Keeping Track Of HOA Violations
As a property manager or a board member of an HOA, you’re in charge of a variety of responsibilities to keep your community running smoothly. One responsibility is tracking and enforcing HOA violations and consequences of broken policies, such as an overgrown lawn or prohibited political signage. Depending on the size of your community and the kinds of rules your HOA has implemented, it can be difficult to keep accurate records of offenses and paid fines. Luckily, there are some strategies to improve your violation tracking. Below, we’ll look at some of the best tips that will benefit both your HOA and your neighborhood.
The Best Ways to Track HOA Violations
Every HOA board is different in the specific rules used to govern its community, but tracking violations accurately and efficiently is crucial no matter the circumstances. There are many different answers to the question of how to handle HOA violations, but we’ve compiled some of the best tips for approaching violation tracking for your residents.
Utilize Technology
The best place to begin with violation tracking is HOA property management software. If your HOA has been operating through physical records of violations and fine information, your records may not be as organized or easily accessible when needed, making the responsibility of detailing violations, sending out warning messages, and collecting fines much more tedious. This is where HOA management software can help.
Some property management software is built specifically for HOAs, while others also offer tools for general property managers, such as handling maintenance requests and collecting rent. Innago offers HOA property management tools so you can collect dues or fines via online payments, connect with HOA members through direct messages and community announcements, organize HOA finances, or manage maintenance requests.
By utilizing HOA software and other technology, HOA managers can keep your community running efficiently and store records of dues, violations, and any other pertinent information.
Ensure Legality in Your Rules, Violations, and Fines
The last thing you want as an HOA or property manager is to find yourself in legal trouble over a violation gone wrong. For this reason, it’s crucial that your bylaws get checked by a lawyer to ensure that your policies, HOA violations, and fines are legal, even if you feel that you have a clear understanding of HOA regulations.
Homeowners associations operate under state-by-state regulations, meaning that requirements of HOAs when administering fines or liens can vary around the country. For example, states like Colorado and Arizona require HOAs to allow residents notice and a certain amount of time to fix concerns or pay fines, and states like Ohio and Maryland allow foreclosures on unpaid liens. Every state operates differently, so it’s best to do research and consult a lawyer before implementing any HOA rule for your community.
Set Up a Violation Tracking Process
If you’ve put together a property management software account and have compiled a list of legal, fair HOA rules, it’s now time to generate a formal process for tracking violations that can be followed easily and equally from resident to resident. This means creating a violation notice template and automating violation warnings, fine notices, or notices of liens and legal action. You should also set expectations for how many warnings residents should receive for infractions and how much time residents will have to remedy an issue or pay fines for an air-tight, easy-to-follow process.
If you use property management software, it’s likely that there will be settings available for automatic warnings and notices to be sent, as well as tools for tracking violations by resident or type of violation. Using these allows you to decide how your HOA will handle tracking and enforcing violations and what steps should be taken when issues arise. Better organization can only help to build a better organization for your neighborhood.
Track Violations in Detail and Enforce Penalties Fairly
Fairness and detail in violation tracking go hand in hand with setting up the tracking process, and they’re just as important. Tracking violations accurately and enforcing the associated penalties equally across residents of your neighborhood will help you keep better records of violation trends and will allow your HOA to lead your community impartially.
By keeping a detailed list of common HOA violations from resident to resident, you can make decisions based on your HOA’s policies on what steps to take for repeat offenders. If a resident has repeatedly parked on the wrong side of the street and you’ve kept good records of the violations and their warnings, you can take further action with confidence that you’re following procedure.
Emphasizing fairness in violations is key to building a good rapport with your community. If you send a warning to a resident for leaving their lawn mower in their driveway for a week, but don’t send one to their neighbor who’s been storing stone for a landscaping project on their driveway for the same amount of time, you’ll breed resentment from residents with their neighbors — and with you. This could lead to a battle that drains your time and resources, so it’s best to be fair to all your residents and follow the established violation tracking process.
Lower the Violation Rate in Your Community
One of the easiest ways to track violations is simply by starting at the source and avoiding them altogether. The best way to lower the violation rate in your neighborhood is by making your HOA bylaws clear and accessible for everyone in the community. With property management software and open lines of communication, you can educate your residents on specific rules that are being broken often or new ones being put into effect.
You can also lower the rate by tracking individual violations for specific residents. If a resident has a repeated violation, they may not be aware of the rule being broken and a simple conversation can clear up any further rule violations. On the other hand, if certain policies are being broken on a neighborhood-wide scale, you may be able to remind residents via an announcement of the policy or even talk with other board members to change the rules in the residents’ favor.
Allowing your residents to ask questions, learn more about your HOA’s expectations, and fix unintentional issues is a great way to lower the rate of violations in your community. Lower violation rates equal fewer violations to track and store records of, and who doesn’t want that?
Conclusion
With this knowledge, you’ll be better equipped to track and handle HOA violations in your neighborhood. Transparency, open communication, and a clear, fair process set up with the best HOA management software for you are the building blocks for helping your community run smoothly and even-handedly.
