What is an HOA?

A homeowners association is a non-profit corporation made up of everyone who owns a unit in the community. It is not a landlord, not a management company, and not a government. It is the owners, acting together, through a board they elect from among themselves.

You did not choose to join it. Membership comes with the deed: when you bought your unit you also bought an undivided interest in everything the association owns, and accepted the obligations recorded against the property. That is why the governing documents bind you whether or not you have read them.

Three kinds of space

Almost every question about who fixes what, who pays for what, and who may change what comes back to which of these three categories a thing falls into.

• Your unit — the space you own outright. Usually defined in the declaration by its boundaries: the unfinished surfaces of the perimeter walls, floor and ceiling. Everything inside those boundaries is generally yours.
• Limited common elements — parts of the common property reserved for the exclusive use of one unit or a few. A balcony, an assigned parking stall, a patio, the windows serving your unit. Owned by everyone, used by you.
• Common elements — everything else. The roof, the structure, the grounds, the hallways, the elevators, the shared systems, the land itself.

Why the distinction matters

The declaration assigns maintenance, repair, replacement and insurance responsibilities differently for each category, and it does not always assign them the same way for one category. It is common for an association to maintain a limited common element but charge the cost to the unit it serves. Read the declaration before assuming.

• Maintains, repairs and replaces the common elements
• Insures the common property, and often the structure of the units
• Sets and collects assessments to pay for all of it
• Adopts and enforces rules about use, appearance and conduct
• Keeps the association’s records, budget and financial statements
• Contracts with vendors, and usually with a professional manager

It is not the managing agent

AGM Real Estate Group is the association’s agent under a written management agreement. AGM carries out the board’s decisions, administers the day-to-day, and advises. It does not govern. Every decision reserved to the board by the governing documents stays with the board.

It is not a service you can opt out of

Assessments are not a subscription. They are a lien-secured obligation running with the property, and an owner cannot decline them by declining to use an amenity, by disagreeing with a board decision, or by withholding payment in protest. Withholding is the one response that reliably makes an owner’s position worse.