Home Owner's Association and “Termites”

Recently, we participated in the Home Owner's Association (HOA) meeting for our townhouse. We are not owners. Our landlord invited us to the HOA annual meeting and introduced us to owners in our complex. We knew some of the neighbors, but not all of them. It was a good opportunity for us. We joined halfway through the meeting. The agenda was based on current problems and they discussed solutions in the meeting.

I heard some words which I didn’t know during the meeting. One of them was the word “termite”. The termite issue took a long time, but I didn’t know the word at the meeting. I could guess the meaning from some key words while they were discussing the problem. For example, I heard the words, inspection, floor space, big damage, and so on. After the meeting, I asked my landlord about the meaning of termite and he told me. The owners decided to do a termite inspection sometime in the near future. In Japan, a dishonest inspector is a more serious problem than the termites themselves. They rip of money from older people through dishonest inspections. What is the situation in the U.S?

I learned a lot in the meeting, especially new words. Also, it is great I now know all the neighbors. We met all the neighbors in our complex. Contract, I knew only a few neighbors in my condo when I lived in Japan.