HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - November 9, 2018
Published: Fri, 11/09/18
=================================================================
6 Steps to Safeguarding the Personal Info Your Owners' and Residents' Give Your Condo or HOA
=================================================================
In this week's tip, we ask if you're doing enough to protect your owners' and residents' personal information.
Here's the deal: You likely have your owners' and residents' email addresses. Phone numbers, too. Certainly mailing addresses, right? And you may have more than that depending on the amenities and services your condo or HOA offers. For instance, you may also have a credit card on file to pay for incidentals at your clubhouse.
The big question, then, is whether you're doing enough to safeguard that information.
Your first task is to check your state law to see if it defines what's called PII, or personally identifiable information. Most states have such a law, and most require that entities that take in that information take certain steps to protect it. Many also have provisions that spell out your requirements to fix the problem if there's been an improper release or breach of the information.
It's primarily residents' phone numbers and email addresses that are kept at her company, says Mary Arnold, CMCA®, AMS®, the Austin, Texas-based national director of training and community association management support at RealManage, an association management firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that oversees properties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and Texas.
"In my experience, HOAs typically aren't selling that information, and they're not giving out their mailing lists to others, which is good," she adds. "We also accept ACH [essentially, electronic] payments, and people have expressed concerns about providing their banking information to the HOA. But with our clients, that information is going right to the bank, not to the HOA. That's the only thing people have expressed concern about."
Some associations in Michigan may also have additional information. "It's primarily personal email addresses, cell phone numbers, and if owners have a second home—in Michigan we have a lot of snowbirds—we want to know the alternative living location of people who live in another state part of the year," reports Joe Wloszek, a member at Hirzel Law in Farmington, Mich., which represents more than 100 community associations; he lived in a condo for seven years and now lives in an HOA.
"Also, when we get into collections with somebody, we've had their driver's license or their Social Security number in the records."
For the most part, this issue of protecting the private information of your residents isn't one that boards of many community associations are mulling.
"I think it's not as much on people's radar as it probably should be," reports Matthew A. Drewes, a shareholder at DeWitt Mackall Crounse & Moore S.C. in Minneapolis. "I've seen news items from around the country about board members for, in some cases, community organizations but also for common-interest communities where their email has been hacked.
"I've also seen reports of somebody having been impersonating them in email requests for financial information or for money to be sent somewhere that wasn't a genuine request—it was somebody trying to scam the association for money," he adds.
"That may be a little bit of a different issue in some ways that simply protecting your residents' personal information, but it really should be an eye-opener that creative criminals will find ways to access information and learn people's identities," warns Drewes. "If we as organizations aren't thinking of the way to safeguard the information we do have, we could be opening ourselves to problems."
We've got six tips to get you started on protecting the information entrusted to you. Read them in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/3814.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
=================================================================
Upcoming Event -- THIS THURSDAY!
Easier Enforcement of Your HOA's Rules:
How to Create Enforceable Rules, Effective Fines, and a Fair Violation Process
Thursday, November 15, 2018
2:00 p.m. Eastern
An Exclusive HOAleader.com Webinar
With Practical Tips for Condo and HOA Boards
Learn more or register now:
https://www.hoaleader.com/products/easier-enforcement-of-hoa-rules-a.cfm
Members save $30!
=================================================================
Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
=================================================================
Privacy Laws and Your Condo/HOA's Data: 6 Steps to Protect Owners' Data
You likely have your owners' and residents' email addresses. Phone numbers, too. Certainly mailing addresses, right? And you may have more than that depending on the amenities and services your condo or HOA offers. For instance, you may also have a credit card on file to pay for incidentals at your clubhouse.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Privacy-Laws-Your-CondoHOAs-Data-6-Steps-Protect-Owners-Data.cfm
=================================================================
Here's Why You Might Want to Adopt California's New Condo/HOA Law
In this week's tip, we give you highlights of California Assembly Bill 2912, which was just passed in September and takes effect Jan. 1, 2019, that's designed to prevent fraud and embezzlement in community associations. Its provisions might be wise for you to adopt even if you're not required to do that under your own state's laws.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/Heres-Why-You-Might-Want-Adopt-Californias-New-CondoHOA-Law.cfm
=================================================================
New California Law Seeks to Prevent Condo, HOA Fraud; How You Can Benefit, Too
California Assembly Bill 2912, just passed in September and taking effect Jan. 1, 2019, is designed to prevent fraud and embezzlement in community associations.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/New-California-Law-Seeks-Prevent-Condo-HOA-Fraud-How-You-Can-Benefit-Too.cfm
=================================================================
Have You Heard of a Source-of-Income Discrimination Claim--By a Condo or HOA Owner?
Well, this is a new one on us. A Chicago condo owner who was banned from doing short-term rentals of the unit filed a discrimination complaint alleging that the condo association was discriminating against the owner on the basis of the owner's "source of income."
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Have-You-Heard-SourceofIncome-Discrimination-ClaimBy-Condo-or-HOA-Owner.cfm
=================================================================
Easier Enforcement of Your HOA's Rules: Steps to Create Enforceable Rules, Effective Fines, and a Fair Violation Process
Enforcing rules doesn't have to be a pitched, tense, and unpleasant battle between your homeowner association board and your homeowners. With some smart planning, you can make enforcing your HOA's rules fairer, quicker, easier, and less stressful. Join us for an in-depth webinar on November 15 led by two community association experts: a lawyer with more than a decade of hands-on experience in advising associations on how to create and enforce rules, along with a veteran association manager and recognized educator with insights on the day-to-day operations of rules enforcement. You'll get practical ideas, systems, and processes you can begin to take advantage of at your association the minute the webinar ends.... keep reading
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/products/easier-enforcement-hoa-rules-a.cfm
=================================================================
Get your own copy!
Subscribe to the HOAleader.com Tip of the Week at:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/department49.cfm
=================================================================
Please feel free to forward the *entire text* of this email to others.
Copyright 2018, Plain-English Media, LLC
(866) 641-4548
https://www.hoaleader.com