Press Releases

For your eyes only

By Mark Levit

Many times in our profession we use esoteric words and phrases that only those in our profession know the meaning or intent of. No matter what the profession, each uses its own language.

Recently, a co-worker and I were discussing one of our seminars entitled, “Deferred Building Maintenance.”

I realized that people not associated with the industry or association management field may not know what the term “deferred maintenance” implies. Sure, we have heard of the terms water intrusion, mold and dry rot, to name a few. Media coverage and retail hardware stores have done a great job in selling and describing these words. But as a consultant, we lack media blitz, the show, the support of a celebrity to educate the public with the term “deferred maintenance.”

Deferred maintenance is a part of the whole picture. From a building standpoint, maintenance or repairs that are needed but have not been attended to are termed “deferred maintenance.”

If you own an automobile and never maintained the oil, the simple oil change cost of 40 dollars could escalate to a cost of 3,000 dollars to replace the engine. Deferred maintenance costs!

Let’s use the example of a garden sprinkler over-watering and spraying a wood trim piece on the building. Correcting the sprinkler head may cost 50 cents. Not correcting the sprinkler head, and allowing the water to spray the wood, over a period of time could cost 300 to 400 dollars, as you’d have to remove the trim piece, patch the building surface, replace the wood piece, and then prime and paint the wood and surrounding surface areas.

A simple procedure can be done to avoid deferred maintenance and reduce maintenance costs: hire a building consultant to perform yearly inspections on the property.

A qualified building consultant will inspect, analyze, prioritize and identify those areas
that impact the condition of the building. A good report will assist the association and management company in issuance of work orders to contractors to repair safety items, correct deficiencies, repair damaged items and prevent damage to future items.

A good inspection report may result in lower insurance rates. Today, most insurance companies inspect the property prior to binding the association. Insurance companies identify safety items and deferred maintenance items and then require the association to correct those identified items prior to insuring the property. In some cases, insurance companies may not insure the property. A yearly inspection report and correction of identified items may result in the insurance company reevaluating the risk and lowering the policy rate.

Inspection reports may also assist the association in preparation of the Reserve Study Report. Identifying the items in need of repair and correcting them would reduce the amount of monies set aside for the reserve funds.

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Mark Levit is with Stonemark Consulting Inc., serving all of California.