Top 5 Questions Every Homeowner Should Ask of Their Board
Buying property in a homeowners’ association (HOA) is exciting—you’re officially a member and can access all the benefits. However, homeowners also have responsibilities to support the association and hold community leaders accountable.
A community’s board of directors has a fiduciary duty to represent your best interests and keep the community in optimal shape. To do your part and ensure the HOA is in good hands, read on for the top five questions for board members.
Understanding Fiduciary Duties
While HOA board members are volunteer homeowners, they still have a legal responsibility to act in good faith on behalf of the community. This is referred to as a fiduciary duty, which exists between those in a position of power and the people affected by their decisions.
During the HOA board decision-making process, board members are expected to practice these five fiduciary duties:
- Duty of Utmost Care: Fulfilling the tasks required of their HOA board roles with due diligence.
- Duty of Integrity: Following the rules and acting with honesty, professionalism, and fidelity.
- Duty of Full Disclosure: Being transparent about their decisions and any influencing factors.
- Duty of Loyalty: Prioritizing the community’s needs and avoiding personal agendas or conflicts of interest.
- Duty of Good Faith: Making decisions that benefit HOA residents above all else.
5 Questions to Ask Your HOA Board
As a homeowner, you have every right to learn more about HOA board responsibilities and how the board fulfills its duties to the community. Here are some questions to ask HOA board members for better insight.
1. How do you prioritize communication?
Communication between the board and residents is vital to any thriving community. To act on its duty of utmost care, the board should consistently share news and updates with homeowners while welcoming feedback and suggestions. This promotes neighborhood unity and familiarity between the board and residents.
Ask how often your HOA board communicates with association members, what channels they use to reach them, and what rules apply. HOA boards that use more forms of communication give homeowners ample opportunities to connect and receive information, helping everyone stay on the same page. Examples include:
- Association website
- Community newsletter
- In-person and virtual meetings
- Social media platforms
- Community bulletin boards
Learn More: “8 Proven Communication Tools for Board Members”
2. How does the board foster transparency?
Transparency is an essential quality of successful HOA boards. It shows that board members are open and honest about their decisions, are practicing their duty of full disclosure, and want residents to have easy access to all the information they’re entitled to. In other words, the board has nothing to hide, which is always the best practice.
When you ask your board how they encourage transparency in your community, you want to hear that the governing documents, financial records, and other important association details are readily available to residents. It’s also a good sign when the board holds open meetings to help members stay up-to-date with what’s happening and how it can affect them.
3. How are the community’s finances managed?
As an HOA member, you pay dues to fund association operations and common area maintenance. The HOA board controls the community’s finances and is responsible for creating and sticking to the budget. If the board doesn’t properly manage association funds, it could result in:
- Overdue bills or expenses
- Insufficient funds in your reserves
- Tax-related errors
- Inaccurate balance sheets
- Delinquent assessments
One of the most important questions to ask board members is how they ensure the community’s finances are managed correctly. You want to know they’re practicing their duty of good faith and are tracking records effectively, regularly reviewing vendor contracts, collecting dues and late fees, and partnering with a qualified accounting professional.
Related: “The Beginner’s Guide to HOA Budgets”
4. Are you enforcing rules fairly?
To fulfill its duty of loyalty, it’s the board’s job to enforce community rules and address HOA violations equitably. When the board fails to apply rules fairly, it may be interpreted as favoritism or discrimination, leading to homeowner conflicts and frustration.
Asking your board about fair rule enforcement can reveal a lot about their approach and follow-through process. An effective board will promote reasonable regulations, document violations, have a conflict resolution policy, and remain objective when enforcing rules.
5. How do you uphold the board’s legal and ethical standards?
As leaders of a nonprofit organization, an HOA board of directors is held to high legal and ethical standards—a duty of integrity. How board members uphold these ethics and codes of conduct will significantly impact how the association is run.
HOA board members who conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism carry out their responsibilities without influence from outside sources. They prioritize their duties to the community by following rules and procedures and avoiding decisions that result in personal gain.
In addition to setting a code of ethics and managing conflicts of interest, it also helps if board members attend training or educational courses on leadership and ethical behavior.
HOA Rules Guidebook: Everything Residents Need to Know
While you may have many other questions for board members of your community, holding the board accountable shows good stewardship to the community. Plus, it gives you further insight into HOA rules and the role homeowners play within the association.
Intended to protect homeowners’ investments and provide a common framework for neighborhood harmony, rules are essential to a thriving community. Check out our ebook “HOA Rules Guidebook: Everything Residents Need to Know” to learn everything you need to know about HOA rules.