Partial management

Check your association documents. Ours allow us to hire employees, contractors, etc. We could hire a management company or an accountant if we wished just as we could hire an electrician or contract with an electrical company.

Thomas,

Just out of curiousity, how large is your association? Why do you feel you need to outsource your bookeeping? Have you considered looking into some alternatives to outsourcing? I am an accountant and would be happy to discuss this further with you. The board of my association is in the process of transitioning from a management company to self-management and the accounting function is one of the hurdles we are working to overcome. Please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at the address in my signature to further discuss.

Roger,

Thank you for the note. I am aware of the additional requirements of accounting in addition to bookeeping (i.e. collecting dues, paying bills, reserve analysis, financial analysis, etc.) and the difficulties an association faces when attempting to go to self-management. The problem my association deals with is we are an association of only 24 units. Therefore the management fee costs add a substantial amount to each unit's monthly dues. We are also currently only paying $360 per month because the management company is also the company that developed the association. They, however, are only in the business of purchasing apartment complexes and converting to condos, not of association management. The owner of the company has been doing our association a favor because he knows that we will pay 2 to 3 times our current monthly rate if we go to another management company. He has made informed the board recently that he does not have a long-term interest in property management, thus the reason for our investigation into self-management. I recently became a member of the board and am just now starting to dig into the financials. From high level, I have realized how poor of a financial state the association is in, so we are in a cost-cutting mode right now because our dues are already pretty high. In my opinion, the association has been poorly managed (I am hesitant to say mis-managed).

As far as liens go...we do not typically place a lien on someone's property until they are 3 to 4 months behind on their payments. In addition, all liens are handled and filed by our lawyer...never by the management company or the board. I can therefore not speak on what are the state requirements, but I can assure you that the co-owers are made aware of their financial standing and given ample opportunity to pay prior to the board placing a lien on their unit. Our constant struggle is we have a few people going through financial hardship and they place a significant burden on the board and other co-owners when they do not pay. We are running very lean right now and are in the process of undergoing a total overhaul of the way the association is managed and the board's approach to the revenues and expenses.

Our situation is not good, but we are taking small steps at a time in hopes of improvement. Nonetheless, I wish Thomas the best of luck and am willing to offer any assistance I can and am interested to follow the progress of his transition to partial management.

Our board took over from the developer in Sept.. The management company was getting an awful lot of money. we really were going to have to raise the dues.. We fired them ..and fired all landscaping and pest control and pool company. Hired other companies that have realistic prices.. Have a community member went and had the training and is now licensed and also a board member.. this really helped cut costs.. we now only hire an a

I am confused does what type of licenses is required for a person to conduct partial management