Depending on where you live, the winter months can cause some serious disorder in your neighborhood. The harsh weather makes a mess of community landscapes, properties, and amenities. If HOAs aren’t proactively cleaning up and preparing for summer, once the community is ready to enjoy the outdoors and expects their neighborhood to be clean and fully functioning, the board might be met with complaints from unhappy residents.
For example, there’s the community pool that hasn’t been touched in months, maybe a playground that was buried in snow and now has a broken slide, a busted pipe in the irrigation system that throws money down the drain, and so on.
As an HOA board member, the responsibility to clean up the neighborhood and keep things in order falls on you. That’s why we created a checklist of HOA spring cleaning reminders to help you get to the hidden messes in time for summer.
Table of Contents
Whether your community is an apartment complex or a single-family neighborhood, chances are that you have at least one amenity that your community owns and pays for. As an HOA, you’re the one tasked with the maintenance of those amenities. Oftentimes, over the winter months, those outdoor features go untouched. However, you want to ensure that they’re ready to be used by summertime.
Have a community pool? Odds are, it’s been sitting unused throughout the winter. Depending on where you live, it could be exposed to storms, inclement weather, and other damaging elements. For the safety of residents and the longevity of the pool, there are several tasks that should be performed before using it.
Here’s a few items to cross off your list before reopening:
Of course, check your state’s regulations for pool safety and follow their guidelines, which may include more than what is on this list.
If the HOA is responsible for a playground, you want to make sure it’s safe for kids to use.
Some items that might be on the to-do list are:
Bringing someone out to inspect it and ensure it meets safety regulations is vital for not only keeping the kids from harm, but also protecting the community from a lawsuit.
If your community has a garden, then springtime also offers the perfect opportunity to clean it up and start planting.
Some common tasks include:
Does your community have an outdoor tennis court? Depending on where you live, you might have closed the court down due to snow.
Either way, there are a few steps you can take to prep it for summer:
Especially if you live in an area where snow is common, landscapes can easily get out of hand during the winter months.
Here is a checklist of tasks to renew and clean up your community’s landscape for summer:
While HOAs are responsible for many areas and amenities that fall under community ownership, the residents’ individual properties are their responsibility.
So, depending on where you live and your policies, you can either add these to your to-do list or send off notices to residents.
If you have walking paths in your community, it’s a good idea to walk them and check if there are any damaged spots that need repairing.
It may also be time for a good power washing! Clean off the tennis courts, sidewalks, pool deck, and roads, which may all need a refresh after winter.
If you live in a community where graffiti is common, be sure to check if you have existing procedures and state regulations before removing it. However, once the weather warms up and more people are active outside, it may be a good time to take a walk around the community and document any graffiti before either calling it in or removing it.
Other cleanup tasks might include picking up trash, cleaning the mailboxes, etc.
Hosting outdoor events, such as a community yard sale, not only helps residents with their own spring cleaning but also brings the community together. HOAs can gather volunteers to assist with the event, further strengthening ties in the community.
Plus, instead of hosting individual yard sales on different days, a community yard sale limits the traffic to one day or weekend, which cuts down on the mess made and the time it will take to clean it.
HOA boards carry a lot of responsibility within their communities. The amenities are all paid for by the residents, but it’s the HOA’s job to keep things clean and upkeep the community’s resources.
This spring, ensure your community stays clean and safe by checking amenities, irrigation systems, walking paths, and roads to make sure your community is ready for summer activity.
Fortunately, HOA boards don’t have to do this alone. There are many resources available to help. HOAs can hire companies to assist them with the annual and day-to-day operations.
If your board could use some help, Evernest offers association management services to handle maintenance, budget processing, inspections, and more.
Start the conversation!