Managment Company Issues

Last year I served on our 3 member HOA BOD and also held the position as the HOA President. I've lived in our HOA for 20 years having built a home about a year after the community opened.After my departure from the BOD the incoming BOD fired the management company and hired a new company. I shall not outline all of the issues we have had with them as it may appear that I'm picking on them!

I usually look at our monthly financials which are posted towards the end of the first week of the new month. I had been alarmed at what appeared to be unusal increases in management fees and other associated fees that we are now being charged by the management company. One example is Legal fees. Last year while serving on the BOD our expected legal costs were $1000. We are a small community and normally don't incur a lot of legal fees. In 2021 the new BOD included a Legal budget of $1500, a 50% increase. As of 30 Sep, 2021 the HOA has been charged $15,071 to date, with 3 months to go! WOW.

In doing some digging I discovered that about 90% of these charges are coming from the management company, not an attorney. Over the past 2 months I've sent several letters/emails to the management comapny seeking an explanation as to how we have gone over our $1500 budget by 1000%+. I get no response. Other then a couple of folks not payiong their assessements ($577/year) we have no other legal issues going on.

There are no lines of communication to the BOD. All the email addreses are now linked to the management companies agent, who does not respond.
I am aware of one HOA member that recently sent the BOD members a registered/certified letter dealing with some financial issues. After 3-4 attmepts to deliver them the letters were returned to her as being undeliverable. She then sent certified/registered letters to the management company. Those too were never delivered.

A month or so ago I spotted a $442 payment that popped up in the Utility payments portion of our financials. It was not pinned to the electric, gas,water or internet/phone bills. It was a NEW charge that was under a code 5555 "Levied Non Compliance Fee" $442. I decided to send an email to the management company asking what this fee was for and to whom did we pay it.

Yesterday I got an answer back. It was very short email saying " This payment was made to the managment company as per the signed contract with your HOA Board" That was it. I followed up asking exactly what it was for and asking if I could see that portion of the contract. No response.

The BOD is unreachable and it appears that there will be no response from the management company. This charge and many more charges that are coming from the management comapany have consumed over 20% of our annual budget.

There has been no member meeting since I left last year. The BOD meeting, which are open to members have not been announced so members haven't been to the 3-4 meeting held this year. Short of knocking on a door there appears to be no response from either the BOD/Officers or the management company.

Does anyone have any ideas? Fire the BOD? Fire the management company? Anything?
Thanks
Dennisg7

Bumping up. New posting.

The new expenses coming from the management company could be the result of sending collection letters out, levying late fees, or collection fees, sending out violation notices, applying liens on properties. A jump to $15k seems a bit high.

To re-clarify here, as some have forgotten, a management company works for the association, NOT the BOD. The board just hires them and is supposed to give then direction.

A short followup to my original posting. The mamangement comapny should be working under the the contract, terms and conditions agreed to by the HOA BOD and the mamngemnt company. I fully agree. What appears to have happened is that the Management Comapny has taken it upon them selves to do things that are contrary to our CC&R, ByLaws and a few written and approved Rules and Regulations. I say "appears" as neither the HOA BOD or the Managment Company will provide members with a copy of the contract signed or even an extract that might show they were allowed to ignore the CC&R. The best and most recent example deals with 14 liens that were filed by the managment company at the Courthouse recently. That is nearly 10% of our HOA that had liens filed. Our CC&R, By Laws states that a member will "be notified in writing via USPS prior to and after such actions. I have personnaly spoken with 4 of the home owners and all of them had no idea of any liens being filed. They all claimed they received no notification.
All of the liens are for late assessment payments. Our assessments are $575 annually. Some of the liens filed by the management comapny are for $200!! The managment comapny is filing the liens and then charge the HOA atleast $500 per filing. We've been charge $7000 this year for total liens under $5000.
I am aware of atleast 2 people that asked to see copies of any late notices, delinquent notices or notices of liens filed. Per the GA state code these documents must be provided by the HOA or Management company within 5 days after a request has been made. To date, neither member has ever received a copy of any of these documents. After several attempts to see a copy of the noticifactions sent to them, the managmement comapany has not provided anything. They never responded. The HOA BOD has cut off all lines of communications. no phone number, no mailing address, no cell #, no HOA BOD email address. All social media accounts were closed down right after they took over last year. Even the HOA website was closed down and now the Domain name has been purchased by a company in China, according to Go Daddy Domain resgistration info.

This is just one example of recent actions. There are more. I've been told by 3 or 4 people that are posting complaints on Nextdoor that they are unable to get through to the managemnt company. There emails appear to be returned. I sent an email to our Resident Manager and it appears she is either not answering them or she is no longer employed there. My emails wer returned also.

At this point I've told other members that the best option might be to not renew their contract in Decemeber. PS. I was not one of the members that had a lien filed against them. Thank you for all your comments.
Dennisg7

The community association manager works under the direction of the Board. The management company is under no obligation to provide the management contract to an owner without an official record request. If there are liens being filed by the management company on delinquent owners, those liens should be requested to be filed by your Board. Due to the cost of filing a lien ususally $250 to $500, if an owner is $200 delinquent, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to lien but wait until a higher threshold. Owners don't tell the truth; management contracts state that delinquent owners receive certified letters when they become 30, 60 & 90 days delinquent. The Board receives a copy of the financials which give the AR receivables.

If your association is a portfolio association, it will be harder to get hold of your manager as they will probably manage between eight to fifteen properties on average. In most companies, it's standard for the manager to have 24 to 48 hours to follow up on phone calls & emails unless it's blood, flood or fire.

Association social media pages are not generated by management companies, nor should they be managed by Board members nor should official business be posted on such pages. Your management company should provide the official website for the community with access to financials, agendas, minutes and forms.

It all boils down to not only choosing a good fit with your management company, but it's important to have the right manager as well. All management companies do the same thing; not all managers manage the same.