Promoting Safety Within Your Condo Association

Board members can act to promote keeping the community safe and secure. As your Condo Association Insurance experts, we use our decades of experience to present you with this report. It provides measures you can implement to improve safety awareness and actions in your association.

Showing the community takes safety and security seriously is an excellent policy. It demonstrates a proactive posture toward safeguarding the property of the association and homeowners. Gates, alarms, guards are all primary measures to stop thieves and illegal entry. But there are other methods to protect the community.

Produce and Publish a Safety and Security Policy

Developing and publishing a comprehensive safety and security policy is an essential safety promotional tool. Update your safety and security policy annually. Use it to announce new security systems, review current systems and procedures, and encourage community members to be mindful of them.

Create a Safety Committee

Form a safety committee to determine what security measures to take and how much money you’ll need to devote to maintaining them.  Arrange to have the group walk the association grounds and property, looking for potential security issues. Check for any lights that need replacement, gates or doors that close and lock properly, cut back or remove overgrown shrubbery and vegetation. 

Meet the Police and Get Their Involvement

You want your first contact with law enforcement to be introductory and cordial rather than responding to an incident where police are required. Find out if your local law enforcement has a community liaison assigned to your community. Invite that officer to present security ideas to the board and get to know them. Keep in touch with the officer who is the primary contact for security issues with your community. 

Make Meeting the Neighbors More Than Social

Organize community events that allow neighbors to meet each other. Make it a point to let them know how important it is for homeowners to know their neighbors. It adds to a sense of community and fosters friendly neighborhoods where people look out for each other and heighten their awareness of what’s going on in their community. Encourage homeowners to watch out for one another and report suspicious activity. Promote the motto, “If you see something, say something.”

Use Your Association’s Publication to Promote Safety and Security

It’s never one and done to remind homeowners about simple steps they can take to keep their environment safe and secure. Publish safety tips in your homeowner’s association publication regularly. Include crime statistics in your community’s Zip Code. Ensure residents understand that lax measures such as letting people through gates, giving gate and door codes to unknown people, and allowing strangers to pass through security measures weaken your defenses against unwanted intruders and criminals.

Stay Current on State Laws Regulating HOA Safety

It’s the board’s responsibility to make sure association safety measures are up to date. Keep in mind; each state has different requirements for protecting association residents. To keep everyone safe, research state law and communicate the responsibilities of the association and homeowners.

Maintain Sufficient Financial Reserves

It is critical to keep financial reserves on hand to pay for necessary and unexpected repairs. Without sufficient funds, you’ll need to collect substantial special assessments on short notice, which can strain relationships between the board and homeowners and lead to safety issues caused by deferred repairs.

The horrifying disaster at the condo complex in Surfside, Florida, is a worst-case scenario study that highlights deadly problems that can arise when a condo association does not have the reserves it needs to make needed repairs. The Surfside condo board knew the repairs were crucial but could not act because the price was $15 million while it only had $800,000 in reserves.

The combination of the association’s insufficient reserves and its deferral of needed maintenance caused ongoing tensions between board members and residents. No matter how painful, the lesson from Surfside is that the association must have adequate reserves to make repairs—keeping current on building maintenance and safety measures is how to avoid unnecessary pitfalls. Condo associations are often required to maintain sufficient funds per state law. Review your state laws with your legal counsel.

Keep Your Condo Association Insurance Up-to-Date

The best way to mitigate unavoidable accidents, weather, and other situations that affect the financial well-being of your association is to maintain comprehensive insurance coverage to help pay for losses and keep the association financially sound. At the Dickstein Agency, we take an active interest in providing the most trustworthy advice, competitive rates, and best markets for our clients.    

About Dickstein Associates Agency

Dickstein Associates Agency has distinguished itself as a leading provider of personal and business insurance in the tri-state area since 1965. We pride ourselves on being advocates for our clients and providing them with quality and affordable coverages. As Trusted Choice™ independent insurance agency, we partner with various national and regional carriers, allowing for flexible coverage for each client’s unique circumstances. For more information on how you can leverage all your insurance to work best for you, and how we can secure the best insurance in the marketplace suited to your specific needs and business objectives, contact us today at (800) 862-6662 or www.dicksteininsurance.com.