How should an Arizona HOA plan reserves for monsoon season?

The National Weather Service treats June 15 to September 30 as Arizona’s monsoon season. For an association, those months bring three kinds of damage: wind against walls and trees, water across streets and through drainage, and sudden heavy rain on roofs that have spent the summer baking. Some of that is predictable wear and belongs in the reserve plan. Some of it is a loss and belongs with the insurer.

Split predictable wear from one-off losses

A reserve study deals with components that wear out on a schedule. A wall section that a microburst flattens is not on a schedule; it is an insurance claim or an operating repair. But the slow work storms do every year is predictable, and it adds up:

• block wall sections that lean a little more after each season, and cracked caps;
• silt in retention basins, catch basins and drywells;
• erosion at wash banks, culvert ends and the edges of private streets;
• roof coatings and flashings that open up under heavy rain after months of heat;
• tree work along walls and pools after wind damage.

Ask your provider to give these their own lines with short lives, rather than burying them in a “contingency” figure. A line you can see is a line the board will fund.

Walls: repair lines, not just replacement

Most studies give perimeter block walls a long life, often decades, and a single replacement cost at the end. That misses how Arizona walls actually fail: a run at a time, usually where irrigation keeps the footing wet or where a wash runs close. A better study carries a yearly or five-yearly allowance for wall repair, sized from what the community has actually spent, next to the long-range replacement line.

If you have records of wall repairs from the last few seasons, send them to the provider before the visit. They are the best evidence for sizing that allowance.

Drainage you cannot see on a dry day

Retention basins, scuppers, culverts and drywells are easy to overlook during a site visit in March. Make a list of everything that carries water on the property and walk it with the provider. In the Phoenix area, the Flood Control District of Maricopa County publishes floodplain maps that show whether washes cross or border your land.

Put drainage cleaning on a short cycle in the study, and ask for a separate line for any structure that will eventually need rebuilding, such as a culvert under the entry drive.

Roofs after a hot summer

Where the association maintains roofs, the end of the monsoon is the time to look. Foam and coated low-slope roofs, common on older condos, need recoating long before they need replacing, and the study should carry the recoating as its own line. Tile roofs rarely fail at the tile; it is the underlayment beneath that ages, and a leak during a storm is often the first sign.

What the board can do this year

1. After the season ends, walk the property with your manager and photograph every wall, drain and roof problem.
2. Total what storm-related repairs cost from operating funds in the last three years.
3. Bring both to your next study or update, and ask for repair allowances where the pattern repeats.
4. Review your insurance deductible: a high deductible pushes more of each storm loss onto reserves or operating funds.

If your association has not had a study in five years or more, the Arizona HOA reserve study page explains how to request a quote, and the Arizona rules page covers what buyers see about your reserves.

Sources

• National Weather Service, Phoenix forecast office
• National Weather Service, Tucson forecast office
• Flood Control District of Maricopa County
• Community Associations Institute, Reserve Study Standards (in Reserve Studies and Funding Resources, January 2024)