Property/Community Manager Experiences?

Hello all. I'm 10 minutes new to this site and bring no shortage of issues. First up, what has all of your experiences been like with your community/property managers?

I've recently assumed the role of Board President and am trying to figure out what a "good" Community Manager looks like? The person assigned to our community for the past 5 years responds to most emails and phone calls, but doesn't offer up any suggestions or proactive info on how to accomplish what she clearly knows we are trying to do. She says she visits the community at least once a month, but the other board members do not believe her and neither do I. No one has ever seen her on site, and this is a very small community. She is slightly evasive when we inquire about the legality of actions we need to take to address CCR violations. We feel like we are an afterthought and she does the bare minimum to adhere to the terms of the service contract. The other Board members feel she is not active enough or hands on with our HOA and doesn't provide any of the professional advice or insight that the "10 years" she's claimed to have worked in this field should have provided her. She conducts herself as more of a slightly reluctant executive assistant than a business partner helping us manage the community.

Is this normal? We are seriously considering ending her contract when it is up for renewal in January. She provides little to no value outside of administrative task performance.

Can you tell me more about your community? Do you have an active Board? How about homeowner participation and compliance with the CCRs?

As stated, I am trying to form fair comparisons.

Let me give an example...

There is a homeowner who brazenly violates parking rules. He parks wherever he wants, however he wants. We've sent the required notices to him. No compliance. We are now prepared to tow, as he has begun violating other homeowners rights. I reached out to the community manager to advise that we wanted the car towed in 24 hrs. Our CCRs clearly state that unauthorized vehicles parked in other owners spaces can be towed. The community manager says, sure, you can tow. I instruct her to send a final warning notice out. The next day I read the letter she sent, and it mentions nothing about the imminent towing risk, and also that the owner is entitled to a hearing after a certain number of days before fines or towing. Now, remember, I called her up to inquire as to whether we could tow within 24 hours. She had said YES. But the official letter she sent to the actual homeowner says he has a certain amount of time (it amounted to like 8 days!) before that can take place.

FYI, Our CCRs also state towing can occur, without specified time limits.

I totally get that.

Surely you see the problem in her verbally advising that we can tow within 24 hrs, then send out a written notice that says 8 days?

Had we towed the vehicle, and the owner received this notice thereafter, they would have grounds to come after us for improper toweing. She gave us incorrect info on the phone, but made sure she followed due process on paper. This is a problem.

I think I understand:

1) She verbally said you can tow.

2) You didn't ask her to tow or call the tow company yourself, but rather instructed her to send a letter

3) The letter contained legally required hearing language which you are now frustrated about.

Do I have that right?

Yes, that is what I said in my previous post. You could have called the tow company yourself and had the vehicle towed. The property management company won't do that for you.

But instead you asked her to sent a letter, which includes language allowing for a hearing per state law.

I think the PM was in the right and did everything by the book.

It sounds like you may be expecting the PM to do things that are not her responsibility.

It's not her place to provide legal advice or to interpret the CC&Rs for you - that's the board's job (with advise from the HOA attorney as needed). There is a clear distinction between a PM's functions and what the board does. IF the PM tells the board what to do, she's out of her lane. If the board is telling the PM how to do her job, they're likely micromanaging.

In addition, PMs can provide a range of services, and not all communities want or need the same things. If yours is unsure about what she should be doing, it's the board's fault for not communicating their expectations. And these expectations should be spelled out in her contract. If you want her to do a community walk-thru once per month, it should be in the contract. To be fair, I rarely saw our PM in my small community, and I work from home - but I know she was here because she had an up-to-date list of things that needed attention.

That said, some PMs are better than others, and it makes sense to know what's available in your area. We found our best PM company through word of mouth from people in other communities. Any community is free to change PMs if they want, for any reason, and lack of trust is as good a reason as any.

Well said.

Here is what I would do. Let it be known the HOA has an established "3 bid rule" on EVERY job/contract. That means that she now must bid on the job along with others. Refreshing the contract every year frees up a lot of issues amongst many contractors. Bad landscaping, PM, or other HOA contractors....

So if she decides to bid on the job, it will no doubt bring about better communication. It will draw out details to the contract no one may be seeing. Plus gives the oportunity to let her go in a professional manner while giving oportunity to move on.

I agree with this list except for the first one from my experience. We have an offsite manager, so she cannot maintain or supervise the maintenance of the physical property or effectively deal with after hours emergencies for our single family homeowners association. It's absolutely a responsibility of the BoD in our community to supervise all vendor performance.

Technically, I could try to set them up with an emergency call list so they could deal with after hours emergencies, but they happen so infrequently it's easier to deal with it myself.

Forgot to mention: our PM uses an after hours answering service to handle emergencies. Anyone who calls in can expect a response in 5-10 minutes. We're a condo community, and some problems just won't wait because of the potential for damage to multiple units.

This particular company was founded by a local resident who was fed up with the level of service provided by other area PMs. The company provides top notch service, the PMs employed by the company work hard and are paid well, and the company is grabbing market share big time. They have a waiting list of communities wanting to hire them because they won't take on more work than they can handle while maintaining the quality of the service. I can't say enough good things about them, and clearly many boards are willing to pay for quality.

Please take a moment to read the Property Management company website to see if they have any information as to what a good property manager duties are? Second of all, please read the contract that you have with the company. The contract may have a section on what the duties of a good property manager are. Once our Board found that information, we have at each Board meeting what the site manager has done during their trips.

Can’t argue with most of what’s said so far. It appears you want your property manager to do the Board’s thinking, which isn’t her role. As Board members, it’s YOUR job to oversee the property manager and direct the overall course of the association. Fair and consistent rules enforcement is part of that – the property manager can make suggestions, but in the end, do your job and figure out the best way to deal with it. If you don't know how, try checking out the CAI website, which has educational materials for board members on a number of issues like reserves and rules enforcement at a reasonable price. Continuing education is always a good idea no matter how long you serve on the board.

Ditto for the legal advice – if you don’t have an association attorney, get one. And read your documents to see if the answer to your question has already been addressed (it’s faster and a helluva lot cheaper). You may notice there isn’t a precise answer to your question, which is where your common sense should kick in. Sometimes people are afraid to use their brains although they have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done.

If you want ideas on how to improve things in your community, may I suggest you start with the people who live in it? What’s wrong with doing an annual survey to see what people like and don’t like about the Board, the property manager, current vendors, etc.? Not everyone will respond, but hopefully, enough will so you’ll see a pattern. From there, the board can set priorities on what should be addressed and then you could brainstorm with the property manager to see what could happen from her end (e.g. improving the response time for emails or setting up online request forms on the association’s website, if you have one). Keep in mind there may be some things you want done that will cost more money and if that’s the case, the contract may have to be adjusted and that will also require the assessments to be adjusted. Keep your homeowners in the loop so they understand if they want certain things done, they have to be willing to pay for it or do it themselves.