If your community is like most, you rely on a variety of outside contractors or vendors to perform services. For example, landscaping, plumbing, or electrical work are commonly farmed out to vendors who send their own choice of workers. This means that individuals will be in your community whom you don’t know anything about—and who potentially don’t respect the association’s members or rules.

Group “re-lamping”—that is, replacing the bulbs, or “lamps,” in a certain area, such as common areas, according to a set schedule—is more efficient and less expensive than replacing them separately as they burn out. That’s because group re-lamping saves labor costs and improves lighting for members. Most managers replace bulbs as they burn out, but this approach wastes employees’ time.

If your community is like most, you rely on a variety of outside contractors or vendors to perform services. For example, landscaping, plumbing, or electrical work are commonly farmed out to vendors who send their own choice of workers. This means that individuals will be in your community whom you don’t know anything about—and who potentially don’t respect the association’s members or rules.

Paying a contractor up front to do work for your association isn’t a good idea. If it does a shoddy job, your only recourse would be to sue the contractor for not living up to the agreement. But this can be costly. And it’s avoidable—if you protect yourself from subpar workmanship or a failure to finish the job. Having the contract state that the association can make “progress payments” as the contractor moves ahead with the work, and including a “retainage” clause, is a way to encourage a contractor to complete the job to your satisfaction.

Q: Several unit owners in the condominium building I manage are longtime cigarette smokers. I’ve fielded an increasing number of complaints from nonsmoker unit owners, some of whom are claiming the cigarette smoke is affecting their health. The board has been working with our attorney on whether and how to create a smoking ban inside the building. In the meantime, one of the unit owners has moved out and is planning to sue the association because she can’t live in her unit while it’s filled with secondhand smoke.

A homeowners association and its developer are waging a battle with each other over which party is responsible for repairing major damage from a sinkhole in the community. Currently, barriers guard the spot where a creek bank eroded in 2015, a year when North Texas saw extreme storms and flooding.

Now, the community’s developer is denying that it should fix the heavily eroded creek bank—even as it gets larger with continued rainfall.

Facts: An association foreclosed on a lot in its community after the member failed to pay for maintenance fees and other amounts assessed against it. The member sued the association and its management company. She alleged that the association had engaged in fraud for filing an “invalid and inaccurate lien and foreclosure.” She asked the court for $2 million in damages.

A circuit court granted the association’s request for a judgment in its favor without a trial. It also declared the member a “vexatious litigant.” The member appealed.

Facts: After a homeowner stopped paying his association dues, the association filed a notice of lien and election to sell his home. The homeowner didn’t pay the delinquent dues, and the association sold the home at foreclosure, to itself, for a minimal amount. The homeowner sued for wrongful foreclosure, and the district court ultimately ruled in favor of the association without a trial. It also awarded the association attorney’s fees. The homeowner appealed.

Facts: A renter in a condominium building slipped and fell on ice, suffering injuries. She sued the condo unit owner, the association, and the management company for breach of contract under the theory of implied warranty of habitability, and negligence. All three parties asked a district court to dismiss the claims.

Decision: A Pennsylvania district court denied the parties’ request and ordered a trial.

For many members, the upside of community association living is the ability to have some control over their lifestyle by agreeing to comply with rules aimed at creating a pleasant environment. Governing documents and bylaws that set rules and expectations for peaceful living and provide mechanisms to enforce compliance—like fines—go a long way toward keeping things in check.