HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - March 18, 2011
Published: Fri, 03/18/11
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Is Your HOA Getting Fleeced?
Know the Signs of Financial Shenanigans
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In this week's tip, we discuss two signs that your HOA is being
defrauded or suffers from sloppy financial recordkeeping. Either
way, you're losing money, and you should start digging deeper to
staunch the flow. Be on the lookout for:
1. Checks written to individuals, not the association.
"Ask questions if board members begin receiving checks written to
themselves in their own names rather than the association,"
advises Jed L. Frankel, a partner at Eisinger, Brown, Lewis,
Frankel & Chaiet PA in Hollywood, Fla., who advises community
associations. "That happened at one association, and it didn't
raise red flags for anyone for a while." It turned out that a
board member was asking people who owed money to the association
to make checks out to him and pocketing funds that should have
gone into the association's coffers.
2. Association checks are made out to association members.
"You sometimes see board members make checks out to themselves,"
says Frankel. "That's not frequent because it's so blatant. Most
times, it's a board trying to run its own affairs. It doesn't
have an outside accountant or management company involved, and
board members leave the accounting to one or two people. That's
where you see people writing checks to themselves, hiring
themselves to perform services, or reimbursing themselves for
things they've allegedly bought for the association. It's
difficult to prove those were improper after the fact."
These are just two of five signs of fraud or financial sloppiness
for HOAs that we outline in a new article. Read all five now:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/552.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Is Your HOA Getting Fleeced? Know the Signs of Financial
Shenanigans
In this week's tip, we discuss two signs that your HOA is being
defrauded or suffers from sloppy financial recordkeeping. Either
way, you're losing money, and you should start digging deeper to
staunch the flow.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/public/553.cfm >
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HOA Finances: Five Signs of Fraud or Financial Sloppiness for
HOAs
Typically before HOAs learn of fraud or financial ineptitude on
the part of their treasurer or manager, there are small signs
that should have been red flags. Here we provide five signs that
your HOA funds may be in jeopardy.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/members/552.cfm >
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HOA Governing Documents Explained
HOA gurus freely banter about the terms "CC&Rs," "bylaws," "rules
and regs," and "governing documents." But what exactly are those
documents, and which are the most and least powerful? In this
article, we lay out what constitutes each governing document and
sort out which ones have more authority than others.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/members/551.cfm >
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HOA Litigation: How to Avoid It
Litigation gobbles up time and money, and your home owners
association should do all it can to avoid becoming embroiled in
it. In a new HOAleader.com article, we provide seven rules your
HOA should follow to limit its risk of ending up in court. In
this week's tip, we offer two of those rules.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/public/550.cfm >
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Seven Rules for Avoiding HOA Litigation
Lawsuits often end up siphoning off money from your homeowners
association that perhaps never needed to be spent. Here, our
legal experts offer up seven rules for implementing policies and
procedures and dispute-resolution practices that reduce the
number of lawsuits your HOA is involved in.
Click here to read full article:
< http://www.hoaleader.com/members/549.cfm >
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