Personal Information?

Started by PattyB1 • 6 replies • 1540 views

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PattyB1 (Kentucky)
Posts: 40

Posted:

I'm Vp of our HOA.There's something I need to know.Can the treasurer get personal information about the people in the Hoa? If so,what is done with it? Our treasurer keeps all her records in her personal computer. There are no seperate books for the HOA,and I've never seen the finances. Oh, she tells me how much we have,but that's it.I've heard that there is other information that can be obtained about people without their knowlege, is this true? PattyB1

RonaldW (South Carolina)
Posts: 901

Posted:

First, check the CC&Rs and other documents to see what is required for record keeping. Second, since you're on the board, discuss it at the next meeting. All the BOD members should have access to financial records.

As far as "personal information", what information? The treasurer would know who has paid, who has not, etc. But what else could she have that anyone else could not gather?

Ron
SC

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Information that the Association collects may be also be regulated by state law. For instance, Ohio allowed us to add this to our Declarations without a homeowners vote:
Q.Information to be provided.
Within thirty (30) days after a Unit Owner obtains a condominium ownership interest or within thirty (30) days of the date of recording of this Amendment,. the Unit Owner shall provide the following information in writing to the Association through the Board of Directors:
(a)The home address, home and business mailing addresses, and the home and business telephone numbers of the Unit Owner and all occupants of the Unit;
(b)The name, business address, and business telephone number of any person who manages the Owner’s Unit as an agent of that Owner.

Within thirty (30) days after a change in any information required to be provided herein, a Unit Owner shall notify the Association, through the Board of Directors, in writing of the change. When the Board of Directors requests, a Unit Owner shall verify or update the information.

Also if you go to the county recorders web site you can usually view all kinds of information including who holds the mortgage on the property.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

BethS1 (New York)
Posts: 28

Posted:

Word of warning, make her submit bank statements/cancelled checks/receipts at EVERY meeting. We had a similar problem and now 7 months to a year later, NO ONE has records from the previous prez, who actually was let to hold 3 positions, while the others just never took the time. Now things aren't adding up and no one knows anything from that board. Being a board member you have to sometimes push the issue for your own protection. Also having everything on one computer that only one person has access to, is not good which is another problem our new board is running into. As a board member you have to keep up on things and know everything financially that is going on with the funds and how the place is being run. If someone would sue over something, saying "I don't know" isn't going to excuse your responsibility as a board member. Unfortunately it only takes one condo commando to put everyone at risk if they aren't stopped and made to work as a team. So keep on her to release records to the board to all of you. (and don't go by a worksheet she makes up, look at the hard copies of it all).

As far as personal information, if it's just a bunch of information UNRELATED to anything that would deal with the homeowners association or something pertaining to the upkeep, fees, etc..that would directly affect your places, then she needs to get a life.

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

in general, to keep records for the association, you need the lot/address/unit number of the residence, the name of the registered owner, and a mailing address for notices, letters, etc.. You can also include the bank account information of those who pay by check, for accounting purposes. You can run the HOA with only that.

You can ask for (or otherwise legally obtain) phone numbers, emails, and secondary information on members of the household (names, birthdays, etc.), for other business or social purposes... birthday lists, anniversary notices, electronic notices, neighborhood watch, garage watch, etc.

and of course, any other legally available, public record information Can be kept, but i can't think of why you would want to...

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Have you ever had an audit performed? It doesn't cost that much and our CC&R's mandate that we do one annually. Does your treasurer also file your
Associations tax returns? Stress that you're not questioning her honesty or diligence but these things also protect her.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

Patty:

You should make her show you these documents. As for personal information the most they would need is name, address, phone number, maybe email address.

One solution that we have gone to is to use a web based program such as Quickbooks for your finances. This way it is not isolated to just one computer and you can have multiple logins so more than one board member can look. It also solves the problem of how to transition to a new treasurer and prevents losing information in case of a computer crash.

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