Unit owners contacting vendors

I am not a board member, but am a member of the association. Our board and mgt company are NOT transparent at all. And have been doing some shady things. I have investigated, and found missing invoices or altered invoices, and I have reached out to vendors to get correct info (work already completed) once the mgt co or board finds out, they contact the vendor and tell them not to talk w me. This is true even for our insurance policy, I needed some clarification on the deductible (as our board and mgt co refuses to answer), he was at one time very responsive but now refuses to reply. These are all things my dues has paid for, I am the customer. Can they refuse me access to this true info?

Donna

I cannot imagine any possible circumstances under which it is proper for you to contact the Association insurance company regarding the deductible or any other aspect of the insurance coverage.

We have an owner in a client association who felt she could contact association vendors/contractors, especially the insurance company, at will for this, that, or the other reason.

After nicely asking her to direct her questions through us (Board approved the process) with no results, we told her she is not to contact any contractor or vendor of services to the Association for any reason at any time. We instructed the contractors and vendors to politely tell her they cannot speak with her directly and that she should contact us.

Since the vendors and contractors would not respond to her, further inquiries were directed through the MC as originally requested.

As Melissa explained, you have no 'standing' with association vendors and contractors. You have no right to contact them for any reason, regardless of your perception that your dues payments somehow provide you with the right to contact the vendors and contractors.

BTW, we brief each vendor or contractor working on the property who they may take direction from, we also ask owners to direct questions through us unless they involve logistics--what time the contractor will return the next day if interior access is needed, etc.

I suggest you find a process which will secure the information you seek without direct contact with vendors and contractors.

I have no knowledge of Missouri HOA/Condo property codes and laws, it seems to me you should be able to request the information you seek from the Association. Is there a process described in the declaration of your association?

The poster did say that the board was not transparent at all.

The receipts and records of the association that she did have access to, indicated changed invoices or missing invoices.

If an owner asks a legitimate question after seeing irregularities in the financials, but the board and or management company won't answer. What is the correct process to confirm or refute the irregular invoices?

Question, Donna, did you present any of the questionable invoices to the board to ask what was going on?

I do agree owners normally don't contact vendors directly unless they are authorized to do so on behalf of the association. However, a rogue board and dishonest vendor can do a lot of damage in a short period of time if there is no transparency. I've seen it first hand. 7 months in 2018, our reserves went from over 1,000,000 dollars to less than 175,000.
This was after Hurricane Harvey, however, none of the bylaws were followed regarding entering contracts, keeping minutes, etc.

If the board is preventing you form accessing records of the association, I agree this is a red flag. How much money are we talking about with the changed invoices . How exactly do you know there a missing invoices.

The OP does not sound like they are asking that from their HOA board. They are going directly to the VENDOR. Even the HOA board should be going to the MC as they are a HOA vendor. So the MC can't just always hand over information unless the HOA board is consulted.

Being "transparent" is subjective to opinion. Our HOA was run as transparent as one could possibly get and conduct business. However, there are just some thing general members are NOT allowed to see until atleast voted on or discussed.

Our expenditures was given out at every meeting to anyone in attendance. Collection reports just amongst board. However, you could call and ask about YOUR specific lot. We just went over the overall collection rate. Just because you did not get the collection report meant we were not being transparent. It just means we weren't sharing information involving PERSONAL information. Plus our collection report wasn't always that accurate and it was confusing.