Just read that in USA, the lead is actually paid. In our 1st condo, it’s been a volunteer position (despite being very heavy on responsibilities): In Taiwan, what’s the norm? I just assumed it was all voluntary until I heard about paid in USA. Could just be USA, though.
I’m not looking for a “legal” answer, but just “generally, what happens?” – not looking to lawyer up or anything lol, since there’s no “Life - Real State & Housing” section.
What does HOA stand for?
The community leaders are paid.
Home Owners Association. Not sure what they call it here, the monthly fee you pay for mgmt, repairs, guards, trash, gardening, elevator, etc.
The community leaders for condos are paid?
Yes. It is a full time job for some. My first place was like that. The guy had office hours and he didn’t live there. He was hired by the community and paid like the guards etc.
Where I live now, we have a lane leader. She does live here. It isn’t a full time job but she is paid. She reports to an elected community leader and that is his full time job.
My wife reckons that no one would do this for free in Taiwan.
Part of this depends on if ‘HOA Lead’ means lead representative homeowner, or community manager/admin.
I have been an unpaid HOA representative, and all of the reps in my community are unpaid, including the lead rep (other than cheap dinner and coffee during meetings). My cousin had the same experience as a rep in another community. I think unpaid is very normal, but I think it likely depends on the type of community you live in. In some communities it is definitely paid if someone living there agrees to perform some role like reception, etc. It really depends on the scale of community and how much work there is to comfortably maintain it.
Beyond that, the HOA rep board usually contracts with a management company and/or security company (sometimes these are the same company) to staff positions like reception, security, and administrative like a community manager, all of whom are paid under the contract terms. Basically in this structure, the contracted companies are getting paid to do most of the work, so it’s harder to justify pay for board members. It’s also socially awkward because people could be suspicious of financial abuse, or not genuinely keeping the interests of the community at heart.
Some communities opt to run things themselves to save money, but that takes a lot of commitment from the community and there is often a lack of expert knowledge in a lot of areas. There may so be risk of liability if thinga aren’t handled professionally, like related to inspections and safety.
Ultimately, whether or not you should be compensated and how much probably depends on how much work you’re doing, and/or whoever else is doing work and how much they are doing.
Looks like several different things being confused here. There is are government positions for area heads, in a big complex that area may be the complex and these positions are paid. In larger communities there will be a management company, the management company representative on site is a paid position. There are elected building representatives (equivalent of US HOA), these are unpaid although obviously can come with some nice side benefits. Depending on the size of the building/community there may be all three present or none at all. There are various naming conventions in use and variations on them in different areas.
Where I have lived in the US and in Taiwan, the board of directors of homeowners’ associations have been unpaid volunteers.
Gotcha. My wife is an HOA lead and she’s been busting butt for almost a year (she’ll pass the torch soon). The benefits are an extra nice greeting from the guard (since you ultimately suggest the guard company) and that’s it.
It’s a ruthless position with nothing to gain but stress, full of what’s essentially taking care of people caring 9/10 about a problem that’s usually only actually 1/10.