I know, I know… nobody – and I mean – nobody, wants to hear, read, speak or even think about the COVID-19 pandemic now. I get it, we’ve had enough. As a community association attorney and litigator, I’ve certainly dealt with my share of issues related to COVID-19 – virtually anything and everything that could have happened in the communities that my firm represents did happen from March of 2020 until about now. This sadly includes the loss of multiple people in associations that our firm represents.
But what if I were to tell you that community associations actually learned some good things as a direct result of the pandemic? It’s not as crazy as it sounds – let me explain by way of a good old-fashioned Letterman-esque “top-ten” list (of course sans Paul Schaffer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band’s/the CBS Orchestra’s musical interludes). Queue the drum roll please:
Number 10: Community associations can survive a pandemic.
In fact, community associations did survive the pandemic. This is due to the resilience and determination of community association Board Members, Community Managers, vendors, contractors, advisers and community residents. We are in a much different place now than where we were last year at this time, and while much of this is due to the reduction of COVID-19 infection rates, the unwavering efforts of community association leaders must also be acknowledged. Difficult decisions had to be made in every community at the outset of the pandemic and throughout its pendency – whether it was how to handle the economic impact of resident unemployment and the potential non-payment of association assessments/dues, the closure of community facilities such as pools, gyms and recreation areas, the issue of if, when and how to have the required Board and/or Committee meetings and/or association owners’ meetings, whether or not to allow guests onto the property, or looking out for the physical, mental and emotional well-being of residents who were home and literally “in” the community probably more than they ever have been since purchasing their units. Community associations around the country deserve a round of applause.
Number 9: For the most part, community association residents do the right thing when asked.
After the pandemic started, community association leaders were put in a position to act quickly and ask residents to do things they never had to do before, including wearing masks around the community, maintain a “social distance” from one another, not use facilities and amenities that had to be shut down and participate in meetings virtually rather than in-person. Using the communities that my firm represents as a statistical sample, I believe that the vast majority of community association residents were not only cooperative (with rare exception(s), of course), but many of the residents went above and beyond in many different ways. Community association residents will do the right thing when asked, which is a wonderful thing.
Number 8: Even when faced with an emergency situation like a pandemic, most community association residents still pay their assessments/dues on time, or make arrangements to pay.
We learned that despite the impact of the pandemic, the overall delinquency rate in most community associations did not increase substantially. Of course, community association leaders had no way to predict if this, or the opposite, would end up being the outcome.
What we did know is that, not too long after the pandemic started, some community association residents were laid off or even let go from their jobs, and unemployment compensation payments were not immediately sent to these residents. The worst-case scenario would have been that a majority of residents could not pay their community association assessments/dues, which would lead to the community association not being able to pay its staff and/or its vendors for all of the required services that are provided to the residents. Fortunately, this did not happen. In the communities that my firm represents, we actually saw residents reaching out to the Board to make arrangements to pay their assessments, and Boards worked with residents as needed – often times allowing residents to enter into payment plans and not charging late fees and/or interest on any delinquency that started after March or April of 2020.
It therefore appears that while the pandemic had a massive financial impact on the global economy, the overall financial impact of COVID-19 on community associations was not as drastic, at least to date. Let’s hope it stays that way, especially as we move from the dark into the light.
Number 7: Community association leaders were diligent in their efforts to protect residents.
During the pandemic, community association leaders increased their due diligence efforts to a level commensurate with the problem at hand. Rather than ignoring issues or letting the chips fall where they may, Board members and Community Managers engaged in unparalleled levels of communication with all of their trusted vendors and advisers, myself included. The daily Zoom meetings, conference calls and chains of emails resulted in proper due diligence by community leaders on issues related to the pandemic and served to protect the health and safety of residents. We learned that community association leaders decided to tackle, rather than retreat from, the pandemic in order to protect their residents.
Number 6: Common Interest Community statutes need to be updated to allow for electronic voting, the use of electronic proxies and to allow for electronic Board and owners meetings in community associations.
While some state legislatures have already updated their statutes to allow for the use of modern technology for community association voting, proxies and meetings, and these issues were in the process of being legislatively discussed in some jurisdictions, there was no plan to update the statutes in many others. However, as a direct result of the pandemic, we learned that community association leaders and residents want to utilize modern technology for these essential issues and functions in community associations. When there was suddenly no other choice available due to the inability to have in-person meetings, community associations turned to technology to continue to operate, albeit on an emergency basis.
Absent the enactment of statutory amendments to allow for the permanent use of modern technology which would generally apply to all community associations, the only choice most community associations whose documents are silent on the issue(s) would have would be to seek to amend the governing documents, by way of unit owner vote, to specifically allow the community association to use modern technology for voting, proxies and meetings. The pandemic taught us that the use of modern technology is good for community associations and statutory updates around the country are the preferred path.
The Community Associations Institute has a federal Legislative Action Committee and various state Legislative Action Committees (including the PA-LAC in my home state of Pennsylvania) that are diligently working on these issues for the benefit of community associations nationwide. Information can be found at: https://www.caionline.org/Advocacy/LAC/Pages/default.aspx.
Number 5: Community association residents learned what really matters.
The pandemic served to “reset” our expectations in virtually every aspect of our lives. Lest we forget, not too long ago, there were toilet paper and paper towel shortages, hand sanitizer was selling for $15 a bottle if it was available, Lysol wipes were harder to find than a unicorn covered in diamonds and grocery stores were rationing items like chicken breast to one pack per customer. All of this led to a decrease in demands, complaints and communications from unit owners about things like the grass being ¼ inch too high in the back of their unit or that the guy across the street owns a car that has a registration that expired a month ago. In other words, when residents focused on what was actually important, they stopped focusing on things that, while they might have merit, didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Number 4: Community association education is important.
During the pandemic, those of us in the industry who focus on community association education, including the Community Associations Institute, worked tirelessly to ensure that community association Boards and Community Managers would continue to have access to quality educational content. The end result was shifting the educational seminars from in-person to virtual events. Community association leaders apparently agreed that quality educational content was needed during the pandemic, as the overall attendance for the virtual seminars vastly exceeded the turnout of prior, similar in-person events.
While the content of the majority of the virtual educational seminars during the pandemic pertained to pandemic-related issues and solutions, it served a valuable purpose. Community association leaders were hungry for information and cogent guidance on important issues and the pandemic was not a reason to stop educating those in our industry. Rather, it was time for us to amp up our efforts because community association education is important.
Number 3: Community association residents like attending electronic meetings more than they like attending in-person meetings.
Let’s not sugarcoat it. The pandemic literally forced us to meet with one another virtually instead of in-person. What community association leaders quickly learned was that these virtual meetings led to a better turnout, whether it was for Board meetings or unit owners meetings, and the virtual meetings were generally more efficient to run and took less time to complete.
Community associations want to continue to utilize electronic meetings, and this makes complete sense. As discussed in Number 6, above, the solution for community associations in many jurisdictions lies in updating statutory language to allow for the use of modern technology. If you live in a community association in a state that currently does not allow for electronic meetings, you should contact your state legislators’ offices and make them aware of the issue.
Number 2: “Community” matters.
The pandemic, by its nature, forcibly changed our notion of what “community” really is, and in thinking about all of this in retrospect, it appears that we took “community” for granted prior to the pandemic. Community association leaders learned that “community” matters, so we must focus on building (or rebuilding) “community” moving forward.
The good news is, it looks like we have a jump start on this because during the pandemic, residents turned their attention to assisting other residents in the community with things they could not handle or do on their own due to the pandemic, which actually served to foster an actual sense of “community”. If we continue to serve our neighbors this way, the “community” will be amazing.
And, the Number 1 GOOD thing that community associations learned from the COVID-19 pandemic: Have empathy towards your fellow human.
During the pandemic, we experienced and witnessed an abundance of personal pain, loss and struggle in our homes, families and communities. Community associations were certainly not immune from this – on a personal level, some of my clients unexpectedly and suddenly lost dedicated Board members to COVID-19, which had substantial impact(s) in these communities. Add the emotional, physical and mental stress of the pandemic to all of this and the end result is that community association residents (our fellow humans) deserve some empathy when we are dealing with them.
When speaking to my community association clients about these issues, I advise that they should govern with empathy and utilize emotional intelligence, in addition to good faith and due diligence, when making decisions. “Don’t leave empathy at the door when making important decisions” is something I said a lot to them over the last couple years. Many community association leaders also began to think this way, and I hope it continues well after the COVID-19 pandemic is nothing but a distant memory.
– Edward Hoffman, Jr., Esq., CCAL
* Content in this Blog post is also contained in an abbreviated/edited article by Edward Hoffman, Jr., Esq., CCAL, published in the March/April 2022 issue of CAI’s Common Ground magazine, entitled “The Bright Side”.