Reserve Studies

Reserve Studies for Townhome Communities

Townhome communities sit between single-family HOAs and condos in their reserve profile, and the defining question is uniquely consequential: what does the association maintain versus what do individual owners maintain? The answer — which varies enormously between townhome communities — shapes the entire reserve study. Here's how townhome associations should approach reserve planning.

The Defining Question: Who Maintains What?

In townhome communities, maintenance responsibility is split between the association and owners in ways that differ dramatically from one community to the next. This split is the single most important factor in townhome reserve planning:

• Some townhome HOAs maintain almost everything — including the roofs, siding, and exteriors of the individual townhome buildings, plus all common areas. These have large reserve obligations resembling a condo's.
• Others maintain only common areas — roads, amenities, landscaping, perhaps perimeter elements — while owners maintain their own roofs, siding, and exteriors. These have smaller reserve obligations resembling a single-family HOA's.
• Many fall in between — the association maintains some building components (often roofs) but not others.

The reserve study must include exactly what the association is responsible for — no more, no less — which requires carefully reading the governing documents. Getting this allocation wrong throws off the entire study. (Component inventory basics.)

The Shared-Roof Factor

The most consequential townhome-specific component is often roofing. In many townhome communities, the association maintains the roofs across all the buildings — and townhome roofs add up:

• Multiple buildings, each with its own roof, create a large aggregate roofing obligation
• Roofs across the community may have been built at the same time, creating clustering where many need replacement together
• Roof type and climate drive the cost and timing significantly

If the association maintains the roofs, roofing is usually the dominant reserve line item, and the clustering of simultaneous roof replacements is a key planning concern. If owners maintain their own roofs, this drops out of the association's reserves entirely — illustrating how much the responsibility split matters.

The Other Townhome Components

Beyond roofs, townhome association reserves may include (depending on the responsibility split):

• Siding, exterior paint, and building envelope (painting/siding) — major if association-maintained
• Private roads and paving — often association-maintained and a significant item (paving)
• Common-area amenities — pools, clubhouses, playgrounds where present
• Landscaping and irrigation (landscaping)
• Fencing, lighting, and entry features
• Drainage and infrastructure

The Clarity Problem

A recurring townhome challenge is ambiguity about responsibility — governing documents that aren't clear about who maintains what, leading to disputes and reserve-planning errors. Where the documents are ambiguous:

• Reserve planning becomes uncertain (what should the study include?)
• Owners and the board may disagree about responsibility
• Components can fall through the cracks — neither the association nor owners clearly responsible, so no one reserves for them

Townhome boards benefit from clarifying responsibility (with counsel if needed) so the reserve study can accurately capture the association's true obligations. Ambiguity is the enemy of accurate townhome reserve planning.

Townhome Reserve Planning Steps

1. Determine exactly what the association maintains — read the governing documents carefully; this drives everything
2. If you maintain roofs, make roofing central — it's usually the dominant item, with clustering risk
3. Include all association-maintained building components — siding, paint, envelope where applicable
4. Don't forget the common areas and infrastructure — roads, amenities, landscaping
5. Clarify any ambiguity — resolve unclear responsibility so nothing falls through the cracks
6. Calibrate to climate and roof type — major drivers of cost and timing
7. Recognize where you fall on the spectrum — condo-like (maintains everything) vs. HOA-like (common areas only)

The Bottom Line

Townhome reserve planning hinges on one question: what does the association maintain versus the owners? The answer varies enormously and shapes the entire study — a townhome HOA that maintains roofs and exteriors has condo-like obligations dominated by roofing and its clustering, while one maintaining only common areas resembles a single-family HOA. Read the governing documents carefully, resolve any ambiguity, and build the study around the association's true responsibilities. The townhome communities that get the responsibility split right — and reserve accordingly — avoid both underfunding and the disputes that ambiguity breeds. For the study basics, see What Is a Reserve Study?.