HOA Boards: Ensure Your Community is Sparkling Clean This Spring

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 tenants.

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.

Community Amenities

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.

Reopening the Pool

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 tenants 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:

• Power wash the pool deck to remove any dirt that piled on through wind and storms.
• Have the pool cleaned and inspected to ensure it’s safe for tenants to use.
• Have the pool’s motors and electrical system inspected.
• If the pool furniture has been stored away, unpack it.
• If there are bathrooms, have them cleaned and replenish the soap, toilet paper, etc.
• Ensure the safety rules are listed clearly on a sign that tenants can read.
• Decide if it’s necessary to hire a lifeguard.

Of course, check your state’s regulations for pool safety and follow their guidelines, which may include more than what is on this list.

Check the Playground

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:

• Replacing any ground material that’s worn out.
• Checking the condition of the structure(s).
• Replacing any broken or damaged structural pieces.
• Hiring pest control to remove any insect nests.

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.

Community Garden

If your community has a garden, then springtime also offers the perfect opportunity to clean it up and start planting.

Some common tasks include:

• Fertilizing existing plants in the garden.
• Removing any weeds that have grown up in the soil.
• Turning the soil and testing the pH.
• If the garden has its own irrigation system, having it inspected.

Tennis Courts

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:

• If you took the netting down over winter, put it back up.
• Check the condition of the netting to see if it needs replacing.
• Power wash the court to remove any dirt and debris.

Landscape

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:

• Remove debris from the streets and gutters.
• Have the irrigation inspected to check for any damage and ensure it’s working properly.
• Have any weeds that have grown in gravel areas, between sidewalks, etc. removed.
• If you have a lawn area, reseed the grass and fertilize the ground.
• Hire a professional to trim any trees that are overgrown.

To-Do List for Homeowners

While HOAs are responsible for many areas and amenities that fall under community ownership, the tenants’ 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 tenants.

• If it’s time to update the paint, be sure to send out the approved colors and requirements to homeowners. Depending on whether the responsibility falls on the HOA to hire painters or on individual tenants to complete it, send out an expected time frame for when it will be painted or when tenants need to paint by.
• If the landscaping responsibility for front lawns falls on the tenants, then HOAs can send a reminder to remove weeds or have any overgrown trees trimmed, and reminders regarding what is and isn’t approved to have out front.

Clean up Around the Community

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.

Community Yard Sale

Hosting outdoor events, such as a community yard sale, not only helps tenants 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.

Final Thoughts

HOA boards carry a lot of responsibility within their communities. The amenities are all paid for by the tenants, 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.