Property Manager Records

Started by MariaB8 • 6 replies • 284 views

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MariaB8 (Florida)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Hi All:
I have a question regarding the responsibilities of the transition of Property Management companies for an HOA.
I am a member of the committee in a single family HOA community that oversees applications for home improvements.
We have some homes that have improvements that are not in compliance with the Rules and Regulations however, these HO's insist that they got approval from the previous Management Companies, which have never released our records back to us.
Is there an obligation for PM's to release these records? Is there a statute of limitation? Can the HOA trump the previous approvals and point the HO to the longstanding R&R's? Any feedback ot suggestions would be much appreciated.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

The HOA's records belong to the HOA, and the former PM has no right to keep them. If this happened some time ago and the board didn't see to it that the records were transferred, then shame on them. It's possible that the current board could still contact the old PM and retrieve them - hopefully no bridges were burned and everyone will behave professionally (and the PM didn't just chuck them out, which could have happened).

The homeowners in question should also have kept copies of any approvals. If they can't produce any documentation, I'd be skeptical depending on the nature of the violation.

I think that the statute of limitations on violations is 5 years - but one of the Florida posters will correct me if that's wrong. The second question in this article talks about violations and may be helpful:

https://beckerlawyers.com/fining-procedure-discussed-news-press/

There are also legal requirements on the HOA's obligation to preserve records (I think 7 years). If the former board was negligent about obtaining the records from the PM, then the HOA may be on the hook for that.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550

Posted:

Property managers should not be approving architectural changes. Only a board appointed committee or the Board itself.

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By KerryL1 on 08/27/2021 8:14 AM
Property managers should not be approving architectural changes. Only a board appointed committee or the Board itself.

Agree. When the homeowners said that they received approval from the PM, I assumed that the PM was handling communication between board and owner (since that's pretty common and homeowners are often confused about who does what). Or this was during a period of developer control and the PM worked for the developer who was still calling the shots.

If the PM truly did approve the violations on their own, then there was no approval so it sounds like they'll need to default to the statute of limitations on violations.

JanineR (Tennessee)
Posts: 259

Posted:

Agree too.

The PM is the custodian of records, but the records belong to the Association.
As for the obligation to release them: if you have the prior PMs contract, it should say in there that they need to provide the records within x days of termination or expiration of the contract.

As an example only, the PM contract at our Association in Tennessee reads:

"( b) Agent agrees to turn over all records and all funds to the Association or
its designee within five ( 5 ) days of the effective date of any termination
of this Agreement except for final financial reports which shall be
provided within twenty (20 ) days of the effective date of termination .
Agent may retain sufficient funds to cover outstanding checks and
anticipated bank fees."

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

I agree with CathyA3, KerryL1 and JanineR so far.

Quote:

Posted By MariaB8 on 08/27/2021 7:15 AM
Hi All:
I have a question regarding the responsibilities of the transition of Property Management companies for an HOA.
I am a member of the committee in a single family HOA community that oversees applications for home improvements.
We have some homes that have improvements that are not in compliance with the Rules and Regulations however, these HO's insist that they got approval from the previous Management Companies, which have never released our records back to us.
Is there an obligation for PM's to release these records? Is there a statute of limitation?

I suggest your Board consult the HOA attorney about how to get these records back.

Quote:

Can the HOA trump the previous approvals and point the HO to the longstanding R&R's? Any feedback ot suggestions would be much appreciated.

This depends on a lot of things. I suggest starting a new, separate thread on this.

MariaB8 (Florida)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Thank you all for the great information. I will reach out to a former board member about this. I will start a separate thread as suggested.

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