Your HOA is generally responsible for repairing and maintaining the community’s common areas and, in condominiums and most townhomes, the building’s exterior and shared structural and utility systems. You are responsible for everything inside your unit. The exact line between the two is set by your community’s Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions (CC&Rs), which overrides any general rule of thumb.
Start With Your Governing Documents
Every HOA operates under legally binding documents that spell out who fixes what. The CC&Rs are the key one. They define property boundaries, common elements, and each party’s maintenance obligations. The bylaws cover how the board makes repair decisions and allocates budgets, and separate rules and regulations handle day-to-day items like landscaping standards or paint colors.
You should have received these documents when you bought your home, and most states require the CC&Rs to be recorded in county property records. If you don’t have a copy, request one from your HOA’s management company or check your community’s website. Before you argue about any repair, read the section labeled “Maintenance Obligations” or “Repair and Replacement.” That specific language will tell you more than any general guide can.
What the HOA Repairs Depends on Your Community Type
The single biggest factor in determining repair responsibility is the kind of community you live in. A high-rise condo and a subdivision of detached houses both have HOAs, but the dividing lines are nothing alike.
Condominiums
The association handles the most here. Condo HOAs are responsible for the building’s exterior structure, roof, shared hallways, elevators, and all common areas. Your unit typically begins at the interior finished surfaces of your walls, floors, and ceilings. Everything behind the drywall, including the structural framing, belongs to the association. Condo owners sometimes describe their responsibility as “from the paint in.”
Townhomes
Townhome responsibility usually falls somewhere between condos and single-family homes. Townhome HOAs often cover roofs, exterior siding, and shared structural walls, since those components affect multiple attached units. Yards and driveways may be yours or the HOA’s depending on how the declaration reads.
Single-Family Homes
You own and maintain your entire house, including the roof, exterior walls, and yard. The HOA’s repair duties are limited to genuinely shared spaces: community pools, parks, private roads, entrance landscaping, and the like. The association may still set standards for how you maintain your own property, but the repair bill is yours.
If you aren’t sure which category your community falls into, your declaration’s definitions of “unit” and “common elements” draw the exact boundaries.
Common Elements the HOA Typically Covers
Across community types, HOAs are responsible for anything classified as a “common element” in the governing documents. The Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act, a model law adopted in various forms by roughly two dozen states, states the default plainly: the association handles maintenance, repair, and replacement of common elements, and each owner handles their own unit. Most state statutes and CC&Rs follow this same framework.
Common elements usually include:
- Shared amenities such as clubhouses, swimming pools, fitness centers, playgrounds, and community rooms.
- Infrastructure like private roads, sidewalks, parking lots, stormwater systems, and entry gates.
- Building exteriors in condos and townhomes: roofs, exterior walls, foundations, stairwells, and hallways.
- Shared utility systems, including main plumbing lines, sewer stacks, electrical conduits, and HVAC equipment that serves more than one unit.
- Landscaping and grounds, common green spaces, irrigation systems, and perimeter fencing.
The HOA pays for these repairs out of regular assessments collected from every owner. When costs run over the operating budget, the board may draw from reserves or levy a special assessment.
What You Pay to Repair
Your responsibility starts where the common elements end. Under the standard boundary rules used in most states, the finished surfaces of your walls, floors, and ceilings are yours, while the structural components behind them belong to the association. That means your interior drywall, paint, flooring, tile, and wallpaper. It also includes:
- Interior fixtures and appliances, including kitchen and bathroom fixtures, water heaters, dishwashers, and any built-in appliances.
- Plumbing and electrical that serve only your unit: branch pipes after they split from the main line, individual circuit breakers, and outlets.
- Any modifications or upgrades you have made inside your unit.
- Personal property such as furniture, electronics, and anything you would take with you if you moved.
In single-family HOA communities, your responsibility extends to the entire home and lot, including the roof, exterior paint, driveway, and landscaping.
The Gray Area: Limited Common Elements
Limited common elements cause more confusion than any other category. These are portions of the common structure reserved for the exclusive use of one unit or a few units: balconies, patios, assigned parking spaces, exterior doors, shutters, and windows. They are technically common elements, but only you use them.
The default rule under most state statutes assigns maintenance of limited common elements to the association unless the declaration says otherwise. In practice, many CC&Rs split the duty. A typical arrangement has the HOA responsible for structural repair and replacement of the component (rebuilding a deteriorating balcony, for example) while the owner handles routine upkeep like cleaning, sealing, and minor cosmetic repairs.
This is also where governing documents sometimes draw lines between maintenance, repair, and replacement. Your HOA might replace a rotted deck board on a shared-structure balcony but expect you to keep that deck swept and stained. Read the declaration carefully. If the language is ambiguous, ask the board for a written clarification before you spend money on something the association should cover.
Plumbing and Water Damage
Plumbing generates more friction between owners and HOAs than almost anything else, because water doesn’t respect property boundaries. The general rule for pipes is function-based, not location-based. A pipe that serves multiple units is a common element regardless of whether it runs through your wall. Once a pipe branches off to serve only your unit, it is your responsibility even if it sits inside a shared wall or ceiling.
Things get complicated when water damage crosses boundaries. When a roof leak or a burst common plumbing line sends water into your unit, two separate obligations kick in. The HOA is responsible for fixing the source, since the roof or shared pipe is a common element. The damage to your interior, including ruined flooring, drywall, and personal belongings, is typically your problem, and your HO-6 condo insurance policy is designed for exactly this scenario.
The reverse also happens. If a pipe that serves only your unit bursts and floods a common hallway or the unit below you, you repair your own unit, and the association fixes the common area damage but may come after you for reimbursement. Negligence can shift costs that would otherwise land on you. If the HOA ignored a roof maintenance request for months before the leak, that failure can push the bill back to the association.
How Major Repairs Get Funded
Even when a repair is clearly the HOA’s job, the money comes from owners one way or another: through regular assessments, reserves, or a special assessment.
Well-run HOAs set aside part of monthly assessments into a reserve fund earmarked for predictable long-term expenses like roof replacement, repaving, and elevator overhaul. A reserve study, performed by an engineer or qualified reserve analyst, identifies every major component the association must maintain, estimates its remaining useful life, and calculates how much the HOA should save annually. A growing number of states now require associations to conduct reserve studies on a regular cycle, and legislative reforms after 2021 have tightened reserve funding requirements in several states, particularly for older condo buildings.
A special assessment is a one-time charge for a specific expense the regular budget can’t cover. Many governing documents require a membership vote for assessments above a certain dollar threshold, and some states impose their own caps or voting requirements. Emergency situations such as storm damage or sudden structural failure sometimes allow the board to act faster with less process, though most states and governing documents still require at minimum a written notice to owners explaining the amount and reason.
What to Do When the HOA Won’t Make a Repair It Owes
Knowing the HOA is responsible is only half the battle. Getting the work done sometimes takes persistence and a paper trail.
Start by confirming in your governing documents that the repair is genuinely the association’s obligation. Then submit a written maintenance request through the HOA’s official channel, whether that is a management company portal, email, or physical form. Include the exact location of the problem, a description of what’s happening, and photos with dates. Vague complaints get vague responses. “Water is pooling on the walkway near Building C, unit 12, after every rain” moves faster than “the drainage is bad.”
After submitting, expect the management company or board to inspect, determine responsibility, and give you a timeline. If weeks pass without a response, follow up in writing and keep copies of everything.
Escalating a Dispute
If informal requests go nowhere, send a formal demand letter to the board. A good demand letter cites the specific CC&R section that assigns the repair to the HOA, describes the problem and how long it has persisted, states what you want done, sets a reasonable deadline (14 days is standard), and notes that you intend to pursue further action if the deadline passes. Keep the tone professional. This letter becomes evidence if the dispute reaches mediation or court.
Many governing documents and state laws require you to try alternative dispute resolution before filing a lawsuit. Check your CC&Rs for a mandatory mediation or arbitration clause, and verify your state’s requirements. Mediation uses a neutral third party to help both sides reach agreement and is non-binding; arbitration produces a decision that is usually binding. Skipping a required ADR step can get your lawsuit dismissed. A handful of states also maintain ombudsman offices for community association disputes, which can investigate complaints and facilitate mediation.
When litigation becomes necessary, the CC&Rs function as a contract between you and the association. A board that ignores its stated maintenance duties may face claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, or negligence, depending on the facts. Success in any of these claims depends on documentation: timestamped photos, copies of your written requests, board meeting minutes showing the board knew about the problem, and records of how long the condition persisted.