Time frame, and what is involved right before signing contract with a management comapny

A week ago, my POA approved the hiring of a specific management company. As eager as the two remaining board members were for a management company, I assumed an announcement would have been made by now since the board already had a proposal from the management company.

Is it more involved than just signing a contract? Based on the low competency level of the people on my POA board's, there is almost no chance they would be requiring anything further from the management company. The only chance would be if the board's attorneys are advising for something. So I assume any hold up would be on the management company side.

What do management companies typically need/require before officially signing? Anything in-depth? Do they review most documents?

If you already have a property manager (the current one), I hope the board is working with both on developing a transition plan. Basically there should be steps and deadlines for things like transferring association records to the new company, dates when homeowners should begin referring inquiries to the new one and when the current one should have pending inquiries and maintenance requests resolved. There's also the matter of ensuring financial records are complete and accurate and any access by the current company to bank accounts (which should be limited anyway) is shut down and turned over to the new company.

The board should keep homeowners informed of the major dates, and since you haven't heard anything yet, slow your roll and give the board time to work through everything. You may think they're incompetent, but I don't see where you've asked them any questions or offer to help, so how do you know?

There are older conversations on this website on how transitions were handled - read a few and take some notes (don't respond to them because they're likely several months or years old - check the date of the original post). From there, you can think about what the current property manager is doing (or not) and take your questions to the board.

Either wait for the board announcement, or wait until someone picks up the phone at the front office who is clearly not the prior manager.

As others noted, there is a lot of behind the scenes work beyond simply signing the contract. When we switched PMs, we met with our new PM about six weeks prior to the actual start of the contract to discuss expectations and make sure we were on the same page. There may be more need for that if your HOA has never used a PM before - we were used to delegating responsibilities, but a board that is used to doing everything themselves may find it hard to let go, and toes may get stepped on. Planning ahead of time can help avoid that.

If the new PM company will be responsible for collecting assessments and maintaining financial records, then there will have to be a formal announcement to homeowners. This announcement typically includes coupon books/envelopes as well as instructions for setting up your bank's bill payment system or authorizing ACH withdrawals for those who don't want to use paper checks. It takes time to set up the bank accounts and to print all of this material - banks make you jump through a lot more hoops since these are business accounts.

Our last transition from one major nationwide PM company to another was before I was on the board. But apparently they simply "fired" the company without giving proper notice - which is usually required in the contract. They got sued by the old PM company for lack of notice. It caused massive delays in transitioning financial records. It was a mess and cost the association quite a bit of money.

Moving from one company to another doesn't usually happen overnight.

Roger,

Why are you hiring an MC if there is no community property?

Aside from that, commonly the work begins after the contract is signed. A new MC may ask to review financials and ask questions about previous MC's to help the new/quoting MC determine if taking the HOA on as a client will be a positive revenue stream for them.

MC's usually quote a fee for set-up. Usually 30 days prior to the time when the change-over occurs. This allows them to have the info of owners, dues, budgets, vendors, and to open and change over bank accounts for a hopefully seamless transition.

Once the contract is signed with the MC, the first 30 days is usually busy work for the new MC with the assistance of the previous MC and sometimes, the Board.

It's not done "in secret". Usually PMs change because there has been a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the previous company (or the board president couldn't get along with the previous PM and has burned bridges, but that's a tale for different time).

If homeowners attend board meetings or read meeting minutes, they will know a change is in the offing. In addition homeowners will be informed in writing about the change so that they know were to send assessments and whom to contact for issues. Finalized contracts are available for inspection, although homeowners have to request a copy. The transfer of information is usually handled by the two companies involved and it's part of services they provide - it's the board's job to make sure it happens. Reputable companies generally handle this just fine since they do it pretty regularly - clients come and go.

It is definitely more involved.

For comparison, the Board I'm on approved a motion last week to hire a new MC after interviewing many companies.
This is huge since we've had the same MC for over a decade.
* It hasn't hit the minutes yet.
* Now announcement has been made yet.
* the preferred MC contract is being reviewed by the attorney, with questions and red lines
* there is a 30 day written termination clause for the current MC, which can't happen until the new MC contract is agreed upon in full
* After that, there is a transition process, particularly financial records, bank signatures, documents, etc

I can't wait for it to be announced to the members that we are going to have a new management company.
But not there yet.

The sales pitch and proposals from companies are the happy phase, but then there is the contract red lining phase and the transition plan.

They would not listen.

They do not seem to mind sending out violations. What they do not like is angry owners complaining about received violations. I told them that part will not change. As I understand it, if an owner argues against a violation it will be up the Board to make a decision and/or hear the argument.

At first they were considering a different company than they wound up proposing. I found many reviews on the initial company where owners complained about violation on review sites. On almost every complaint like that, a business manager, from that management company, would reply that violations need to be taken up with Boards, who have final decision, not the management company - basically that manager pointed the finger at those commenters' boards as far as complaining about violations. I quoted a bunch of those as proof that that management company would point fingers at the Board if an owner argues against a violation, and added that if an active patrol causes more violations to be cited, you, the Board, will have more complaints targeted at you, not less. They dismissed that.

I was not referring to the reviews by complainers. I understand your point about that. What I reference was the management company's response, "take it up with your Board" that its media business manager posted to every complaint about violations. That was proof how that particular management company handled complaints about violationd - it pointed to the boards.

On transferring between company. There is no transfer between companies. It is a self-managed POA.

Uh, maybe because there's nothing yet to announce? Wouldn't you like to hear details like "we're pleased to announce that X company will be Y community's property manager as of Z date. Here's what you need to know:

Date 1 - last day maintenance requests should be sent to the soon to be former company
Date 2 - the website will be taken down to update contact information (or move it to the new management company's platform or whatever they plan to do"
Date 3 - the association records will be transferred or uploaded to a new cloud account (or whatever's being done to transfer records). Any requests for documents received on or after this date will be processed beginning Y date"

Why are you in such a bloody hurry? I'd rather people work out the details and then tell me what I need to know - just knowing X company is taking over doesn't do anything for me.