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Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

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Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#61

Post by giantg2 »

JohnWhigham wrote: post #50
giantg2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nobody wants to pay for what is a collective problem." Yet they choose to live in a collective structure. It's essentially another level of government entered into via contract. Maybe they should choose to live in an independent residence if they didn't want that.

It's a nasty sentiment that's inculcated into virtually all Americans since birth; any problem beyond our property line we don't give a fuck about. Hilariously ironic of course for people that choose to buy property in a building owned by someone else.

Not really. Maybe it's more pronounced in specific areas of the US. I know plenty of people who care about their local communities and neighbors.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#62

Post by salicideblock »

015UUZn8aEvW wrote: post #29

It’s not clear that condo units have higher long-term capex costs than single-family homes; arguably economies of scale make their capex lower as a percentage of home value. So the problem isn’t a problem of cost per se, it’s a collective action problem. The issue is that the buyers of condo units don’t really pay much attention to the condo association’s reserve balance. A current owner who contributes $1 to the res…

That problem is completely avoided in Belgian law, via the following rule:

When you sell your fraction, you get the corresponding share of the reserves. When you buy a fraction, you must contribute the corresponding share of the reserves.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#63

Post by toomuchtodo »

klodolph wrote: post #18
toomuchtodo wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an easy fix. Condo finances should be public record, and when repairs are needed, the local code/planning/inspector office reviews with the condo board, approves if necessary, and then puts encumbrances on the units in the complex. Those who can afford the cost pay right away, those who can’t have essentially borrowed against their equity to finance their share of the repairs, with the loans paid back with i…

Could you elaborate on how this is different from the current system? With the current system, the condo board decides that repairs are needed, assesses fees, and makes the repairs. The fees are either paid immediately by the condo owners, or the HOA puts a lien on the condo. Local laws require larger buildings to be inspected on some scehdule... in New York I think there's a type of inspection (FSPM: fire safety and…

If the condo board doesn’t have the will or the unit owner votes to approve the work, it won’t be done.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#64

Post by ashtonkem »

Condo issues aside, another takeaway is that reinforced concrete is a bad material as it’s currently used. You’re lucky to get 50 years out of it with perfect maintenance, and places like Florida are even worse because any water ingress is guaranteed to be salt water.

A much more reasonable approach would be to ban iron or steel reinforced concrete in new Florida construction, but I doubt that the government would be willing to do that.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#65

Post by 35fbe7d3d5b9 »

somethoughts wrote: post #11
spoonjim wrote: post #9

It's not just condo boards, it's everything in America... physical infrastructure, corporate R&D, software security bugs. It's more attention grabbing and personally profitable to do something new than maintain something old, so people kick the can down the road and cash in, making the problem someone else's (and a bigger problem). Even worse, America's soft power / cultural influence is infecting other countries wit…

I agree here. And its not just America but really just any government in any country. I've come to think of governments/countries as just a very, very extensive, giant home owners association that happens to float its own currency, fund its own schools, etc. The HOA fees are basically taxes and often times fees are accessed by the size of your unit. Thinking from an HOA perspective - you then become comfortable with…

> I've come to think of governments/countries as just a very, very extensive, giant home owners association that happens to float its own currency, fund its own schools, etc.

I'm always nervous about this type of reductive thinking. It tends to go wrong for the same reasons that "the government's checkbook should be managed like a household budget!" goes wrong.

Your HOA doesn't control the financial systems of every other HOA in the world and can't freeze the assets of HOAistan because their premier is causing problems. Your HOA doesn't spend nearly half of its funds on a military that has first nuclear strike capability against the D.P.R.H(OA). Etc.

Probably the biggest gap in this thinking: if you don't like your HOA, you can sell your house. In this market there's no lack of buyers and you have tons of options – other HOAs, unencumbered properties, etc. This sucks, sure, but compare it to emigrating to a country that you'd like to live in. It's miles apart.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#66

Post by lotsofpulp »

mooreds wrote: post #58
breck wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We recently bought a condo after renting in the building for three years. The board, management and staff of our building are phenomenal—an inside bit of information we knew from having lived here. We looked at a large number of buildings in the area, and was surprised that maybe 1% of the information you need to assess board/management competence is available online. Generally we'd have to do our own DD talking to p…

All I want is for someone to build a HOA portal that isn't horrible. The two I've had experience with were old old school, slow, and super painful.

Is there a need for a portal? A website with the condo’s documents/minutes/spreadsheets/videos seems like it suffices.

A forum can also be setup if necessary.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#67

Post by breck »

h2odragon wrote: post #33
breck wrote: post #26

This has been such a tragic story to follow. Especially as they pull children out of there. I'm not a civil engineer, but have been on those subreddits and blogs reading about the investigation. Curious if anyone knows: is there an equivalent of a "blackbox" data recorder for tall buildings like this? If not, should there be? Would there have been signals given off from the columns that may have forewarned of disaste…

The columns gave off signals; there's pictures from the reports of the concrete cracking and rusting rebar. There wasn't any need for fancier sensors and data recording technology than was used.

> There wasn't any need for fancier sensors and data recording technology than was used.

Obviously there was. A common refrain in all the civil engineering discussions I'm reading is that this inspection report was in bottom 10%, perhaps bottom 1%, but not 0.00001% off the charts atypical.

It's quite apparent that we need more dimensions of data—if for nothing else than to make it crystal clear when a situation is approaching disaster. We also still do not know what actually happened (and may never know), so for post-mortems this sort of thing seems important.

What simple steps can be done to reduce the probability of this happening again by 1,000x+?

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#68

Post by lotsofpulp »

giantg2 wrote: post #61
JohnWhigham wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a nasty sentiment that's inculcated into virtually all Americans since birth; any problem beyond our property line we don't give a fuck about. Hilariously ironic of course for people that choose to buy property in a building owned by someone else.

Not really. Maybe it's more pronounced in specific areas of the US. I know plenty of people who care about their local communities and neighbors.

Everything is fine and dandy when everyone is experiencing growth. But there is a point where when sacrifices need to be made, things start getting tribal real fast.

I think there is an underlying trend of that due to certain populations’ socioeconomic status slipping, and I think with the slowdown in population growth, we will be seeing more if it as society decides how to allocate fewer resources.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#69

Post by toomuchtodo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #66
mooreds wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All I want is for someone to build a HOA portal that isn't horrible. The two I've had experience with were old old school, slow, and super painful.

Is there a need for a portal? A website with the condo’s documents/minutes/spreadsheets/videos seems like it suffices. A forum can also be setup if necessary.

That’s the portal, usually has login/auth for unit owners, and backend admin functions for the condo board or their management company.

Re: Condo boards everywhere are unprepared for serious repairs

#70

Post by lotsofpulp »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #69
lotsofpulp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a need for a portal? A website with the condo’s documents/minutes/spreadsheets/videos seems like it suffices. A forum can also be setup if necessary.

That’s the portal, usually has login/auth for unit owners, and backend admin functions for the condo board or their management company.

I do not see a need for login. What could be confidential?
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