What should go in an HOA board's emergency preparedness plan?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 23, 2026

What goes in an HOA emergency preparedness plan: contact tree, vendor emergency numbers, shutoff map, spending authority, insurance claim steps, and message templates.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

What the plan is for

An emergency plan is the set of decisions a board makes on a calm Tuesday so that it does not have to make them at 2 a.m. while water pours through a ceiling. Ready.gov, the federal preparedness site run by FEMA, describes a business plan as covering emergency response, crisis communications, business continuity, and IT recovery. A small association does not need a binder the size of a phone book. It needs a few pages that answer who gets called, who can authorize work, where the shutoffs are, how owners hear about it, and what to do for the insurance claim. Separate guides cover how to call an emergency board meeting and what emergency powers a board has under law and the governing documents. This guide is about the practical plan that sits underneath those.

Contact tree and roles

Name a primary emergency contact and a backup, and list their cell numbers. For most small associations the primary is the president or a designated director. Write down who calls whom: the first person to learn of a problem calls the primary, the primary calls the vendor and the insurance agent, and a second director handles owner communication. Include every director's cell number and email, the management company's after-hours line if you have one, and the association's attorney. List the utility emergency numbers for gas, electric, and water, plus the non-emergency police line. Add a line at the top of the page that tells anyone reading it to call 911 first when life or safety is at risk. Update the tree every time the board changes.

Vendor emergency numbers and standing arrangements

List the vendors you would need in the first 24 hours: a plumber, an electrician, a roofer, a water mitigation or restoration company, a tree service, a locksmith, a gate or access control company, a board-up service, and the snow contractor if you have one. For each, write the after-hours number, the account or customer number, and whether a contract is in place. Call each vendor before you need them and ask whether they give contract customers priority during regional events. After a big storm, the restoration companies with existing customers usually get there first. Keep a current certificate of insurance on file for each so that nobody has to chase paperwork while the roof is open.

Shutoff map and site information

Make a map of the common elements with the locations of the main water shutoffs, irrigation shutoffs and backflow devices, gas meters, electrical panels and disconnects, fire sprinkler risers, the pool equipment room, elevator machine rooms if any, and the storm drains. Photograph each valve and panel and add the photos to the plan with a one-line description of how to reach it. Ready.gov's safety guidance says people should know how to shut off water, gas, and electricity, and warns that once gas is turned off, only a qualified professional should turn it back on. Put that rule in your plan in plain words. Note where keys are kept for locked rooms and who holds copies. Store the building plans, the reserve study, and the insurance policy where two directors can reach them from their phones.

Spending authority decided in advance

The most common delay in an HOA emergency is nobody knowing who can approve the mitigation company's work order. Read your governing documents and state law for what the board may do without a meeting or owner vote, then adopt a short resolution. For example: the president, or in the president's absence any two directors, may authorize up to $10,000 of emergency work to stop ongoing damage or remove a safety hazard, and must report it at the next board meeting. Write down which bank account pays for it and who can make that payment. If your state law or documents require a meeting to ratify emergency spending, put that step in the plan too.

First steps for an insurance claim

Put the master policy number, the insurer's claim line, the agent's name and cell number, and the deductible in the plan. Then write the first steps in order. Stop further damage if it is safe. Photograph and video the damage before cleanup, with a wide shot and close-ups. Keep damaged materials until the adjuster says they can be discarded, or photograph them carefully. Call the agent the same day. Keep every receipt for emergency work. Record which units were affected and whether owners should also call their own insurance, since the boundary between the association's policy and owners' policies depends on your documents. A separate guide covers whether to file a claim at all for smaller losses.

Message templates written ahead

Draft three or four short notices now and save them where any director can send them. A water shutoff notice: what is happening, which buildings, when service should return, and who to call. A storm notice: when to move cars for plowing, what common areas are closed, and how to report damage. An incident notice: what happened, what the association has done, what owners should do, and when the next update will come. A follow-up: what has been fixed, what remains, and what insurance or cost questions are still open. Ready.gov stresses that the need to communicate is immediate in an emergency. Decide which channels you will use, such as email, text, a portal, and paper notices on doors, and keep an up-to-date list of owner and tenant contacts.

Test the plan once a year

Ready.gov separates testing, which checks whether a part of the plan works, from exercises, which practice people's roles. For an HOA, both can happen in one hour. Once a year, walk the property with the shutoff map and confirm every valve is where the map says and can be turned. Call every vendor number. Then run a short tabletop exercise at a board meeting: read a scenario out loud, such as a burst pipe in the clubhouse on a holiday weekend, and have each director say what they would do and who they would call. Note what went wrong, fix the plan, and date the new version. A plan that has not been opened since the last board left office is mostly a list of old phone numbers.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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