elevator door costs thousands and the management team learns too late that the emergency communication system operates only at electronic whim. Management finally calls an elevator consultant. In addition to these expenses, your community does not trust management’s explanations or the elevator or the board. It’s a sand storm!

MY COUSIN CAN FIX IT FOR $50 CASH!

The former board president’s cousin is a handyman who can fix anything for $50 from petty cash. Who knew that installing a closet organizer with three inch screws would penetrate the corridor on the third floor! He can fix those persistent pipe leaks in the garage for next to nothing! First, petty cash cannot be used for labor, so this is wrong and the association is unlikely to need a closet organizer, but is the handyman a plumber? Does he have insurance? Licensed? Certified? Competitive bidding among qualified professionals is an obvious solution, but it takes money away from the new roof deck furniture the current board has promised. The management team must take the difficult road and argue for professionals and common sense from the board. Now that is a long path on very hot sand, but worth it.

Conversations about deferred or short-sighted maintenance often focus on wasted time and money, which is proper. But associations face other perils: bad reputation, fractured community, frustrated maintenance staff and wary professional management companies. A simple drive past a building with burnt out exterior lights, mismatched windows, and uniformed staff smoking under the entrance canopy adjacent to a rusty fence might as well be a bill board: this is a bad place treading water until a whopping special assessment. Wary, suspicious owners mean long, nasty board meetings, a revolving maintenance staff, and professional management companies on an endless merry-go- round. Annual elections don’t garnish enough candidates for the open seats and who could blame them? This sandcastle has survived a small wave, but the big one is on the horizon. With a brave forward thinking management team, courageous directors, and professional advice, this sandcastle just might be restored on a stable foundation.

22 | COMMON INTEREST®

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