Even for voluntary condo board members, there should be ‘off’ days
Setting boundaries for condo association members and board members
I have mixed feelings about condo board members being those who live on the condominium’s property. On one hand, I’ve observed landlords be dismissive of repairs or upgrades while residents are in full support of a better home environment. As with any residence, if you live on the property, you’re going to see the ins and outs long before anyone else.
But playing devil’s advocate, any condo association member who pays assessment fees for repairs, upgrades, and common area expenses should be able to have a say in what does and doesn’t get done. (This is one of many reasons why I fully support rental restrictions. When a condominium has more landlords/renters than owners, it may as well be an apartment.)
Recommended Read: “The downside of making your condos available for rent ~ Does your condo feel like an apartment with more rules?”
But there’s another advantage that non-residents have as board members. When condo board members live on the property, association members are more likely to show up at their condo units unannounced. Why email or call first? They know where you live. I’m speaking from experience.
One association member popped up at my door three separate times:
He came around 8 a.m. while I was still in my pajamas, along with a strange man he wanted to introduce to me for contract work.
I was standing outside talking to a tow truck driver after recently being involved in a car accident. The owner walked up between myself and the tow truck driver, demanding to talk to me. What about? He wanted to make sure I received his assessment check, even though he could’ve easily confirmed this with his online bank account.
I was getting out of my car, bringing in groceries, when the same owner insisted I stop to talk to him about an issue in the basement. My imagination prepared for a flood or sewage everywhere. Instead he was mad that the lint catcher hadn’t been changed.
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Although he has been the most repetitious with no-call-often-show visits, he isn’t alone. There was the association member (who somehow couldn’t figure out how to vote in the national election for the U.S. president) who banged on my door to complain that our “condo ballot is written unfairly.” (Note: He’d never been to a condo board meeting nor stated he wanted to be on the board after multiple months of all-owner requests, but he still complained that his name wasn’t on the ballot.)
There is nothing in the average set of condo bylaws or Rules and Regulations stating that condo board members must be the equivalent of 7-Eleven.
There was the association member who kept renting cars over and over again, and needed temporary stickers. While she was here, she decided to complain that our mailbox looks “newer” than the one in her lobby. (It’s the exact same mailbox as when I moved in.)
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There was the association member who hired a random, unlicensed guy to do her plumbing and called me repeatedly to request that I go to her unit and “see if he’s there because he won’t answer the phone.” (Note: As long as the plumbing does not affect the common area, condo board members are not required nor even involved in private-unit repairs.)
Sometimes the pop-up visits don’t even have to be association members. One random person who lives across the street was flustered that an association member had snow removed from her parking spot, and the snow truck dumped it in front of his garage. Instead of going to the association member who paid the trucker to do this, he stood outside yelling at my door. (I had no clue she was doing this.)