HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 9, 2015
Published: Fri, 01/09/15
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Having the Urge to Merge with Another Condo or HOA? Read This First
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In this week’s tip, we offer tips for associations that just aren’t
operating smoothly and might want to consider merging with another
association.
“I’ve been asked about mergers before,” explains Joshua Krut, a partner at
Weiss Serota Helfman Cole Bierman & Popok, a law firm with offices in Ft.
Lauderdale and Coral Gables, Fla., that represents about 250
associations. “Typically, it’s a small community, and maybe it was formed
with too many associations, so you really need only one association instead
of three. Sometimes it makes sense to merge the three into one.”
Robert Galvin, a partner at Davis, Malm & D'Agostine PC in Boston who
specializes in representing condos and co-ops, says a merger would be
perfect for one of the associations he represents. “I’ve never seen it,” he
says, “but it can be a very good idea.
“I represent a condo that’s one of four separate condos built by the same
developer, but they’re all in the same community,” explains Galvin. “If you
drove into this community, you’d just see one community with a lot of houses
in it and streets and lawns, and you’d have no idea that technically it’s four
separate condo associations. It would be great if we could merge them
together. It’s wasteful to have four different condos, and it’s harder to
manage them.”
However, the challenge is that in some states, a merger requires total or
near-total approval. “The problem in Massachusetts is that there’s no
statute that permits a merger of condos,” says Galvin. “And it would be very
difficult because you’d have to change everybody’s percentage of
ownership interest. So you’d need 100 percent of owners to approve, and you
probably won’t get it because of one or two people who may not care about the
merger but are upset about something else.”
Find out more about the challenges of a merger, along with alternatives to
merging, in our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/1115.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Start 2015 Off Right with a Free Group Membership Upgrade
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HOAleader.com members can now get a free upgrade to group
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Mergers Work for Corporations. What About Condos and HOAs?
Are things just not running smoothly at your condo or homeowner
association, and you can't figure out why? Maybe you always seem short on
cash. Or maybe you don't have enough people willing to serve on your board.
Here's an idea: How about pooling your resources with that of another
association through a merger?
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Mergers-Work-for-Corporations-What-About-Condos-HOAs.cfm
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HOA Boards: Here are Five Great New Year's Resolutions for 2015
While you're resolving to improve your personal life, don't forget to
improve your HOA board operations, too. In this week's tip, we get you
started with two of five things boards should do and stop doing.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/HOA-Boards-Here-are-Five-Great-New-Years-Resolutions-for-2015.cfm
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It's a New Year! Five Things HOA Boards Should Resolve to Do -- and Stop Doing
Our experts suggest you turn over a new leaf in 2015. Here are five things they
say board members should be doing but often don't, along with things board
members do but shouldn't.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/New-Year-Five-Things-HOA-Boards-Should-Resolve-To-Do-And-Stop-Doing.cfm
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Emergency Situation: Only One HOA Board Member Remains
In this week's tip, we deliver a rapid response to a reader who's the last
person standing on an association board. What can a lonely board member do to
get others to serve--and fast?
The easiest thing--and we use that term advisedly--is for our sole
remaining board member to appoint a fellow board member, and then for the two
of them to appoint another, and so on. (Of course, first he has to convince
them to serve, but we're assuming he's got some sympathetic neighbors who
are willing to step up.)
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Emergency-Situation-Only-One-HOA-Board-Member-Remains.cfm
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Solo Board Member Needs Immediate Help: Can This Situation be Fixed?
An HOAleader.com reader writes, "Our association has struggled for years
to get members to volunteer for the board or for that matter anything else. We
began one year ago with the five members that are required for the board.
Since that time, one by one they have either quit, moved, or given up and
walked away disgusted with the amount of work that's needed and the abuse and
disrespect of the members of the community.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Solo-Board-Member-Needs-Immediate-Help-Can-This-Situation-be-Fixed.cfm
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