Have you ever wondered how to make a sandcastle? An Internet search finds websites that promise a classic sandcastle in about fourteen steps. No matter how well designed, it is a temporary house built on sand at risk by wind and high tide. Association managers know that the best sand is hard- packed and under the new brick pavers. The pavers will eventually require maintenance, but not the kind of maintenance that, if deferred, can undo an association, a management team and a board of directors. No association would postpone important repairs, but unwise money-saving tactics and short term thinking can be worse than high tide. Here are some scenarios to ponder.

WHY SPEND MONEY ON TESTING?

Annual fire extinguisher maintenance is a waste of money. A shiny floor in the equipment room will dazzle a city inspector so that the inspector doesn’t see the phony tags on the fire extinguishers. Hey, even if there is a fire, the skeletons of those fire extinguishers will demonstrate we were prepared! Ditto that pesky dry fire suppression system in the garage! Regular, documented testing of life safety components complies with codes and ensures readiness should the worst happen. It also puts a smile on your risk manager’s face, gives your informed board happy dreams and builds community confidence.

DUCT TAPE IS MAGIC!

Duct tape comes in every color imaginable! It can repair furniture, pipes, light covers! Magic! Then, the tastefully taped lobby chair breaks under the weight of the board president’s spouse and it’s an insurance claim with a possible lawsuit. Smart thinking means prompt removal of broken furniture along with next steps, such as professional repair or replacement. That pipe will eventually rupture its color coordinated tape at 4:45 on Friday just after your maintenance staff has left. Even that well-taped light cover responds to gravity and crashes onto an owner, a visitor, a staff member or essential equipment. A few dollars turns into a thousand dollar repair, while the insurance premiums for workers compensation, general liability and directors and officers escalate. Owners are uneasy, not knowing what comes next. Don’t expect happy dreams for the board and management company at this sandcastle.

WHERE IS THE MAGIC BUCKET?

The investor owner’s tenant is a chronic complainer and an avid emailer. “The carpet is dirty!” “Dryer #2 is always broken!” “The neighbor across the hall cooks stinky food!” An email twice a day is enough already, so when he reports a mysterious circle in the ceiling above his bed, why bother? The roof is floors away from his unit. Really, he is a renter. Then he appears in person, dripping dirty water on the management office’s brand new carpet. He holds a five gallon plastic bucket and

screams: “This flew out of my ceiling and onto my bed when I was emailing before taking a nap!” It turns out the prior agent hired a janitor who could not fix a leak, but could drywall a bucket into a ceiling just-like-that! The mystery circle was early warning that the pinhole pipe leak above had filled the bucket and wasn’t evaporating. Now the association has a renter who wants cash to cover his pain and suffering—and a new laptop to replace his water logged email machine. The investor owner is not happy and the management team does not know if this is the only bucket, the last bucket or what? The worry is sand in the manager’s shoe.

WHAT ALARMS?

It’s not warm enough for air-conditioning! It’s April! They can open their windows! Let’s shut off the chiller’s trouble alarm and wait for some real hot weather! Owners bought in a luxury high-rise with a four-pipe system so they could enjoy a-c and/or heat year round. For money saved, hundreds of management and board member minutes are spent explaining why the building is so warm when a call to an HVAC profession could diagnose the alarm, recommend a repair, and save a chiller worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to say nothing about owner comfort. The winds of complaints are like sand in many eyes.

THIS IS THE FIRST WE HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT!

Owner A reports that the freight elevator stopped suddenly, the call buttons went out, the open-door button didn’t work and no one answered when he pushed the emergency call button. The elevator maintenance company tries everything possible to duplicate the situation and finds nothing. Owner B and C report something similar and the management team responds in surprise: “This is the first we have heard about it!” times two. Nothing is discovered and nothing repaired, but what is the harm? Maybe we should think about an elevator consultant? Then talkative owner D is stuck in the elevator and calls 911 on his cellphone instead of pushing the emergency communication button. Owner D is extracted by the fire department. He tells his story to anyone who will listen. The non-contract damage to the

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