After-hours emergencies

What actually counts as an emergency

"Emergency" is not a legal term with a fixed definition, it is whatever your contract says it is. A burst pipe flooding a hallway, a gas smell, a fire alarm, a downed power line, an elevator trapping someone: these are events most people would agree cannot wait until Monday. A dead lightbulb in the clubhouse, a barking dog complaint, or a slow drain feel urgent to the person calling, but they are not the kind of emergency that justifies bypassing normal spending approval.

The board's job is to write down, in the management contract or a board-adopted policy, what falls into each category before the call comes in at 2 a.m. Deciding in the moment, mid-flood, whether something counts as an emergency wastes the exact time the protocol exists to save.

What your contract should actually promise

No statute or industry standard sets a required after-hours response time for a management company. Check what your own contract commits to rather than assuming an industry norm exists. A usable emergency clause names an on-call number that is actually answered, states who screens the call (the manager, an answering service, a vendor directly), and sets a dollar ceiling the manager may authorize on the spot for a genuine emergency before a board vote is needed.

If your contract only says the manager will "respond promptly," you have no enforceable promise, "promptly" is not a number. Ask for a specific response commitment and a specific spending ceiling in writing, and negotiate both before you sign, not after the first flood.

Who answers when the vendor shows up

The manager who dispatches an emergency vendor is expected to monitor that vendor's work, not personally supervise the plumber or electrician on site.

"responsible for monitoring service providers' performance but not supervising them"

Source: Responsibilities of a Community Manager, CAI, HOAresources

That distinction matters for liability. If the vendor's crew causes further damage through its own error, that is generally the vendor's company's problem, not the manager's, provided the manager acted within the authority the contract or the board gave. What the manager should not do is quietly approve a change order the contract does not cover without telling the board first. Whether the association's fidelity coverage or insurance reaches the resulting loss depends on your policies and your state's rules, so that question belongs with your insurance agent, not a guess.