How to Choose a Condo or HOA Law Firm

Focus

How Much of the Law Firm's Practice Is Actually Condo and HOA Law?

One of the first things a condominium or homeowners association board should determine is how much of the law firm’s day-to-day practice actually involves community associations. There is a meaningful difference between a general practitioner or real estate lawyer who occasionally handles an HOA matter and a law firm whose attorneys work with condominium and homeowners associations every day.

Experience

Has the Law Firm Represented Community Associations Like Yours?

Community associations come in many forms, including high-rise condominiums, site condominiums, townhome communities, single-family homeowners associations, mixed-use developments, commercial condominiums, master associations, and large planned communities. They also vary significantly in size, finances, management structure, and complexity.

A two-unit condominium and an 8,000-unit community do not operate the same way, but both need legal advice that accounts for their governing documents, applicable law, finances, and practical circumstances.

Boards should ask how many associations the firm has represented, whether it represents both self-managed and professionally managed communities, and whether its attorneys regularly handle the problems the board is likely to encounter.

Depth

Can the Law Firm Handle the Full Range of Problems a Community Association Faces?

A condominium or HOA board’s legal needs rarely stay confined to one category. A community association that initially hires an attorney for collections may later need help with a Fair Housing accommodation, a difficult annual meeting, a construction defect, a governing document amendment, a developer turnover dispute, or litigation.

Boards should therefore consider whether their law firm has sufficient depth to address both everyday legal questions and higher-risk matters. Common areas of community association law include:

Some matters can be handled efficiently through standardized processes. Others require substantial judgment and experience, so it is important to determine whether a law firm has attorneys with varying levels of expertise and whether the hourly rate aligns with the level of service needed.

Similarly, has the law firm developed processes to improve efficiency that create value for your community association? Assessment collections are a good example. Many lawyers are capable of pursuing a debt. A community association law firm, however, may be able to create systems specifically designed around association collections, fee recovery, liens, foreclosure rights, bankruptcy issues, and communication with the board or manager.

Other matters can be much less forgiving. Litigation, Fair Housing disputes, developer turnover, construction defects, and governing document amendments can create significant financial or legal consequences if handled incorrectly.

Boards should consider how frequently the firm handles the issue and whether it has the experience, attorneys, and systems to handle it effectively and efficiently.

Litigation

Does the Firm Have Meaningful Community Association Litigation Experience?

Community association litigation differs from an ordinary dispute between two businesses. The parties may remain neighbors after the lawsuit ends. A decision involving one owner may affect how the governing documents are interpreted or enforced against hundreds of other owners. Litigation expenses are paid from association funds, and an unfavorable ruling can affect future board decisions.

For those reasons, community association litigation requires more than courtroom experience. The association’s attorney should help the board understand the strength of its legal position, the expected costs, settlement options, litigation risk, the potential effect on future enforcement, and how the dispute may affect the community as a whole.

It needs attorneys who understand when litigation is necessary, when another approach may produce a better result, and how to protect the association when a lawsuit cannot be avoided.

Boards should also determine whether the firm’s attorneys who provide day-to-day legal advice can work directly with attorneys who regularly litigate community association disputes. Advice given before litigation should account for what may happen if the matter ultimately reaches court.

Communication

Does the Attorney Give the Board Clear, Practical Advice?

Good legal advice should explain the board’s options, the risks associated with each, and the attorney’s recommended course of action. Board members are volunteers, so legal advice should be clear, practical, and easy to understand.

That is especially important when a board is dealing with difficult personalities, divided directors, an angry owner, or a contentious meeting. Community association law often requires judgment about both the legal issue and the people involved.

Clear communication should also extend to the documents a law firm prepares. Governing documents, rules, policies, and resolutions should be written for the board members, managers, and owners who need to use them, not just for attorneys.

Responsiveness

How Responsive Is the Law Firm?

Boards should understand a firm’s expectations for returning emails and telephone calls, how urgent matters are handled, and what happens when the attorney they normally work with is unavailable or on vacation.

Responsiveness does not mean every legal question can be completely answered within a day. Some issues require review of governing documents, legal research, or additional facts. It does mean the client should know their question has been received, who is handling it, and what happens next.

Reputation

What Do Other Community Association Clients Say About the Firm?

Online reviews should not replace a board’s own due diligence, but they can provide useful information about the experience of working with a law firm.

Look for recurring comments about responsiveness, communication, knowledge of condominium and HOA law, practical advice, professionalism, and the ability to explain complicated issues clearly. A substantial number of detailed reviews reflecting similar themes is generally more informative than a handful of perfect ratings.

Leadership

Does the Firm Teach, Write, and Lead in Community Association Law?

Membership in a professional organization does not automatically make someone a good attorney. More meaningful indicators include whether other attorneys and community association professionals look to the firm’s lawyers to teach, write, lead, and contribute to the field.

Boards may want to consider whether prospective attorneys regularly educate board members and managers, write about developments in community association law, hold leadership positions in industry organizations, participate in legislative or appellate issues, or receive meaningful recognition from their legal peers.

Education

Does the Community Association Law Firm Provide Continuing Education to Its Clients?

Many expensive community association disputes begin with relatively small mistakes. A board takes action without proper authority. An enforcement procedure becomes inconsistent. A document amendment is improperly adopted. A deadline is missed. A Fair Housing request is treated like an ordinary rule violation.

Preventive education can help boards recognize those issues earlier. When choosing a community association attorney, boards should consider whether the law firm keeps clients informed as laws change and provides practical resources boards and managers can use between legal matters.

The Hirzel Law Answer

Education is a significant part of Hirzel Law’s approach. Kevin Hirzel is the author of Hirzel’s Handbook: How to Operate a Michigan Condo or HOA and Hirzel’s Handbook: How to Operate an Illinois Condo or HOA. The handbooks address recurring legal and operational issues involving governance, finances, insurance, enforcement, collections, developer turnover, document amendments, and Fair Housing. Hirzel Law also publishes legal articles, newsletters, and educational materials for condominium and HOA board members and property managers.

Community association boards that understand their legal obligations are better positioned to avoid preventable mistakes, and choosing a community association law firm that points out changes in the law or potential blind spots is invaluable.

Pricing

How Should Your Board Think About Legal Pricing?

Price matters. Board members are spending association funds and have an obligation to consider cost. But the lowest hourly rate, or the lowest advertised retainer plan, does not necessarily produce the lowest total legal cost or the best value.

The same principle applies to legal services. An attorney who regularly handles a particular community association issue may charge a higher hourly rate but needs less time to identify the problem and recommend a solution. Conversely, originally inexpensive legal work could become costly if the association later pays another attorney to correct it, an improperly drafted or adopted amendment, for example, can create title or enforcement problems that force the association to pay twice for the same project.

The same caution applies to retainer plans. A fixed monthly fee can appear less expensive or more predictable, and it can work well in some circumstances, but boards should understand exactly what a plan includes and how the pricing model may affect service: how much attorney time is devoted to a question, how quickly non-urgent matters are addressed, and how extensively an issue is analyzed.

Boards should therefore look beyond price and compare experience, responsiveness, quality, efficiency, and scope of service, rather than choosing a community association attorney solely because one pricing model appears less expensive. For a more detailed discussion on pricing and how to receive maximum value from your community association law firm, please review the following:

Service Model

Will One Attorney Handle Every Legal Matter?

Boards should ask how a law firm decides which attorney will handle a community association’s different legal needs. Collections, general counsel work, transactions, governing document projects, and litigation require different systems and skills. One attorney may be capable of handling all of them, but that does not necessarily mean a “jack of all trades” model gives a condominium or homeowners association the strongest attorney for every matter.

Switching Firms

When Should a Condo or HOA Board Consider Changing Law Firms?

A board should not change attorneys simply because it receives legal advice it dislikes. Good attorneys sometimes have to tell boards things they do not want to hear. But a board may reasonably reevaluate the relationship when recurring problems include:

A community association is not required to remain with the same law firm forever, nor should it automatically use a particular firm simply because a management company recommended that firm. We say this even though many management companies recommend us, as boards need to understand their options if they are not happy. In most cases, transitioning to a new law firm is seamless, and the new firm handles requesting any active files and picks up where the former firm left off.

Honest Fit

Is Hirzel Law the Right Community Association Law Firm for Every Board?

No. A board looking solely for the lowest hourly rate may find another law firm that charges less. An individual homeowner seeking representation against a condominium or homeowners association should hire different counsel, because Hirzel Law represents community associations and does not represent individual owners against them.

We are also unlikely to be the right fit for a board looking for an attorney to approve a decision the board has already made, regardless of the legal risk or whether the position can be legally supported.

Hirzel Law is a strong fit for boards that value:

A law firm should be comfortable answering these questions candidly. The answers should help the board evaluate not only the firm’s experience but also its responsiveness, pricing philosophy, service model, reputation, and the likelihood that the relationship will be a good fit.