Need Help Terminating Management Company

Let me first start by saying that this website is a great resource for communities that have an HOA! I have been able to learn a great deal about various processes, and the business in general.

My community of 170 homes has elected to terminate our management company effective February 1, 2016. After much deliberation and planning, we will be going the route of self-management. We have weighed the pros and cons of each, and feel that this is the best financial decisions for our community. Plus, this is our second management group in a year, so we are not interested in switching to another company at this time. We will be notifying the company in writing via certified mail within the next week. However, I want to make sure I am covering all of my bases when it comes to requesting all of "property." Here is what I have thus far:

Requesting no later than December 15, 2015:

1. Requesting a copy of all data that they have on our residents in Excel or text tab-delimited format. I would like to start the data import process, and simply add new residents as sales take place.

2. A ledger report of all members and their current balances

3. A report of all open AND closed violations

4. All vendor contracts (current and historical)

5. All insurance policies (current and historical)

6. All invoices (paid and outstanding)

Requesting no later than January

I will also be requesting a final copy of all resident data by January 25, 2016.

One thing I am not sure how to handle yet is the transfer of our funds. They utilize an HOA trust account that the board has no access to. Should we simply request some "seed money" to open our new business account, and then request the remaining account balance 10 days after agreement termination? Or, should we request that they wire the entire account balance by a certain date? Finally, should I notify our vendors at the same time to start forwarding their monthly invoices to our new PO Box instead of the management company? I would then be able to forward those that need immediate payment to the management company, and hold those that are not due until after the agreement ends to be paid from our new account.

Is there anything that I appear to be missing? Anything else I should be on the lookout for?

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Learn from this and use your own bank accounts.

I think the idea of removing some money now with the balance later is sound. Hopefully you know how much is in the account. This will also give you an early indication of how much push-back the MC will give you on terminating their services.

Also currently in the process of changing PMs. Below is a list of information our new PM requested. Hope this helps and good luck to you!

1. Covenant, Conditions & Restrictions, By-Laws, Articles of Incorporation, Rules, etc…
2. Current Budget or DRE
3. Reserve Study
4. Last Tax Return
5. Current Financial Statement
6. Accounts Receivable – Aging
7. Owner’s Directory, showing address and telephone number
8. Owner’s Ledgers showing current balances/recent payments
9. Monthly Dues amount
a. due date
b. late fee
c. end of month interest charge
10. Federal Tax ID Number
11. Current Board of Directors
12. Most recent Bank Statement for all accounts
13. Current Account Payables
14. Vendor’s List