Management company won't give us our bank statements

I purchased a townhome last fall and became treasurer as of 1/1/08. Since then, I have received financial statements, prepared by our management company, but have been requesting that they provide the actual bank statements. As treasurer, by March I was getting peeved that I didn't even know who our bank was still.

The management company has been around for a long time, and managed several large properties. They are not fly-by-night, but I am looking for people to say if after requesting the information in meetings, sending multiple terse emails, what the next step should be. The property manager just promises they will be there at the next meeting. There's not an outright refusal to turn the information over, but it's becoming very odd that we are only given documents provided by the property manager. And those are on paper, hard to reconcile (requests for soft copies are also ignored).

You can also get copies of any bank statement by going to the bank. They can run them off (IF you are a signer on the account)

You can also have the bank mail a duplicate of each statement to you. Although it would be better if the HOA had a mailing address or P.O. Box for it to go to so you didn't have to change addresses with them each time you got a new treasurer.

To add to what Mary said, the one constant in all of the embezzlements that have occurred during the past two years is that the association either did not receive bank statements directly from the bank or any statements at all. The first thing anyone embezzling needs to do is to doctor the bank statements. The company may be great, but that doesn't mean one of their employees isn't having a problem. 30 years ago I worked for one of the premiere condo management companies in the country, but we accidentally found out that our vice president was embezzling from our clients to cover a gambling problem, using false invoicing. Since the accounts he was taking money from were the ones he managed, he also was doctoring the bank statements. Needless to say he got fired and we restored the money (he did go on to be the #2 at HUD during the Reagan years, you might remember that scandal).

NOTE TO ALL TREASURERS!!!! YOU SHOULD ALWAYS RECEIVE A COPY OF THE BANK STATEMENT DIRECTLY FROM THE BANK. OR HAVE ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO THE BANK STATEMENT!

Joe

Hi Bruce,

I hope that only the Board members can sign the checks, becuase something smells fishy with your management company!

I was the Treasurer for my HOA for six years and every month ALL of our financial statements were included in the package for the Board meetings. You should not only be getting a copy of your checking account statement, but every other financial account your HOA has, savings accounts, money markets, CDs, whatever.

Your Board should require that the manager provide these documents for every Board meeting. It probably takes two minutes to make copies of them, so it's not some difficult task. Without them, you're working in the dark and have almost no idea what is going on.

gee, as treasurer, i would simply remind the MC that until THEY produce the requested information, YOU will be a bit busy to process their payment check, get it signed, etc..

Why do boards forget that THEY hire/employ/manage the MC's, not the other way around.

When my boss asks me once for something, i get it. If he asks me twice, i get it NOW. I think it's a career shortening decision to make your boss ask three times.

BruceK3: The responsibility to you as a new Officer lies with the Exec. Board, not the Mgmt. company. It is the Board who is to present to you your responsibilities, as confirmed in the assn's official documents. Further, as Treasurer, have you been given clear direction on what your role is to be; further, do you have signature authority, with the bank, for check signing?
Do you have responsibility to present financial reports to assn. members?

In addition, you need to review the contract the Board has with the mgmt. company to learn what their role is and what authority they have been given in lieu of them withholding bank statements. These are the questions which you need answers to before you can determine if indeed the mgmt. company is actually fulfilling their contracted role or if they are acting unprofessionally in the assn's interests.