Conflict of Interest

Kristy,

First of all, the President didn't fire or hire anyone.
That is a function of the Board.

I'd suggest asking the Board the reasons for the change in companies and what benefits did the Association gain in the process (less expensive, etc.).

The MC is a sub-contractor to the HOA. They are only to do what the HOA tells them to do via a contract. It sounds like your new President is changing the relationship with the MC and the HOA. Which may be a good thing. I will tell you when I became President the first thing I did was fire our Lawn Care. Our HOA needed to get back to business and not Tyranny we had been living with. That decision changed how we did business and awarded contracts.

Now Yes I too got accused of getting "extra" service. However, our Lawn Care company was allowed to do extra work for the members if paid for out of their pocket. Doesn't mean we were friends. It just meant I could pay them for additional service or modify how I wanted my yard taken care of. Which is another thing I did with our new lawn care. Each yard had certain preferences or needs. So gave a map to Lawn care with notes.

What I don't get is this "So and so hired this contractor because they are friends". When was the last time someone hired an enemy to do the work? Plus in my HOA we had a 3 bid rule on every contract. You could recommend "friends, family, or member" as long as they presented a contract, license, and insurance. They do after all have a professional business standards to keep whether or not we break bread or beer together.

Members at my HOA are also concerned about kickbacks. The problem is the occurrence of kickbacks is hard to identify. The most time-efficient route to addressing these concerns it to get on the board yourself, preferably with a like-minded majority.

I don't know who you think you are but don't tell me to be quiet. I came on here for help and obviously didn't get any. If you don't like my post, keep on moving. You are probably getting free stuff, is that why you're salty?

Free service isn't a "Kickback". It's a free additional service. A "kickback" means the person gains in other ways. Like if you hire me, I will send X business to your company. That is a kickback.

Plus how do you know that was "free service" President was getting? When I paid or lawn care to cut some bushes for me besides just mowing, I wrote them a personal check. One that would never be reflected in the HOA bill.

Seems to me this poster is angry about the changes and doesn't like them. No proof of anything but a wagging tongue.

I think replies are worthwhile because this is a issues in some HOAs. We have a rule that none of our staff, e.g., custodians, landscapers, security officers may work AT ALL for individual condo units.. This avoids the appearance of anything shady going on.

The other thing to emphasize is that boards should never, IMO, give the prez the sole power to hire and fire vendors. It is a board responsibility and if the president messes up, the Board will still be liable for lack of due diligence.

Now Kristy may not be certain that the president did this all on his own, but if the prez did, this HOA has troubles!

No & No

We were presented with an interesting proposal. To set the stage. We are satisfied with our MC and our landscaper. Our MC sent an Email saying that they were considering starting a landscaping service and would we be interested?

BOD opinion is we do not want to put all our eggs in one basket but we responded and said if they did, we would allow them to bid on our contract. We are using this opportunity to maybe negotiate a better deal with our present landscaper. We are not looking to lower our cost but more to add a service or two we feel we need.

My opinion at this time is keep then separate but I am open to playing them off on each other. Opinions?