How Can an Owner Or Resident Contribute?
Living in a condominium comes with its own set of advantages. These include the liberty of cleaning, maintaining and repairing the exterior of the building, amenity spaces and landscaping along with others. You also get to be a part of a community and can socialize with the neighbours.
Benefits of Living in a Condo
While living in a condo, you can make friendships with neighbours that can last a lifetime. You can also make business relationships. People you may have never worked with can also become a great source of referrals because of your interaction with them. They will also be the first ones to help you out in case of emergencies, and may even take care of your home, plants, or pets while you are on vacation or some other trip.
Giving Back to the Community
When a building gives you so much as compared to other housing options, how does one contribute to the building itself?
Becoming A Board Member
For starters, take the initiative of running for the condominium board of directors. These people ensure that the community is operated smoothly, and the residents’ problems are addressed on a timely basis, keeping in mind the myriad rules of the building. The main motive behind people serving on a condo board is to have some influence in the decision making process of running their home.
The duties of board members pertain to giving out contracts for maintenance to worthy contractors. These may be related to up keeping of the grounds, snow cleaning, ensuring that there are sufficient funds available at all times for repairs in the building, etc. They also make rules and policies pertaining to amenity hours and use, security, noise, pets, determination of acceptable behaviour in the building, etc. If and when there is a tiff between different owners, the board acts as a liaison.
In order to become a board member, you need to be objective, possess strong communication skills, patience, team playing skills, etc. You need to be patient when the vote on a particular matter does not go your way since it is part of the job. You also need to commit some of your time for meetings and other duties.
No Time for Board Commitments – What To Do?
In case you do not want to become a board member due to lack of time or any other reason, then be sure to participate in the election of board members actively. Inquire about those people running for the position like their backgrounds and their ideas for running the building. A condo board will work best if there are people from diverse backgrounds in it, e.g. those from law, property management, administration, real estate sales, etc. You should ensure that the right mix of the people make up the board because it will determine your convenience and comfort on a daily basis.
Another way of contributing to the condo is by following all the rules set out by the board. They have been created objectively so that all residents are comfortable in their living and everyone’s needs are addressed.
