Who Pays for Repairs: HOA Common Area vs Owner Responsibility

Water is coming through your ceiling, the manager says it is your problem, and your insurance agent says it is the association’s. HOA common area repair responsibility is the question underneath almost every one of these standoffs, and the answer is rarely as simple as either side claims. It depends on where the failed component sits, what your declaration says about it, who caused the damage, and which insurance policy responds. This guide walks through each of those in order for Nevada and California homeowners, and then explains how to get a stalled repair moving.

What is the default rule for HOA common area repair responsibility?

California’s rule is in Civil Code §4775. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, the association is responsible for repairing, replacing and maintaining the common area, and the owner of each separate interest is responsible for repairing, replacing and maintaining that separate interest.

Nevada’s rule is in NRS 116.3107. Except as the declaration provides, the association has the duty to provide for the maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each owner has the same duty for his or her unit. The statute also requires owners to give the association reasonable access through the unit to do that work, and makes whoever is responsible for damage caused along the way liable for its prompt repair.

Both statutes begin with the same qualifier, and it matters more than the rule itself. The default applies only where your CC&Rs are silent.

What is the difference between common area, exclusive use area and your unit?

The unit, which California calls the separate interest, is what you own outright. In a condominium, Nevada’s NRS 116.2102 draws the usual line: when walls, floors and ceilings are the boundaries, the finished surfaces such as wallboard, paint, tile and finished flooring belong to the unit, and everything behind them is common. Pipes, wires and ducts that serve only your unit are treated as yours or as a limited common element allocated to you. Those that serve more than one unit are common.

The common area, or common elements in Nevada, is everything owned in common: in most condominium buildings that means the roof, structural walls, foundations, shared plumbing and the grounds.

The third zone causes most of the arguments. California’s “exclusive use common area” and Nevada’s “limited common elements” are parts of the common area set aside for one owner’s use. Unless the declaration says otherwise, both states put the same items in this category: shutters, awnings, window boxes, doorsteps, stoops, porches, balconies, patios, and exterior doors and windows that serve a single unit but sit outside its boundaries (Civil Code §4145; NRS 116.2102).

The defaults differ for this middle zone. In California, the owner maintains exclusive use common area and the association repairs and replaces it (Civil Code §4775). In Nevada, the association does the work and the expense is assessed to the unit or units served, unless the governing documents provide otherwise (NRS 116.3115).

One caution for owners of houses and townhomes in planned developments. There your lot usually includes the whole structure, so the roof and exterior walls are yours unless the CC&Rs hand them to the association. The condominium rules above do not transfer automatically.

How do the CC&Rs change HOA common area repair responsibility?

Start with the definitions section, because the words “unit,” “common area” and “exclusive use” mean whatever your declaration says they mean. Then find the maintenance article. Many communities also publish a maintenance matrix or chart listing each component with a column for who maintains, who repairs and who pays. Where the matrix and the recorded declaration disagree, the declaration controls.

Look for three kinds of clauses in particular. Some declarations make owners responsible for windows, exterior doors, or plumbing “serving only the unit” even where it runs through a common wall. Some require the association to maintain front yards or roofs in a planned development. And many contain a clause making an owner pay for common area damage caused by that owner, a tenant or a guest.

If the board’s position rests on a rule, a policy or a manager’s email instead of the declaration, ask for the section it relies on. A board cannot shift a repair obligation onto owners by rule when the recorded documents place it on the association.

Who pays when a common area leak damages your unit?

Treat these as two separate questions. If the leak began in a common area component, such as a roof, a shared supply line or a drain stack, repairing that component is the association’s job. That does not mean the association automatically pays for your flooring, cabinets and drywall. In most communities the owner is responsible for the interior of the unit, and the association owes for interior damage only where it was at fault, for example by ignoring earlier reports of the same leak or delaying an obvious repair. The declaration may set a different rule in either direction, so read it before accepting anyone’s summary.

When the source is in another owner’s unit, such as a failed water heater or an overflowing tub, that owner is generally the one responsible, and the dispute usually runs between the two owners and their insurers.

The association can also charge an owner for damage to the common area. Nevada lets an association assess an expense exclusively against a unit when the damage was caused by the willful misconduct or gross negligence of the owner, a tenant or an invitee (NRS 116.3115). In California, before the board imposes a monetary charge to recover the cost of repairing common area damage caused by a member, guest or tenant, it must give at least 10 days’ written notice and an opportunity to address the board (Civil Code §5855). A bill that appears on your ledger without that process can be challenged.

How does insurance fit in?

Nevada requires the association to carry property insurance on the common elements of at least 80 percent of actual cash value after deductibles. In buildings with stacked units or shared walls, that insurance must also cover the units to the extent reasonably available, but it need not cover improvements and betterments installed by owners (NRS 116.3113). That gap is why upgraded flooring and remodeled kitchens so often fall to the owner’s policy.

California requires the annual budget report to include a summary of the association’s property, liability, earthquake, flood and fidelity policies, with insurer, limits and deductibles, along with a statutory warning that the association’s coverage may not reach your property and that you may be responsible for a deductible even when a loss is covered (Civil Code §5300). Owners can ask to review the full policies.

The deductible is where money actually changes hands. Master policy deductibles can be large, and many declarations pass the deductible to the owner whose unit was the source or who suffered the loss. Check that clause, then check whether your own policy includes loss assessment coverage and in what amount. Report a loss to both carriers promptly, even while responsibility is still being argued.

What must a California HOA do when water, gas, heat or power fails?

Under Civil Code §4775, unless the declaration provides otherwise or a utility company is responsible, the association must make the repairs and replacements necessary to restore interrupted gas, heat, water or electrical service that begins in the common area, even if the problem extends into a separate interest or its exclusive use common area. The board must commence the process within 14 days of the interruption. If reserves are short, the board may obtain financing for the work without a member vote after adopting a resolution with written findings.

Two limits apply. The cost of temporarily relocating during repairs falls on the owner of the affected unit, and these requirements do not apply while a declared federal, state or local emergency materially affects the association’s ability to perform. Our guide to the California HOA reserve study explains how these service lines are now planned for.

Nevada has no equivalent statutory deadline. The duty to repair comes from NRS 116.3107 and the declaration, and the reserve study the board must commission at least every five years should show whether the association has been funding the component that failed (NRS 116.31152).

How do you get the HOA to make a common area repair?

Start with a written request to the board and the manager that identifies the component, the date the problem began, the damage so far, and the section of the declaration that makes it the association’s responsibility. Attach photos and any contractor’s report. Phone calls do not create a record. Written notice does, and it is what later proves the board knew.

Next, ask for documents. The reserve study, maintenance contracts, prior repair invoices and board minutes will show whether the problem was known and whether money was set aside for it. See our guides to the California HOA records request and HOA records requests in Nevada. For balconies and other elevated wood structures in California, the inspection report required by SB 326 is often the most useful record of all. If the reserves that should have paid for the repair are not there, our article on HOA misuse of funds covers the next questions to ask.

Understand what you can and cannot force. In Lamden v. La Jolla Shores Clubdominium Homeowners Assn. (1999) 21 Cal.4th 249, the California Supreme Court held that when a board acts on reasonable investigation, in good faith and within its authority in choosing how to maintain and repair the common area, courts should defer to that choice. A board gets to decide between patching and replacing. It does not get to decide to do nothing about a known failure, and deference does not protect a decision made without investigation.

If the board still will not act, California owners can request internal dispute resolution in writing (Civil Code §5910) and must generally attempt alternative dispute resolution before suing for a court order (Civil Code §5930). Nevada owners can file an intervention affidavit with the Real Estate Division after written notice to the board, and must go through the state mediation program before filing a civil action about the governing documents (NRS 38.310). Our guide to the Nevada Ombudsman complaint process covers the steps.

Two things to avoid. Do not withhold assessments to pay for the repair yourself. The obligation to pay is treated separately, and unpaid assessments lead to late charges, liens and, eventually, foreclosure risk. And do not repair the common area on your own without written approval, beyond what is needed to stop ongoing damage in an emergency. Unauthorized work may not be reimbursed and can make you responsible for what happens next. Our HOA dispute resolution page explains how we handle these cases when a letter is not enough.

Frequently asked questions

Conclusion

HOA common area repair responsibility comes down to four questions asked in order: which zone the failed component is in, what the declaration says about that zone, who caused the damage, and which policy pays. The statutes in Nevada and California give you the starting point, and California now adds a 14-day clock for utility failures. Your CC&Rs supply the rest. Put the problem in writing the day you find it, get the report that shows where it started, and ask for the records before the argument hardens. Most of these disputes are settled by the documents long before anyone needs a courtroom.