The COVID-19 pandemic has focused homeowners’ thinking on the comfort of their living spaces, maintaining and cleaning housing infrastructure, and obtaining housing and communal services at a fair price. These are all issues that can be resolved by residents themselves if they set up a Home Owners Association (HOA).

But how can you set up an HOA during quarantine? Actually, it’s is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. In fact, over the past few weeks 31 HOAs have been set up across Ukraine under the European Union/United Nations Development Programme “Home Owners of Ukraine for Sustainable Energy Solutions (HOUSES)” project.

So, how do you create HOA during the quarantine?

The head of the HOA board at the urban village Krasnopillia, Sumy oblast, Liubov Voropay and the UNDP Regional coordinator in Sumy oblast Tamara Kharchenko say there are six crucial steps that homeowners need to take to create an HOA right now.

Step 1:  Create an Initiative Group

In early February 2020, UNDP’s regional coordinator in Sumy Oblast, Tamara Kharchenko, visited the urban village of Krasnopillia to speak about the opportunities offered by the EU/UNDP “HOUSES” project and to start a dialogue with the local community regarding the creation of HOAs and implementation of energy efficiency measures under existing local and national support programmes. At this meeting, Liubov Voropay discovered the advantages of belonging to a Home Owners Association.

“Like everyone, the residents of our house wanted to improve their living conditions. Even though we were already in a housing maintenance office, we realised that to tackle the current issues and to get control over financing, we needed to find another type of co-operative housing. That’s why we chose to establish an HOA,” says Voropay. “At that time no one foresaw there would be an outbreak of coronavirus in a couple of weeks. And now, during the pandemic, we’ve received more positive confirmation we made the correct choice. We’re quickly coordinating our efforts and further steps to overcome the spread of the virus in our home." At the end of February – beginning of March 2020, Voropay has held a couple of meetings with her fellow homeowners and established an initiative group.

Step 2:  Information Work with Homeowners

In the same time, the detailed information work with future homeowners took off.

“In general, conversations and information work with homeowners play a key role. Majority of people simply are not aware of HOAs advantages. For instance, about financial control of the house care or direct participation of residents in improving living conditions,” says Voropay. “At this stage, it is important to find answers to all questions. Such intricate work requires an individual approach when communicating. However, I suggest taking all the time you need to discuss all pending questions, as that's how you lay the groundwork for your HOA.”

During quarantine, it is better to reach out to other homeowners online.

“You can use social media, messengers or even homeowners’ mailboxes to solve all ongoing issues,” adds Kharchenko.

Step 3: Make a List of Homeowners

“Creating HOAs requires the creation of a list of homeowners. Apparently, you can reach every homeowner in person, and we also did that. However, in the time of the quarantine you can get the required information via the State Register of Property Rights to Immovable Property,” says Voropay.

If there is no information in the register about the premises or property rights that were registered before 2013, you should contact the local bureau of technical inventory. In addition, you can reach the residents of the house to get the relevant information. In the case of an individual liaising with residents during quarantine, pay attention to previous suggestions on the use of online communication tools, and don’t forget to follow the recommendations of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and the World Health Organization on how to protect yourself from coronavirus infection.

Step 4: Creation of the HOA Charter

“The prepared charter should be in line with the official Home Owners Association’s Typical charter. From one side, you don’t need to create something new, since templates have already been developed. Instead, there are some details on which you can focus,” stresses Voropay. For instance, you can think about how to resolve split votes in your future HOA, or determine which questions have to be submitted in written form.”

“If you don’t know how to prepare a charter for the HOA, you can find detailed information at https://proosbb.info,” says Kharchenko.

Step 5: Homeowners’ meetings during the quarantine and written questions

“We’ve were at the final stage of creating the HOA, but with the coronavirus outbreak it looked like a lot of things would be put on hold in Ukraine. However, even quarantine did not stand in the way of our goal. Using the recommendations of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and with the support of the UNDP regional coordinator, we held an open-air meeting, where everyone present had personal protective equipment – masks and rubber gloves, "said Voropay.

As all the necessary decisions were made during the homeowners’ meeting, there was no need to conduct a written survey.

"If you need to conduct a written survey of homeowners during quarantine, try to avoid personal contact with other neighbours. We’ve developed an infographic that can help you better coordinate these communications,” says Kharchenko.

Step 6: State registration of HOA

“There were a lot of restrictions placed during the quarantine, and we didn’t know if it was still possible to obtain an HOA registration. The documents could be submitted to the Administrative Service Centre. I found out that the ASC accepts documents through a special box in the building, while for all other questions you can contact them online. We registered the HOA over a couple of weeks, and now we are planning our next steps,” says Voropay. “If you’re interested in delving into the topic of improving your living conditions, it won’t be difficult to take the first step. There are a lot of materials available now that explain how to create an HOA, step by step, but with support from the UNDP regional coordinators it’s much easier.”

For more than a year-and-a-half, the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme have been implementing the “Home Owners of Ukraine for Sustainable Energy Solutions (HOUSES)” project to promote and support the creation Home Owners Associations throughout the country’s 24 oblasts. Over this time, 1,557 HOAs have been created all over Ukraine. The number of residents of multi-apartment buildings wanting to cooperate and take joint loans to implement energy-efficient measures has risen from 15 percent in 2015 to 19 percent now, the environmental initiative centre Ecodia reports. This trend looks positive, but to achieve significant results, the number of energy efficiency measures taken and HOAs created has to increase.

Detailed information on how to found and launch HOAs can be found in these guidelines. If you are ready to turn a new page in housing energy efficiency, then project coordinators in the regions always know how to help and will find a proper solution, even in a difficult situation! http://www.houses.in.ua.