self dealing?

Our POA has a property manager who oversees our groundskeeper. The groundskeeper is the husband of the manager. Both have the approval of the majority of the board. Some members and board members see a conflict of interest here. What do you think?

Randy - Does the manger get bids for the groundskeeping? If your present groundskeeper is the lowest bid I don't see a conflict. This would be one question to ask your Board. Normally, most HOA's get bids for work performed. Hope this helps. By the way, I don't believe you can take the 2nd post off. You could go in and say this was posted twice and please respond to other post.

In property management, such as apartments and self-storage facilities, it is quite common for the wife to be the manager and the husband to be the flunky. I see no conflict of interest unless . . . the groundskeeping is not acceptable and the property manager fails to take corrective action. I have seen property management situations where both husband and wife got the axe because one spouse was not doing his/her part. That is the danger your property manager and her husband face.

In this case, the couple is performing their work with the knowledge and approval of the board. I see no conflict of interest as nothing seems to be hidden.

Randy

On the surface, there could be issues but I would need more information to make a decision.

What is it your groundskeeper does?

If not filled by this person (the hubby of the manager) how would the position be filled?

Has the hiring of another person or contracting the position out been discussed.

If the person does good work and at a fair price, why change?

As I said, there could be issues but that does not mean it does not work for your association.

Randy,

I agree that this is likely a conflict of interest.

However, just because there is a conflict of interest doesn't indicate anything illegal is happening.
I refer you to davis-striling.com's conflict of interest page.

If the conflict was disclosed to the board, if (because the husband was bidding) the manager wasn't providing information on other bids, If the work done is satisfactory and if there is the proper insurance, then the conflict is minimized and the Association may be getting better service (since the work of one spouse could affect the contract renewal of the other).

If your concerned that the Association is paying too much, ask to see a blind comparison (company names removed) of the bids. If your concerned that the work isn't being done properly, point the issues out to the manager with a copy to all board members.

As John said, more information would be needed before it can be determined if the perceived issues are actual issues.

The bottom line here would be for me what kind of job are they doing and is their price fair? If they are perfroming satisfactory work then why bother looking for issues when you might not want to find them.

Wives and husbands today have jobs and sometimes those jobs overlap. Now in some cases the husband who does the landscaping MIGHT even take special care of YOUR property becuase his wife's job performance in part depends on it.

I ahve a friend who owns a landscaping company. He bought a home in a high end community where he duid the landscaping services. Well some of the legal eagles on the property "found" that to be a conflict. Never considering the fact this was HIS home and he had a personal interest in doing a BETTER job. Well the Board was convinced to let him go. Then they ended up paying MORE $$$$$ and the property looked worse. But there was no conflict! Job well done...................

Sometimes in some cases better to leave well enough alone.