HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - March 11, 2016
Published: Fri, 03/11/16
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How to Get a Meddlesome HOA Board Member to Butt Out
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In this week’s tip, we answer a call for help from a community manager. The problem? Board members who go rogue and deal directly with vendors. That mucks up lines of communication, can send vendors mixed messages, and can cost your association money or the loss of a trusted vendor.
In fact, David Firmin, a partner at Hindman Sanchez, a law firm in Arvada, Colo., with about 1,600 association clients, is dealing with this issue in real time. “I’m about to call a board member who has run off all the contractors from this association; they won’t work with the community anymore,” he reports. “When board members do this, it can cost your association money because vendors will charge you more, and some won’t even work with you at all.”
This happens more often than community associations like, asserts Matt D. Ober, senior partner at Richardson Harman Ober, a Pasadena, Calif., law firm with a significant community association practice.
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HOA Board Members and Fiduciary Duties:
What You Must Know to Fulfill Your Duty to Your Association
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On-Demand Webinar, Recorded on Feb. 25, 2016.
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Though it’s not perfectly clear, it sure sounds like the reader who asked for help is a community manager. Still, Ober has a suspicion on where this situation arises most.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say it probably happens more in self-managed communities where there’s no independent manager,” he guesses. “Where you have a manager, you have both contractual authority and certain implied authority to act, and it’s really the manager’s responsibility to handle the vendors. Usually, things like this are a board issue delegated to management. If board members step in, they’re interfering with management and the contractual responsibly. It’s best that any issues are discussed at the board level and then communicated through management; let management handle these tasks.”
Whether it’s a board or a manager seeking to rein in a board member stepping outside the lines of authority, there are solutions. See three of them in our new article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/1336.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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We Love Active HOA Board Members. But Not This Active
An HOAleader.com reader asks: "Can you do an article on board members who think they're management, please? Every month I leave the meeting with a task list and start calling the maintenance guy or vendors only to find out that a board member has beat me to it. The vendors don't like answering to multiple contacts, and the board member who says she's trying to help is only creating mass confusion. The same board member approaches vendors onsite, mostly the landscapers, and tells them things she wants done, but doesn't tell the board or management. But when it doesn't get done, it's a huge deal and time to fire the landscapers and why wasn't the management following up on something we knew nothing about. I hear about this happening on other properties, so obviously it's a common problem."
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/We-Love-Active-HOA-Board-Members-But-Not-This-Active.cfm
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HOA Reserve Planning: Is It Time for an Onsite Inspection?
How long has it been since your HOA had an onsite inspection of your facilities and all their components so that you could update your reserve study? Be honest: It's probably been a while, right?
In this week's tip, we talk about why and when to schedule one.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/public/HOA-Reserve-Planning-It-Time-for-Onsite-Inspection.cfm
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Onsite Inspections for Your HOA Reserve Study: What to Know
Did you know you should--maybe you're even required to--have an onsite inspection as part of your reserve planning?
How often do you need to make that happen? And who should do it? Here we give you a head start.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Onsite-Inspections-for-Your-HOA-Reserve-Study-What-Know.cfm
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HOA Executive Sessions: Don't Blab After the Fact
In this week's tip, we talk about that fine line between protecting confidential information and keeping your owners informed of what the board's doing. Why? A reader has asked why the board can't tell owners what it discussed in executive session.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/public/HOA-Executive-Sessions-Dont-Blab-After-Fact.cfm
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What to Tell HOA Owners About Executive Session (And Why Not Make All Owners Board Members?)
An HOAleader.com reader asks: "Our association has 28 units and a 7-member board. The current board seems a pretty tightly knit group, and they often meet in 'executive session' and exclude those outside of the group with the argument that they're discussing confidential legal matters relating to unpaid assessments. No one is ever told the results of these executive sessions, and apparently no minutes are kept.
Click here to read full article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/What-Tell-HOA-Owners-About-Executive-Session-And-Why-Not-Make-All-Owners-Board-Members.cfm
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