Sidewalks: HOA Or Homeowners Responsibility To Maintain?

When you're considering buying a home, don't be surprised by the number of properties under the purview of a homeowners association. In basic terms, an HOA in real estate is an organization that, as part of its work, sets property maintenance and design rules for a neighborhood. Such rules may be stricter than laws in the city or county where the property is located, but they're legal as long as they don't conflict with city, county, state, or federal laws. If you buy a property that's part of an HOA, you must join the organization and follow its rules. Some stipulations may seem silly to follow, but you should still always keep up on your HOA payments and your property's appearance to avoid breaking those rules and suffering penalties like fines or a lien placed on your property. In some cases, that may even saddle you with responsibilities you had never considered, like staying on top of maintaining the sidewalk running directly in front of your property.

You expect to receive benefits from belonging to an HOA, such as the association's responsibility to maintain any common spaces inside the neighborhood. Does repairing and maintaining sidewalks count as common spaces? The rules vary, depending on the way your HOA is organized. Generally, HOAs will maintain sidewalks in common areas, but homeowners must maintain the sidewalks in front of their homes and pay for any repair or maintenance work. It may seem over the top for some, but putting up with the HOA's hassles may be worth it, because belonging to one tends to boost property values when you're ready to sell.

If you don't live in an HOA, regulations in most cities require you as the homeowner to repair and maintain any sidewalks on your property that the public would use. If the city notifies you that your sidewalk needs maintenance, you would have to pay for it. It probably shouldn't be too surprising that most HOAs operate in the same way. You almost certainly would be responsible for maintaining sidewalks that border your property if the HOA requires you to perform maintenance.

If the HOA requires you to make repairs to a damaged section of concrete, basic sidewalk repair costs for a homeowner will come out to roughly $5 to $15 per square foot. You could have an expensive bill to replace a large segment of the concrete, considering a typical residential sidewalk is 4 to 5 feet wide. However, the HOA might also require you to maintain the sidewalk, even if the concrete doesn't have any major damage. You might have to fill cracks, reseal the concrete, remove snow and ice, and clean grease and stains. These are essential steps for protecting your wallet as well, as minor repairs can prevent worsening problems that will cost a lot more to fix. Ask for a copy of your HOA guidelines to determine your responsibility in terms of maintaining or repairing the sidewalk in front of your home. This is also important from a liability standpoint, as the party responsible for maintaining the sidewalk would have to answer for any injury someone might suffer from tripping and falling due to the lack of repairs.

The most common sidewalks in the neighborhood that HOAs must maintain are those in common areas. If you have a community meeting space, park area, or fitness center, the HOA would likely maintain and repair the sidewalks in these spaces or sidewalks that directly lead to them. Of course, you as the homeowner share in the upkeep costs for the common areas through the monthly dues that you pay to the HOA.

In an older neighborhood, the HOA governing board might survey the condition of all the sidewalks and force all property owners to repair or maintain them at once. The board might pay for the work by creating a special assessment that goes beyond the monthly dues all HOA members already pay. Other HOAs might just notify the homeowners of the need for repairs and give them a deadline for completing the work before assessing fines. In this scenario, homeowners would pay the bill themselves. Large-scale sidewalk repairs and maintenance can improve the curb appeal throughout the neighborhood, which is why the HOA guidelines might require homeowners to do expedited sidewalk repairs.