Tracking voilations

If you have had several management companies one must ask if they are the problem?

There may be such a program, and you might be able to come up with something using Excel or Access - get a really good computer geek to help you set up a program. However, you will need to find someone who's willing to use it if the board wants to monitor violations on its own - what do you do if that person isn't able to continue for whatever reason and the replacement isn't as dedicated or competent (there are some people who still aren't well versed with computers). Are YOU willing to put in the time to develop such a program and then run it?

It's true management companies can be expensive and sometimes cumbersome to work with, but the reason you have one is that board members and advisory committees don't always have the time or expertise to do the work themselves (they do have a life outside of the association). If they aren't doing what you want, you and your board will either have to do the work yourselves or keep looking for another company.

Then again....are you sure you aren't trying to micromanage them? Maybe your board hasn't been clear enough on what it wants to be done - or no one has read the contract to see exactly what the management company is supposed to do, so start there. If you want something that's not in the contract, you'll need to negotiate a price for that (because it won't be free) and that will have to be reflected in your budget.

Next, consider what your biggest problems are. Are violation letters being sent out in a timely manner? Are they clear as to what the problem is, what must be done to resolve it, appeal rights, etc? How often are community inspections done and are those being done on time? Once you identify the problems, have a sit down with your property manager AND upper management, if necessary. Come up with a plan to fix the problem, along with deadlines and then re-evaluate at the appropriate time.

You might also consider subcontracting the work - prepare a request for proposal and send them out to other management companies to see if they're willing to do this work only and what that would entail. Then do your due diligence, which should include getting references and checking them. Have fun!

We presently have an owner who is geek and he setting up a MS Office Excel database to track violations primarily by address as the owners may change. Other fields will be sort able like owners name, date, etc.

It was disappointing after spending this spring having volunteers along with the management company inspect the neighborhood of 330 homes and come up with a volition report only to have the management company not follow through with any of it. Yes, we kept asking for an update , where do we stand etc and now fall is here. So they assigned us a new manager. Try again next year. repeat.

We spend close to 30k a year for basically a billing service.

Looking into this program.

http://www.smartwebs365.com/smartviolations/