What You Can Do to Help Homeowners Follow the HOA Rules

Rules are there for a reason, and especially HOA rules. However, it’s also very true that it can be rather challenging to have homeowners follow the HOA rules without making it sound like you’re being overly controlling and strict. It’s important that the homeowners know these rules are there for their own benefit and not meant to limit their rights in any way. In case you’ve found yourself in this kind of trouble, the following tips may prove to be very useful.

Rules shouldn’t be changed too often

If homeowners in your association have trouble following the rules properly, even though they actually try, the main reason for this may be the frequent change of the rules themselves. Of course, sometimes, changes will be necessary. But it’s important that you introduce the homeowners to these changes slowly and gradually. Now, if the rules change too often, it’s no wonder that people will find it hard to keep track of them all.

Simplicity is the way to go

If you want to help homeowners follow the HOA rules properly, you should try to make the rules as simple as possible. This means that your responsibility is to take the existing rules and formulate them in a way that everyone can easily understand. Go through the rules to see whether there are some that are really difficult to grasp with an unnecessarily complex explanation and simplify them.

Be consistent with enforcing the rules

Enforcing the rules doesn’t have to be unpleasant, but you have to keep in mind that the change should always start with the board. So, if the board didn’t pay much attention to HOA rules before, you have to be consistent in rules enforcement now so that the homeowners can get used to this idea. Remember, consistency is the key but in this case, you also have to be patient.

Communication and transparency

You can’t expect homeowners to follow the rules of HOA if they’re not sure why they should or what the rules are.  This is why open communication is absolutely necessary. Send out newsletters and emails and stay active on social media. Moreover, keep the rules updated on your website. Finally, homeowners should know that they can come to you for whatever they need clarification with.

Treat everyone equally

If people notice that you’re being partial, they will be more likely to ignore the HOA rules as well. Actually, this can break your community apart, which is precisely why you should always enforce the HOA rules impartially and completely fairly. When rules are concerned, everyone has to be equal.

Fix an unreasonable rule

In case you notice that people mostly have issues with one (or maybe two) specific rule, it may be because of the rule itself. To help the homeowners follow the HOA rules, you should make sure that the rules indeed are reasonable. So, if you too find a certain rule completely unmanageable, you may want to see how to change it in a way that will serve everyone in your community properly.

In case you’re having trouble dealing with HOA rules and their enforcement, and want to do what’s best for your community, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Boom Properties.