As the author Tom Robbins once said, "There's birth, there's death, and in between there's maintenance." Any way you slice it, maintenance is imperative to success. The tragic and heartbreaking Champlain Towers South collapse in Florida has reignited the conversation surrounding preventive maintenance and the strategies communities can implement to prevent such building failures. Though the conversation varies depending on the speaker or writer, there remains one unwavering belief - maintenance plans and programs are paramount.


A plan, in its most basic form, is outlining what you look to achieve and how you intend to achieve it. For a community, this would be equivalent to an HOA maintenance manual, which outlines each common area component and provides recommended maintenance schedules and checklists to ensure the longest possible life of each component. But, without the implementation and execution, the manual is useless. As Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said, "planning is everything, the plan is nothing." On the other side, without the manual, effective preventive maintenance is impossible as you would have no plan of action. You are left with corrective maintenance - fixing components as they break; or deferred maintenance - deferring maintenance all together.


The reason most associations have failed to implement smart preventive maintenance strategies is a combination of not possessing the proper tools, cost and, in some cases, short- sighted thinking. Often, the easiest or cheapest option is not always the best choice. The same is true with community maintenance. It's easy to say, "We don't need to pay for


18 July | August 2022


maintenance - nothing is broken!" or "We'll do maintenance next month." However, this approach tends to have a snowball effect. Next month turns to next quarter then to next year; and before you know it your beautiful community starts to deteriorate over time all to save a few bucks in the short-term.


Luckily, all board members are in the driver's seat and can turn previous failures or inadequate maintenance strategies around. The first step is having a plan of attack, and that starts with a maintenance plan. Some communities may have plans in place or even a maintenance manual. If you do not have a plan or a manual, it's critical you have one created. If your community was developed within the last ten to fifteen years, I recommend reaching out to the developer to ask for a copy of the HOA maintenance manual. If they did not provide one, you can work with your maintenance provider or general contractor to create a maintenance plan.


THERE ARE FOUR ESSENTIAL ITEMS YOU NEED WITHIN YOUR MAINTENANCE


► All common area components identified;


► Schedule of when and how often each component should be inspected;


► What to look for during the Inspection; and ► A method for the Inspector to report his/her findings.


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