Many HOA communities in Park City are equipped with fire suppression systems though the maintenance responsibility can sometimes be murky. With the increased risk of fires out west in the last several years, it is important that your community follows a plan for fire suppression safety. Here are a few tips:
- Fire system responsibility – Understand if the fire suppression systems in your community are an HOA or owner responsibility. If this isn’t clear in your CC&Rs, then consult an attorney to clarify maintenance responsibility of these systems. In some cases, the HOA might be responsible for the fire riser (if this services more than one unit), but not the pipes that originate on the riser and then feed into a single unit.
- HOA fire suppression systems – For those fire suppression systems which are the responsibility of the HOA, make sure your management company arranges to have the system inspected annually and any deficiencies repaired. An annual inspection is required by law every year and and more detailed inspection is required every five years.
- Owner fire suppression systems – If the fire suppression systems in your community service only one individual unit, then those are most likely an owner responsibility. Even if these systems are not the maintenance responsibility of the HOA, you will want to have a formalized procedure in place for tracking owner compliance with annual inspections and deficiency repairs. To do this, make sure your governing documents clearly outline the maintenance responsibly (enshrine these in the governing documents if they aren’t already). Your management company should then track compliance each year and issue violation fines for non-compliance.
