Airspace & Ratified Repairs
1. What does it mean when the board of directors “ratifies” completed repair work on common elements? An emergency work order was needed. The maintenance issued was obviously pinpointed along with the cost of repair and the repair area was appropriately cordoned off for over a week. The PM was unable to determine how long it was going to take to get the board together, meet quorum, and then notice the meeting. So, the President alone directed the PM to go forward with the repairs, hence the need to ratify. I’ve just never heard this before and this is how the issue was explained to homeowners.
2. How should a board handle an ensuing true emergency when other board members cannot be reached for their vote? Maybe a board member is in Tahiti or traveling…is less than a qorum prevented from handling emergencies until enough board members can be reached for their input?
3. Our horizontal property regime plan and CCR’s define a “unit” as an individual air space unit occupying one or both of the Building floors (two-story for us) bounded by the interior surfaces of the permiter walls, floor, ceiling, windows and doors. “Surface” is interesting – can you explain?
(a) Does this mean the subfloor, foundation and service lines (water, sewer) under the Building are owned by association or the unit owner? What about the drywall and studs?
(b) Should the unit owner maintenance responsibilities outlined in CCR’s be interpreted based on the definition of “unit” and taken into context of how a “unit” is defined?
Thanks for any feedback!
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Pamela,
As a condominium, the unit owners own everything in the complex, and the association owns nothing. You own your individual unit from the paint and subfloor in, and everything else is common property owned by all owners together collectively. The association is responsible for maintaining the common property, and the homeowners maintain the individual units. Some declarations expand the definition of a unit to specific features like patios and air conditioning units. Still, whatever the declaration defines as a unit’s responsibility, everything else is common property subject to maintenance by the association as a common expense to all homeowners. If the declaration establishes the unit as paint in, then the drywall is common property
Many associations recognize the need for emergency repair and, by vote of the entire board, authorize an individual to have approval authority to expend a fixed dollar value for emergency repairs. Your board did not have the foresight to do this in advance, so it is ratifying the decision of the individual board member after the fact.
I will note that the law recognizes the need for emergency services and allows the board to get the necessary quorum by phone call, email or any other means outside of an open meeting.
Dennis