Helping Homeowners Follow the Rules in Your HOA
Homeowners’ association rules and regulations help to keep order and ensure smooth and harmonious running of the community. But while these rules are supposed to make the life of your members as easy as possible, this is not always the case. Having homeowners follow the rules can sometimes be daunting. If not properly done, the board risks being seen as overly harsh and controlling, leading to more dissent.
So, how can you help homeowners follow the rules without causing unnecessary friction? Here are a few things that you can do to realize a peaceful and orderly community.
So, how can you help homeowners follow the rules without causing unnecessary friction? Here are a few things that you can do to realize a peaceful and orderly community.
Encourage Homeowners to Share Ideas
It is simple, really; involvement is the secret to compliance! To breed inclusivity, it is important to encourage your members to share their ideas and opinions about the community and how coexistence can be improved. While not all ideas will hold the salt, members will find it easier to follow the rules and regulations that they feel a sense of ownership to. More and more homeowners will be happier with their community HOA when they feel like their views and interests matter.
Remind Homeowners of Their Responsibilities
It’s always helpful to remind all homeowners of what is expected of them. This ensures that your members are always aware that it’s their responsibility to adhere to the rules and regulations. By so doing, you are able to cultivate a sense of good neighborhood within your community, leading to higher compliance.
Enforce the Rules Impartially
It is essential to enforce all rules in the community with fairness and compassion. Do not hold one member to a different standard than another. Since all homeowners pay the same HOA fees and hold similar interests in the community, it is crucial that you treat all homeowners fairly and to the same standard. And ensure that the same rules apply to all members equally. This way, you’ll be less likely to experience dissent, and members will be more aligned to comply with the rules.
Maintain Consistency
There is nothing as confusing than HOA rules that keep changing. Consistency ensures that all homeowners are aware of their responsibilities. It also means that the members understand that you’ll be consistent in your enforcement. Any changes made on the regulations should be promptly communicated to the members and implementation should be gradual.
Simple Rules Are Easy To Follow
If you’ve been having issues with declined compliance, chances could be that homeowners are finding your rules too complex or overly demanding to follow. Having simple, straightforward and easy-to-follow rules will make governing the association a little bit easier.
Be Reasonable
An HOA board that is deemed reasonable is more likely to get compliance from the homeowners. For instance, if you’ve been experiencing extended rains, you don’t want to fine residents for overgrown lawns as this might come off as being harsh and unreasonable, and might breed ill will in the community.
Inspect Regularly
Regular inspections allow you to see if homeowners are abiding by the covenants, rules and regulations. Routine inspections will help you notify homeowners when something needs their attention before the issue escalates further. This creates a sense of compassion and makes it easy to enforce the rules when need be.
Enforce Impartially
If you continually allow rules and regulations to be broken, you will lose your ability to govern the association. If you’re looking to increase the overall compliance in your community, it is crucial that all homeowners face similar consequences for breaking the set regulations.
Bringing It All Together
One of the most important jobs of the HOA boards is to enforce the rules of the association. But equally important is for the boards to look at ways they can help homeowners follow the rules in a manner that breeds inclusivity and good neighborhood.
By being consistent, impartial, reasonable, having simple rules, encouraging community participation and communicating effectively with your members, you can avoid significant infractions and create a collective sense of responsibility within your community. Follow these guidelines, and you’ll have better results and happier and more involved homeowners.
We continue to be Southern California’s preferred termite and pest control service, provider.
