HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 10, 2014
Published: Fri, 01/10/14
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Be Sure Your HOA Passes Its Annual Check Up
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In this week's tip, we discuss your annual check up. If you're
running your HOA like a top, you should be doing certain things
annually. Here are just three of seven crucial tasks you should
have on your annual to-do list:
1. Create a plan for the year.
"I'd conduct a strategic planning session to determine what you'd
like to accomplish for the year," says Steven Parker, president
of FirstService Residential Nevada in Las Vegas, which manages
hundreds of community associations. "You should be addressing
what would make you successful for the year and then set some
goals to achieve those successes."
2. Update your longer-term plan.
"Around this time of year, there are a lot of elections and board
changes," says Bill Worrall, vice president of Hollywood,
Fla.-based FirstService Residential, formerly The Continental
Group; it manages 1,300 condominium and homeowner associations
totaling 310,000 residential units. "I'd sit down with your
manager and review your five-year plan to make sure we're all
still in alignment for the coming year.
That includes revisiting your vision of the community and
determining the bigger projects you want to work on and get
completed because a lot of that has to do with finding funding
and getting proposals."
3. If they're not already finalized, get your finances in order.
"Often, this is done by the end of the previous year," says Jed
L. Frankel, a partner at Eisinger, Brown, Lewis, Frankel & Chaiet
PA in Hollywood, Fla., who advises community associations. "But
if not, the board should look at the association's finances. If
you have an accountant, actually read the reports the accountant
has prepared. If you have someone in-house handling your
finances, make sure that person is providing account statements
and balance sheets, and review those, too."
We've spelled out four more steps you should take to be sure your
HOA remains healthy in the coming year. Get them all in our new
article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/938.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Time for Your Seven-Step Annual HOA Check Up
If you're running your HOA like a top, you should be doing certain things
annually. Here's a rundown of seven crucial annual tasks.
Click here to read full article:
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Who Knew HOA Accounting Was So Complicated?
In this week's tip, we give you leg up in figuring out how to assess late fees.
It's not as easy as most people think.
Click here to read full article:
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7 Steps to Properly Account for Late HOA Fees
An HOAleader.com reader has asked for some guidance on how to account for
late fees. It sounds easy, but it's actually fraught with complications.
For example, when is a payment considered late? In California, for
instance, state law says an assessment is delinquent 15 days after it is due.
So if a payment is due on the first, is it considered late on the 16th of the
month? And generally, if a payment is three months delinquent, can a late fee
be applied for each month? What other catches might trip up HOAs when it comes
to computing late fees? Here our experts give readers insight on how to
proceed.
Click here to read full article:
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When to Remove an HOA Board Member From Office--But Not the Board
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "[I'm c]urrently on a HOA board in Arizona,
which is part of a large condo complex. Our current president has taken
numerous actions that are not in the best interest of the owners. What is the
proper procedure to remove the current president from that position and
move him to strictly a board member role, knowing that he will most likely
quit? (Big ego.) Here, we answer two questions: Is that typically how it's
done: you remove a director from office--but not the HOA board--by a
majority vote of the board? Also, that's a serious step to take. So when is
removing a board member from office warranted, especially since you'll
still have to work with that person on the board?
Click here to read full article:
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Can You Screen and Reject Potential Owners? Florida County Says Yes, But Say
Why
Commissioners of Broward County, Fla., recently passed an ordinance
requiring HOAs to provide written notice to rejected applicants detailing
the reason for the rejection. Here we explain the ordinance and discuss
whether other states allow associations to approve or reject potential HOA
purchasers and renters, and the pros and cons.
Click here to read full article:
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