How often does your HOA change property managers and auditors?

Started by PaulJ6 • 10 replies • 662 views

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PaulJ6
Posts: 990

Posted:

The HOA that I currently live in has had the same property manager and the same auditor for 40 years, since the HOA started. And the property manager’s employees hold 3 of 7 board seats and run elections for the board.

How often does your HOA change property managers and auditors? And even if there is no change, how often does it consider new property managers?

Thanks.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

I only change vendors if there is a service or price issue. I dont change it for no reason.

Property manager company should have "Zero" board seats. But its likely filling in the seats because no one wants to do it. So you need to knock on doors and have people participate in being a board member to change that.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By PaulJ6 on 02/21/2020 4:29 PM
The HOA that I currently live in has had the same property manager and the same auditor for 40 years, since the HOA started. And the property manager’s employees hold 3 of 7 board seats and run elections for the board.

How often does your HOA change property managers and auditors? And even if there is no change, how often does it consider new property managers?

Thanks.

Paul,

If all is well w/ your Property Management company, I say a 40-year relationship is very very commendable. It does sound like the manager is filling board seats due to resident apathy.

If that's working for the community and things are quiet (yeah - it's a very odd arrangement), I'd leave it be.

PaulJ6
Posts: 990

Posted:

There are homeowners who have run for the board. The property manager runs all aspects of the election (including casting votes for proxies). The property manager allocated a few seats for resident homeowners (and decides which homeowners can fill those seats) but ensures that three seats are held by employees of the property management firm.

Wouldn’t putting property management services up for bid or review every 5-10 years be a good idea? And wouldn’t considering a new auditor every 5-10 years be a good idea?

SheliaH (Indiana)
Posts: 6,964

Posted:

Haven't we discussed this already? Unless your community is different, the BOARD, not the property manager should be running the election, and the property manager IS NOT a homeowner, so he or she shouldn't be dictating who serves at all.

The most our property manager does is collect the proxies but DOES NOT open them until the meeting (we just had our annual meeting last week). Owners who sent in proxies are compared to the eligible homeowner list - if they're not listed (because of delinquencies), that proxy won't count toward establishing quorum or used for board election.

What in the world is wrong with your community - doesn't anyone read the governing documents? Or tell the property manager to stay in his/her lane and figure out another way to run the election with him/her interfering???? Unless or until you and your neighbors stand up and stop this, this is what you'll get - and you'll deserve it.

There's another conversation on best practices for selecting property managers and whether the contract should automatically renew - there are several good tips you might consider (and I didn't say that just because I responded!) The tips can be adapted for an auditor or any other vendor a HOA board considers hiring.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Do your bylaws, Paul, say that non-owners can be members of the board? If not, is this the issue that led to your legal action against your HOA?

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

One constraint is the number of property management companies in the area. We have two big full service ones (one excellent and the other OK-to-good) plus a few really small ones who manage a few communities. Realistically, if we want full service, we pretty much have only one choice. If we were self-managed to some extent, then we'd maybe have some more choices.

And there are benefits to remaining with the same company if they're doing an excellent job - they know your community, the homeowners know the PM, you're not losing expertise every few years (which is useful if your board members come and go regularly).

We have more choices for auditors. Ours is thorough and the cost is reasonable - if these things remain constant, I can't see changing just for the sake of changing.

MarkW18
Posts: 1,290

Posted:

Remember, this is New York. Even the people living in New York don't know what the rules are. From everything that has been posted here over the year, most of HOA business is done in the dark and definitely not transparent.

PaulJ6
Posts: 990

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By SheliaH on 02/22/2020 11:28 AM
Haven't we discussed this already? Unless your community is different, the BOARD, not the property manager should be running the election, and the property manager IS NOT a homeowner, so he or she shouldn't be dictating who serves at all.

The most our property manager does is collect the proxies but DOES NOT open them until the meeting (we just had our annual meeting last week). Owners who sent in proxies are compared to the eligible homeowner list - if they're not listed (because of delinquencies), that proxy won't count toward establishing quorum or used for board election.

What in the world is wrong with your community - doesn't anyone read the governing documents? Or tell the property manager to stay in his/her lane and figure out another way to run the election with him/her interfering???? Unless or until you and your neighbors stand up and stop this, this is what you'll get - and you'll deserve it.

There's another conversation on best practices for selecting property managers and whether the contract should automatically renew - there are several good tips you might consider (and I didn't say that just because I responded!) The tips can be adapted for an auditor or any other vendor a HOA board considers hiring.

Thanks, I appreciate this. People have blown up at the board and property manager--the result is that the board and property manager just hide more from everyone.

Quote:

Posted By KerryL1 on 02/22/2020 11:40 AM
Do your bylaws, Paul, say that non-owners can be members of the board? If not, is this the issue that led to your legal action against your HOA?

I sued another HOA (where I owned a property). Not this one. I would worry about my physical safety if I sued this HOA while I lived there.

TimM11
Posts: 354

Posted:

My HOA had the same MC the entire time I lived there (nearly 15 years), but I lost track of how many PMs we had during that time. It was common to have a new one every year, and sometimes more often than that. The BOD had switched to that MC just before I bought there and there had been at least two other MCs since the HOA was established.

During one of my terms on the BOD, we got some quotes from other MCs in the area to help evaluate what we were getting with our MC, but we never had a formal discussion about switching. I wasn't always 100% satisfied with our MC, but things never got to the point where I thought the disruption of switching would have been worth it, especially since I knew not everyone on the board would have supported a switch.

GeorgeS21 (Florida)
Posts: 3,808

Posted:

I asked around about ours ... responses ran from:

- they're all about the same ( with a sad look)
- used them, fired them, rehired them, thinking about firing them
- they have good approach, but far too much business for the number of support personnel
- they guy showed up to for the interview with shorts and a ballcap, duh
- they have only one approach and tried to convince us to fit into their approach - no

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