Property Management Company acting as HOA owners

I’m an 8 year condo resident and 1 year owner in my community. My first board meeting was this month. I found it odd that the Prop Mgr had a seat at the table with the 3 member board and the president kept referring to him for answers. Every time I email the pres she copies the Mgr..
They have managed here since 2005
The last year end audit was in 2009. We had to vote for an audit, yes or no. I inquired and was promptly told we would have one Q1 2019 regardless of vote.
In Florida, it’s required every three years so I’m concerned.
The complex is 270 units, took a hit in the recession (foreclosed units were rented by brokers and not fullfiling HOA $ obligation) but now solvent with all units owned, mostly investors though and no reserves. Apparently it was voted every year by proxy to not fully fund the reserves.
Assessments are coming up for roof replacement and I’m Not confident in this mgmt company working for us, it’s if we are apartments, which is what folks are saying they want to convert to. Assessments are going to be $180 month for 5 years and bids are back. I suspect the mgmt company is associated with the bank lender since he told me we had a loan from them in 2007 to maintain the property. I’m running for the board, election by proxy and meeting is February 2019. Current president is out of state 6-8 months a year and flies in for year end meeting. I think that’s the only way to get ahold of docs, contracts, etc. but afraid I’ve made too much noise already and won’t win.
any insight? Afraid I’m going to lose my place eventually. I can afford the assessments but not sure all residents can.

The subject title is "Property Management Acting as HOA owners". Your comment is that the president is out 6-8 months of the year. You are a 270 unit complex. If you are a condo, god help you.

With that being said, if the Board ain't running the place, who else is. Don't mean to sound condescending, but this is your first board meeting in 8 years? You are not alone in that after the financial collapse in 2008, many of your type of complex were swallowed up by investors a dn guess what, they are just looking out for their bottom line. If things are going well for the investors (owners) change is not something you are going to be looking for.

Thanks for the insight. I was a renter for 7 year and now an owner for 1 year so not eligible to attend for 7 years.

You are not running quickly

First, Laura, you seem correct to be concerned, but you need to separate out different issues form one another.

1. It is very common for property managers to attend and speak a lot about the complex. Do you have onsite management--I'm guessing your do, and with so many absentee owners and a useless board, the PM will know more about your property than anyone.

2. Reserves. You say they'e not fully-funded, but that's not unusual. what % funded are they?Is it try as you say that there are NO reserves? Or just not enough? Of course funds should have been accumulated in reserves today for roofing. But since they're aren't enough, owners will have to s pay a special assessment. This is entirely the fault of the board as PMs, at least the 4 I know of in my HOA's past 12 years, always have recommended to the board that more be collected for reserves.

3. How many directors do your bylaws say you must have? Or is a range stated, e.g., 3-9? Sure run for the board. Apply to the existing board to fill a vacancy.

4. What do you mean you're running for the board by "proxy?"

I don't comprehend some of your other statements, Laura.

Laura

It is not uncommon for a BOD to acquiesce to a MC. Typically done for several reasons such as:

1. The BOD does not want to play the "heavy".

2. The BOD Members do not have the time nor inclinations to manage as they should.

3. The BOD relies on the MC's expertise.

4. The BOD is inept.

5. The BOD is scared to make decisions, especially the hard ones like raising dues.

My prior BOD fell into all of the above, except #3, so we replaced them.

Having a property manager as an active player may or may not be a problem, depending on the manager. Ours understands that she works at the direction of the board and does not try to make decisions that rightfully are the board's responsibility. However, she brings skills and expertise to the table that we board members may lack. I think that a lot of the time boards don't do certain things because they feel uncomfortable and out of their depth. Delegating some of the tasks to a skilled property manager makes good sense, as long as the board members don't use that as excuse to evade their responsibilities and the manager doesn't overstep his or her authority.

For example, our bylaws define each director's area of responsibility, but nowhere does it say that the individual directors must perform the tasks themselves. I (the introverted board president) hate to run meetings, but I can take minutes like nobody's business - our property manager hates taking minutes but enjoys running meetings. So we swap duties, allowing the more capable person to handle each. To an outsider it may look as though the property manager is in charge, but that is absolutely not the case. And the result is more effective meetings and better quality minutes: win-win.

Laura

Is your PM also handle rentals in any way?

When I came on the board three years ago.As president. We had no reserves contractors very expensive and a manager who felt she didn't have to tell me why the insurance jumped up 8000 in a year. If you have the energy go balls to the wall clean house get a good manager in and do everything to research and change everything. Thats what I did. I lived here 25 years at the time. was on the board many moons ago, have a finance degree and was an auditor. My father had a construction company so I was raised around how much things should cost to fix. Made sidewalks and driveways and much more. through the whole process I worked my butt off. did much free projects with me and a few other association members. Yep as you notice the board members dont even want to do things for free. I figured it out. Example planted 30 bushes ourselves.. I know the property value was going up when the garbage guy goes you did a great job with this place. The banks spies to check out their foreclosed condos.. commented how the value of condos is going up with what we did.
Its a hard job. and its all for free. Reason why I did it. I saw our fees going up 20 dollars a year for three years. The third year I made a promise to myself to do cut backs and dig into the financials, instead of increasing the owners fees. noticed double insurance payments, 12,000 a year going out to just pump and jet out our sewer system. Took me one time of the sewer back up and seeing the sewer pump area always filled to know we shouldnt be pumping out an area that already has a pump four times a year. We now have a sewer system that I hear the water flow out the pump inlet.. very odd sound. becasue we never heard that area running correctly.
IT has taken me three years. I had a vision and got many people to help me get to where I saw our condos good get to.

If you are into challenges and see a vision and can go for it and have the trust of the Association and the board members with a management company behind to answer and steer you in the direction of where to go next. Yes it can be done. Many boards let the management company do it all. In my condos experience it does not work. I even run all the meetings.. Last unit owners meeting I had all the financials to answer the questions.

My dream is to now have my night in shining armor to show up and take me out of the condo life. I never want to be in a condo if I can escape it. But while Im here I will straighten out the mess. 28 years here now. And guess what. 19 proxies later I am on the board as the president again and just yesterday.

You wont conquer it all in one day. you will have the hater unit owners who just have to have everything and constantly complain. Ignore them all and go for it. Good Luck. If you have any questions feel free to ask..

I firmly disagree. Property management is a profession requires specific knowledge and skills, and the good managers (such as ours) may have licenses that require continuing education and other certifications. Serving on the Board, however, typically requires no special skills or qualifications other than being a homeowner, and given the level of complaining we hear from homeowners, it's clear that this doesn't work too well much of the time. Then you have the practical issues. One, many board members work full time and barely have enough time to devote to being a board member, let alone managing their communities effectively. Two, many communities have trouble getting enough volunteers to fill all board positions; there is no way they would find anyone to take on even more work.

Yes, there are communities that are self-managed, and they make it work for them. For the others, rather than blaming "lazy board members", we need to look at "lazy homeowners" who won't do their fair share of the work and who then place unreasonable expectations on the few volunteers they have. Our property manager makes sure the lights stay on, the water comes out of our faucets, the trash gets picked up, contractors are supervised, tax returns are filled, our corporate status is renewed, and a whole host of things that the average homeowner wouldn't even think of. As a homeowner, I'd rather pay to have a professional ensure that these things happen, rather than rely on fellow homeowners who take care of things whenever they have time.