Condominiums and townhomes can be very appealing for homebuyers; since they have homeowners associations (HOAs), purchasing a unit in one of these complexes usually means very little maintenance, which is music to a lot of people's ears.

When a condominium has an HOA, the homeowner doesn't have to be concerned about maintenance and upkeep. For example, the homeowner doesn't need to worry about the landscaping, painting the outside of their building, or paying someone to maintain the pool because the HOA takes care of all that for them.

HOAs are Typically Run by Unpaid Volunteers

HOAs are typically run by residents of the condominium complex. While these individuals are unpaid volunteers, that doesn't mean that they don't have to deal with legal hassles, because they do. As a matter of fact, HOAs are subject to different types of lawsuits, such as:

• Personal injury lawsuits arising from "slip and fall" claims,
• Wrongful death lawsuits from swimming pool drownings,
• Workers' compensation claims from injured employees, and
• Sexual abuse or harassment lawsuits filed by residents because of an employee's inappropriate behavior.

In addition to the above, an HOA may decide to file a lawsuit against a contractor or a construction company for faulty or shoddy workmanship. For example, if the HVAC systems throughout the units breaks down continuously, the HOA can argue that the contractor did a poor job.

After the HOA files a lawsuit against the contractor, the contractor can countersue, claiming that the HOA failed to properly maintain the HVAC system.

Other lawsuits may involve resident-on-resident conflicts, as well as residents who file lawsuits against the HOA itself. Sometimes residents mistakenly believe that they have a landlord-tenant relationship of sorts and if they have an issue, they simply stop paying their HOA dues and after a while, the HOA moves to foreclose on the property.

If you are having a dispute with your HOA, or if you're a board member of an HOA and you're facing a lawsuit, contact a real estate attorney for advice!