Live in a home governed by a condominium, co-op or homeowner’s association? Have questions about what they can and cannot do? Ryan Poliakoff, an attorney and author based in Boca Raton, has answers.
Question: I live in a condominium unit. I have discovered termites in my kitchen cabinets. The association has paid for four visits by a termite company, but the little buggers keep coming back. During the last visit I asked for a board member to be present. The technician said that he could not cure the termite problem. He said there were two options available: Tear out all the cabinets and put in new ones; or, tear out the cabinets, have them gassed by another company and re-install them. Both options are very costly.
The board member insisted that this is my problem, not the association’s problem, and he said that I should bear all the costs. He likened it to my having a couch with termites — it is furniture and my problem. I know cabinets are considered real estate when selling a unit, and they can’t be removed by the seller like a couch. I feel this is an association problem, as these termites are mobile and will infect another unit eventually. The history of this building is that it has been tented twice in the past 20 years, paid for by the association. It is a 29 unit building so tenting was a major undertaking…