle the discovery of an old, underground storage tank. These tanks are discovered each year by association boards that undertake projects such as parking lot replacements, installation of concrete footings and even larger scale landscape projects. A volunteer board also has to contend with issues like properly posting notices to the unit owners for board meetings and actions, as well as contending with the legal remedies for various disputes with unit owners including delinquent assessment collections. If a board is not current on the most recent information, especially as it relates to legal issues, potentially severe liability issues may arise.


As the old saying goes “everyone knows an attorney.” All it would take for a board to experience significant legal expense is a well-intentioned decision that is made in conflict to a governing document. Let us also consider the example of enlisting volunteers for common element repairs. Just as with the opening example regarding the engine repair on my car, imagine a volunteer with all the best of intentions offering to help with a minor roof leak. Someone being injured in a fall from the roof or being hurt during the completion of a repair may create a significant liability hazard for an association board and all association members. Property managers attend continuing education classes throughout the year to stay current on all of the issues related to managing a community association.


Expecting a volunteer on a community association board to have the same level of expertise as a professional manager is just


not realistic. Many volunteer board members already have the daily obligation of working for someone, navigating their own career industry, or owning their own company. During the day or at the end of it, to expect a volunteer board member to then negotiate complicated proposals and subsequently even more complicated contracts for common element repair work is often just not reasonable.


I would never want the pilot of a plane I am flying in or the surgeon working on my medical procedure, to enlist the


• Winter 2022 • A Publication of CAI-Illinois Chapter


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