Goodwill in an HOA is the trust and benefit of the doubt that owners give their board. In everyday use, goodwill means a friendly, cooperative attitude toward someone. In business, it also means the value of a good reputation. For an association, both meanings apply: goodwill is the board’s reputation with the people it serves, and it decides how much cooperation the board gets when it needs it.
A good reputation means people believe you. They count on you to follow through, to keep your word, and to make it right when something goes wrong. A board known for treating people fairly is given more room when a problem or dispute comes up. The reverse is also true. A board with a poor reputation finds that every decision is questioned, and a bad reputation is much harder to repair than a good one is to keep.
Because goodwill is not tangible, it is easy to overlook while chasing more concrete goals such as the budget, the roof project or the rule revision. Do not discount it. Running a community is far smoother when owners and vendors are on your side.
Why Goodwill in an HOA Matters
An HOA is a group of neighbors who share the cost and the work of maintaining their community. The board runs the association: it manages the common areas and amenities, enforces the rules, and collects assessments. On paper, that gives a board a good deal of authority over homeowners.
In practice, a board gets very little done without owners’ cooperation. It needs owners to pay on time, to follow rules without a letter for every infraction, to vote, to show up for meetings, to serve on committees and eventually to take a seat on the board. If neighbors are constantly arguing with each other or with the association, the board spends its time on conflict and has little left for anything else. A community where most people are pulling in the same direction is one where projects get finished.
Goodwill is what produces that cooperation. Owners who think rules are enforced fairly across the whole community are more likely to comply. Owners who can see their assessments at work, in common areas that are clean and in good repair, are more likely to support the budget. And owners who trust the board will give it the benefit of the doubt on a hard call, such as an assessment increase or an unpopular repair.
How to Build Goodwill in Your Community
Meet Owners in Person
Face-to-face contact builds goodwill faster than anything a board can write. An email update can feel like one more item on a to-do list. A conversation over good food at a community gathering is something else. People who have talked with a board member in person are more inclined to assume good intentions later, and neighbors who know each other are more willing to help each other.
The events do not need to be elaborate. A simple gathering that brings neighbors together, with no agenda beyond that, does the job. Our article on building community in your HOA has ideas for events, shared spaces and welcoming new residents.
Enforce the Rules Fairly, and Follow Them Yourself
People are at their best when they feel they have been given a fair deal. For the most part, owners do not mind following reasonable rules. What they mind is feeling like the only one who has to.
Enforcing only some of the rules some of the time leads to anger and resentment. So does enforcing rules against some residents while letting others slide. Board members also have to be seen following the same rules as everyone else. Nothing drains goodwill faster than a director whose own trash cans sit at the curb all week. Our article on building voluntary compliance explains how a fair, consistent approach gets most owners to follow the rules without a formal process.
Show Owners Where Their Money Goes
When owners believe their assessments are used wisely and can see the results, the goodwill is considerable. Help them see it. Summarize the budget in plain language, report on finished projects, and explain an increase before the bill arrives, not after. Keep the pool, the landscaping and the other common areas clean and in working order, because those are the results owners look at every day.
Answer People and Keep Your Word
Trust grows out of small, repeated experiences: an email that got a reply, a repair that was done when the board said it would be, a decision that came with an explanation. If you cannot do what an owner asks, say so and say why. If you made a mistake, admit it and fix it. Our article on giving a voice to your HOA community members covers surveys, open forums and other ways to hear from owners and show them they were heard.
Treat Vendors Well
Goodwill with vendors matters too. Reliable, quality contractors who like working in your community make every project easier. You earn their goodwill by respecting their time, treating their employees well, setting reasonable expectations for the work and paying promptly. With a vendor’s goodwill, your community is near the top of the list when something needs doing in a hurry. See our article on managing outside vendors for your HOA for more on these relationships.
How Goodwill Is Lost
Goodwill is rarely at the front of anyone’s mind while they have it. It becomes obvious how much it mattered only once it is gone. These are the usual ways a board loses it:
- Selective enforcement. One owner is fined for something a neighbor, or a board member, does freely.
- Surprises. An assessment increase, a special assessment or a new rule arrives with no warning and no explanation.
- Silence. Emails and requests go unanswered, or owners learn about decisions through rumor.
- Broken promises. The board announces a repair or a deadline and then lets it pass without a word.
- Defensiveness. Questions are treated as attacks, and owners who raise them are labeled troublemakers.
- The appearance of self-interest. A contract goes to a director’s relative, or the board’s own street is always repaved first.
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Notice that most of these are about how a decision was made or communicated, not the decision itself. Owners will forgive a board for an unpopular call far sooner than for an unfair or secretive one.
Rebuilding Goodwill After It Is Lost
Taking over an existing board, or serving on one in a community with a lot of conflict, can feel overwhelming. If that is your situation, consider stepping back from the other problems at first. Focus on understanding what went wrong and on rebuilding goodwill.
- Listen before you act. Ask owners what has frustrated them, and do not argue with the answers.
- Host events with no motive other than to form relationships. Give people a chance to know you and be comfortable with you.
- Acknowledge past mistakes plainly, without blaming earlier boards more than the facts require.
- Make a few small promises and keep them on time. A fixed light or a prompt reply proves more than a mission statement.
- Be consistent for long enough that people stop waiting for the old pattern to return.
Once you have shown that you are focused on the community’s interests, people will be more willing to trust you, and that makes the other problems much easier to solve. Trust is hard to reestablish once it is lost, but it can be done, and the goodwill you earn will serve the association for a long time. For more on daily life in a community association, see our section on living in an HOA.
This article is general educational information, not legal advice. Laws vary by state and your association’s governing documents control many of these questions, so check with your association’s attorney or another qualified professional about your situation.