Board President requesting online access to our Software

I would like to ask your advice. We're a 3rd party mgmt company in Alabama and have been in business for 15 years.

A new board of directors was elected this year to one of the condominium associations that we've managed for 10+ years.

The board President has requested to have "online access" to the association's software that is proprietary to our management company.

Should I allow the President access or not? Is this a common request for your mgmt company?

Thank you very much for your replies.

Kat

We have been on boards or managing properties since 1994. We have never asked for, nor been asked for, online access to our management software.

We are commonly asked for access to Association bank accounts for board members and provide read-only access when asked.

I suggest you have a conversation with the person requesting the access to determine the "why".

I would not provide access to our management software to anyone, board member or otherwise except possibly to our CPA if we are having a problem. While the sofware is partitioned by client with unique UserIDs and passwords, there is client/homeowner information in the software which is proprietary or which is, frankly, not for public release.

Our property manager has an online portal where I can view the phone list of all homeowners, the compliance log, the balance sheet, the delinquent homeowner accounts, and a few other reports. Each of these are generated on the fly from the software that is used by the management company.

I like having this level of access and would never sign a contract with a management company that didn't provide this type of access.

What Tim said

My initial reaction is if view only, simply decide what he can view.

It might be worthwhile for the HOA individual to find a management company would give access to their in house software, or find a software company that has the web portal features they may be looking for. I would never give any type of access to our software to anyone outside the company.

I agree with Max. In the 9 years I was on the Board we had 4 MC's. The first one had no access to anything, but that was 9 years ago. The 2nd one was FANTASIC in what I could get into and look at. Vendor invoices, pull down a trial balance in excel, view call in concerns. I couldn't make any changes, but could retrieve just about anything. Looking back, we were sorry we left them for the other items they were lacking. 3rd was a very short experience with a national MC that was horrible. Online access was very limited. Two months after we signed they changed the portal and we didn't get what we test drove. Our present MC offers on demand Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss Statements. We can see if they wrote a check, but have to ask for a copy of an invoice.

It all depends on the system the MC uses. If you are not set up to allow that type of access through a portal, then you may not be the MC they are looking for. Different Boards look for different tools to use to help them with the HOA.

I am going to assume this means your clients do not have online access to any of their data right now? If they want to see a list of all violation letters sent in the last quarter, that is not online somewhere for them to see? Invoices for last month, address list, financial records, etc. -- they only get these on demand or through monthly hardcopies?

And so, by asking for online access to "your software, what they really want is access to "their" data.

Is that right?

Our 3rd MC from my previous post would not supply that information to our board either. Besides their horrible managing of our account, we couldn't operate by having to ask them for everything and being told we can't have it.

The MC is the keeper of the HOA's records. The Board was told that they could not provide us owner phone numbers. Those are our records. We were the Board, not just another owner.

the question is why shouldn't you give him access. it's his hoa board. if the software has a view only mode should be a no brainer.

I am astounded that any management company or manager would suggest that any board member should be denied access to the records they have every right to see. Those folks work for the association, the association does not work for them. In the case of proprietary software there may be an issue for some items, but it should not preclude wide access. In Florida I would or could argue every resident should have "read only" access to all records. They can request them in writing and state statute provides, they must be provided with few exceptions. There cannot be any rules established countermanding the access provided for by state statute.

When I was on the board a director actually said to the other board members. "No one (board member) has had access for 40 years, why should he have access?". Incredible!

I believe a list of owners and their mailing address is basic information that any MC should have readily available and should be available to any fellow owner upon request. Emails and phone numbers might be proprietary.

Actually where did the OP state that the association's information is theirs? Do you have any idea the difference between a web portal and actual access to engine that runs the portal?

This thread unfortunately mingles the legal requirement of a management company and/or other third party to provide appropriate access to CIC materials VS. the request of a single Board member to receive access that will not fulfill the need of the remaining Board members and/or homeowners to access said information. Two separate topics with two separate answers.

Can they opt out of providing such to a MC and/or BOD? If yes, how does one do business with them such as a community wide mailing such as Annual Meeting notice?

Would a fellow owner requesting names and mailing addresses of all owners be honored by the MC?

Onwers cannot opt out of providing basic information like name and address and phone number to the association. Then may decline to offer an email address.

...and this is where the "CEO" mentality fails you.

There's a lot of information, especially weedy personnel details (SSNs, etc.) and individual unit file information that a Board generally has no need to view because it has no need to use it for the purpose of governing the organization.

Great Boards can only achieve their fullest potential when they are supported operationally by amazing CAMs (and often CIC staff members) who take care of a bunch of really important, typically non-governance tasks on a daily basis.

In community associations, the board is ultimately responsible by law for what happens. Directors are the ones with the fiduciary duty to the association and the ones who can be sued if they behave otherwise.

A PM has a contract to provide professional services to the association and in that sense is no different from any other service provider that the board engages. The PM has an obligation to do their work competently and professionally, but they have no duty of loyalty to the association beyond the limits of the work they do. If anything, they have a duty to the management company of which they're an employee. Management companies can shuffle their portfolio managers around as needed, and it's the management company's choice which manager is assigned to your community. In my experience the best managers have a sense of pride in the communities they manage and the work they do - but that's not the same as fiduciary duty.

Ideally you'll have a competent board that understands the scope of its authority paired with a competent PM who understands the scope of their authority, and they'll work well with each other. The trouble starts when one or both is lacking in some way and the stronger individual strays from their lane in order to compensate for the weaker individual. I suspect the latter scenario is very common, which is why we get questions like the one that started this thread.

Yes, and honestly you can take out the last "I believe" because he is just stating the indisputable fact. One thing I have identified over the last few years is that in each state there is a small group of property management companies, attorneys, etc. who view themselves as the "gatekeepers" of all things HOA. They consider themselves to be in charge, and prefer homeowners and boards to just shut up, give them their money, and let them run things. This is sort of being displayed in this thread.

The HOA is a corporate entity, run by a board of directors. It seems kind of absurd to think a 3rd party, who the board of directors has hired, has more right to corporate data than the board of directors. It's not a question of whether or not the board of directors "needs" any of the data. The property management company does not have the authority to decide what the BOD needs and does not need. The property management company does not have the authority to decide what corporate data they will or will not provide to the BOD. They take direction from the BOD, not the other way around.

Or they can hire a property manager that provides them the service they want and deserve.

With one possible exception, these are all things the entire board should have access to anyway. The possible exception being, if they want reports that you don't generate you don't have to generate special ones for them. (You may want to in the name of customer service but you don't have to.)

The software used by the company I work for doesn't have a "read only" user option, however, so I'd have to figure out the "ask behind the ask". What is it that this board member really wants? Is there a trust issue? If so, that will only be exacerbated by refusing to provide this information.

In general, I find that the more information you offer people, the less they actually want. What they want is to know that nothing is being hidden from them. After my first annual meeting at my current property, during which there were numerous complaints and thinly veiled accusations of being up to no good, I created a website for the association: meeting minutes, financials, contracts, insurance policies, reserve studies - anything the membership is entitled to view - is posted there. They don't have to ask for it, they can go look it up whenever they want. And based on the web stats, very few people visit these pages. But the complaints have stopped.