Asking HOA management company for financial documents

In general, you should be able to inspect (which is not the same as obtaining a copy) the financial records of the Association (check book register, receipts, bank statements, financial reports) but not the ledger of assessment payments for any lot other than your own.


Typically a simple income and expense statement should be enough to satisfy a typical request (as it would show the amount of deposits made to the accounts and the amount of the expenses paid out). Our Association has this statement broken down by months and use the budget to summarize the data for a yearly basis.

Our bank statements do not show who paid and by how much. However, if your statements show this information (perhaps due to direct transfers between accounts) I can understand your Associations concerning in violating the privacy of other members (as this could show who has paid and who hasn't).

Perhaps you can come to a compromise with the Association.

I would suggest that you send a letter indicating that you understand their concern and that you have no desire to learn who has or hasn't paid. Suggest that a compromise would be if they would provide copies of the statements with any owner/lot information blacked out but maintain the dates and amounts of the deposits.

If your Association is not self managed, you may be required to pay for the labor involved to make those modifications to the statements.


You don't mention if your in a COA or HOA.
Therefore I'll provide the links for both:

Maryland Homeowners Association Act
Maryland Condominium Act
Maryland Corporate Statutes applicable if your Association is incorporated

You can access all of MD statutes at http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/mdcode/

Question:

If you care to share, what is it you are looking for or suspect (incorrect deposits, incorrect expenditures, etc.)? I ask because more specific information may provide better advice/opinions.

Bank statements likely wouldn't show that information.

When our Association receives checks from a closing company, they are simply deposited with other checks into our operating account. The statement may or may not show that x amount was transferred to another account. However, it certainly wouldn't indicate if it was your money or a neighbors (especially if we only transfer it once every other month or so). The only documentation I could provide you would be an entry on the ledger for your Account showing that x amount was owed and x amount received.

Therefore, I'm not sure that what your asking for can actually be provided.

I would simply ask for that information -
documentation that the $1,000 was received and check numbers or dates of transfers to show that it went to the appropriate accounts.

I think I found it finally. It's hard to tell when you have checks that are all deposited as one.

What's reasonable to one may be excessive to someone else. It may be best for your board to determine what they want the manager to do, get an estimate and check out their references before making a decision. You might also poll the homeowners to see what they like and don't like about the current manager, if there is one, then have a meeting with them to discuss the problems. Give them a chance to resolve the problems within a certain time limit and go from there. If you do switch companies, be sure you have a transition plan to ensure you get all the records

(Before I moved to my HOA, it had two companies prior to our current one and a lot of stuff got lost in translation)

Actually, if the developer is declaring bankruptcy, you might want to organize the membership and petition the court for control of the Association now vs. after another developer meets the required build out.

Otherwise, I suspect that the court will appoint the management company to act in place of the board.

the management company does not have an obligation to supply documents

your Board of Directors DOES according to state law

send a certified return receipt requested letter to the corporation's Registered Agent requesting examination of any documents

then, and only then, will you have any actual legally enforceable recourse

The property management company company was appointed by the developer/Ryan homes. Now that Ryan Homes is gone and so is the developer I think the bank (controls BOD) who owns the common areas and empty lots is in charge of appointing the management company (L&N). There is also another party involved (Landtech) whom, I was told is marketing our community to potential developers/builders.

all corporations are governed by the corporate law of their state

they are required to be registered with the 'secretary of state'

PA: https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/csearch.asp

search for your hoa by it's EXACT name

state law requires:

a 'registered agent' for the corp.

and/or

an official registered address for mailings

THIS IS THE ONLY LEGALLY ACCEPTABLE PROOF OF NOTIFICATION

oops ...... brain .. is ..dying

MARYLAND !

http://www.sos.state.md.us/

similar system ... same principles

The property developer is East Fields Development LLC and I did a judiciary case search on the Maryland data base to see what bank took over the development. I haven't found the case yet but in other cases In the area the bank has been Talbot bank with the same developer.

you need to contact the Maryland Secretary of State and obtain the registered/resident agent info for your community HOA, Inc.

http://www.sos.state.md.us/

Sorry about that! Thanks for pointing that out. Can the moderators edit my posts?

Thanks for the advice John! I put a voice mail in at the SOS office and hopefully they will get me the information I need!

Christina,

Welcome to the forum.

You gave some good advice.

Are you aware that the thread is almost three years old?

Typically, it's best not to reactivate old threads as the advice given in 2013 may be bad or invalid advice today. This can lead to confusion for those who don't notice the dates.

Tim