💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

JohnC73 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 344
Posted:
The process of requesting, no begging, for association data in our association in NH is very demeaning to owners when all we are doing is asking for access to our own data and this access is protected by the NH Condo Act. The owners are made to feel subservient to the BOD. Plus, the BOD is wasting too much time just servicing and often trying to deny access to documents.

I'm wondering if any HOA's have a better system for centralized document storage with a user interface to access these documents.

Do any of you have a self service process to access your HOA documents or use an outside vendor subscription service to store and index the association documents? Perhaps using a service that owners would be provided individual user level READ access?

Our documents are currently all over the place and many can't even be located due to the fact that the BOD uses private email accounts and their own personal computers to store association data.

Thanks

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
My last Association had a website.

Monthly financials were attached to the minutes and the minutes posted in a members only area.

KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550
Posted:
Our protected website includes financials, minutes, board agendas, executed contracts and mush more. but your board has to want to supply this serve. Our MC manages the site, and our PM updates it.
MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836
Posted:
We dispersed the spending report at our open meeting. Plus discussed the line items as majority of our meeting. If you did not attend could ask for a copy.

Now collection reports were for board members only. You could ask about your individual account. We did not reveal names or address of who was behind. We did go by lot number instead. Plus let people know how we handled it. Otherwise you have people passing judgement on "dead beats" without context or legal means to collect. Our collection reports was never up to accuracy. That was because it had old account from selling/,buying transition over the years that did not exist.

I do not like letting some financials out without context. You get witch hunters.

Former HOA President
JohnC73 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 344
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By TimB4 on 12/09/2022 11:46 AM
My last Association had a website.

Monthly financials were attached to the minutes and the minutes posted in a members only area.


Thanks,

We have a website and I did an overhaul of the site 2 years ago to make it more secure. Now each owner has individual user credentials to access the secure data on the site. Perhaps our HOA has additional finacial records that some don't have and the website just doesn't see like a good place for long term storage. The website is great for posting the lastest reports, but really in not intended for long term storage.

I was wondering if any organization used a cloud service.

Our HOA has a for-profit commercial business on top of the normal non-profit data and unfortunately they have blended the finances together and that was discussed in another post. We have payroll, Cost of Goods reports, income reports and perhaps separate tax returns for the non-profit and profit businesses and we also have things like liquor licenses. I recently discovered through lack of good document controls that we have been selling liquor with an illegal license for 5 years and the liquor codes state that this is a class B felony.

Just would like to see a better handle on this stuff.

JohnC73 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 344
Posted:
Also, at the request of the owners a forensic financial audit was "attempted" on our commercial businesses and couldn't even get off the ground due to lake of any sort of documentation. Meanwhile this commercial business, all cash by the way, has lost a few hundred thousand dollars over the past few years, $60K this year alone. I'm trying to get a look at some of the commercial business reports and finding just as the audit company did, that the documents are hard to find if they exist at all.
WendyM5 (North Carolina)
Posts: 1,522
Posted:
what a mess, just close down the business if it's loosing that much. ridiculous because that means owners are basically subsidizing it.

there are tons of free document sharing websites just google it
don't be surprised when google drive comes up as the top listing, funny how that works.

most people will never look or download the files so I wouldnt' spend a lot of time trying to make it all nice and organized.


vis ta vie
JohnC73 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 344
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By WendyM5 on 12/09/2022 2:46 PM
what a mess, just close down the business if it's loosing that much. ridiculous because that means owners are basically subsidizing it.

there are tons of free document sharing websites just google it
don't be surprised when google drive comes up as the top listing, funny how that works.

most people will never look or download the files so I wouldnt' spend a lot of time trying to make it all nice and organized.


It is a total disaster. The Commercial business is a huge loser and most likely a money laundery scheme since income increase by 67% once we changed to credit card only.

The issue is lethargic owners. This is a seasonal/vacation HOA, so the second home for ALL owners and money is less of a concern than owners in a primary residence HOA.
MichaelS56 (Minnesota)
Posts: 858
Posted:
We presently have an association website with that information available monthly.
BarbaraJ2 (California)
Posts: 1
Posted:
I maintain a website which has most the pertinent documents uploaded for property owner access. I also have USB drives which I use, as Office Manager, to copy and distribute the documents to New Owners, or as needed.
JohnC73 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 344
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By BarbaraJ2 on 12/10/2022 10:16 AM
I maintain a website which has most the pertinent documents uploaded for property owner access. I also have USB drives which I use, as Office Manager, to copy and distribute the documents to New Owners, or as needed.

Thanks,

I think the real issue is the commercial business complicates the reporting. The non-profit side of the association reporting is fine, it is the commercial business that is a mess.

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

  • ✓ Ask follow-up questions
  • ✓ Share your experience
  • ✓ Get expert advice
  • ✓ Access 350,000 discussions
Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here