The forever audit

Can anyone tell me an average of how long it takes to have an audit done? Our board said in August newsletter that an audit is being done and we are closing in on the end of October now and I was wondering if this is normal? Also, as a resident we are with in our rights to request a copy of that audit I hope?? Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Our bylaws originally called for the audit to be completed within 120 days. For two consecutive years the audit was late so the board (developer controlled) changed the bylaws to allow 180 days. The audits have still been late. The auditor has usually completed his work and issued a draft report to the board within 90 days. The rest of the time has been taken up by the back-and-forth of the board wanting the auditor to water down negative findings. One motivation for this has been that the developer (per our governing docs) does not have to pay any annual deficit until the audit is completed. The deficit in 2006 was on the order of $40,000. The HOA did not receive reimbursement from the developer until August of 2007!

Mindy,

As others have stated, there is no set timeframe in which an audit should be completed.

Yes, you do have a right to request a copy of the audit. ARS 33-1805 states ". . .the assn shall have 10 business days to fulfill a request for examination" of all financial and other records. If you want to obtain a copy of the audit the assn can charge a fee of not more than 15 cents per page. They cannot charge you a fee to just examine the records. I would suggest waiting until you know for sure the audit has been completed then put your request in writing.

Very interesting re REVIEW. We have had a review done for 7 years because cost is too high according to PM. but we also have a serious defficiency in our reserves which I believe would have been pointed out by an audit. Any comments would be welcome.

Thanks for the comments Susan. One problem with reserve committee is the great amountof apathy among the HO.

Regarding an audit and the reserve fund, here is what was in ours:

There was a note that no reserve study had been conducted and that best practice would be to conduct a study. I think we need to do an internal study, but can not see wasting a lot of money on the thing right now. Our last study though three years old showed that the fund was at 1000% level. If the study assumptions were true, then we had enough money to last for more then 30 years with no additional deposits.

As for wanting to see the audit, I would think you have every right to see the audit.

Richard - review your Reserve Fund plan every 3 - 5 years.

30 years is a long time to project out to, or to consider the condition of something. For sure, most things will be obsolete by that time!

Our outdated old furnace in the community center will still last another 20 years, but should we keep using it - or replace it now with a more efficient one to save money in the long run?

Constant re-evaluation of this fund's components is required, IMHO.