Management Company and potential conflict/board transparency

I am new to this board and am finding it quite usefull.

I went to my first HOA meeting last month and boy was it a DISASTER!! I live in a modest 92 unit development and pay $151/month. There is absolutely no transparancy and maintenance and future repairs to or community is worrying me. Our management company prepared an analysis which showed a deficit of $1,700/unit if we had to take on all our repairs this year.

Here's my question we have contracted a management company for $18/year. We have also contracted a subsidiary of our management company to perform the grounds maintenance for $25/year. Should we have seperate vendors?

I also found out that the owner of the property management company was one of the past presidents of our board. Talk about transparent.

Being an accountnat I ripped apart their distributed budget to actual operating statement. I have some further questions as to presentation for anyone that can help.

Like many of you I am a concerned homeowner that needs more comfort than just writing a check and knowing the common area will be cut and a lifeguard will be on duty in the summer.

Riz

Are your amounts right? $18 per year for professional management and $25 per year for landscaping????????? Or is it $18 per HOME/UNIT/OWNER. Or, did you leave off the k ($18,000/year)?

I'd need more info before I could guess at any potential conflict.

No - was a previous owner who sold, moved out and subsequently acquired the management company. He has a relationship with the current President since they both servered on the board together.

I have to assume the management company prepared it as it was presented by previous account executive this past meeting. I don't think we were charged as the items looked like an excel sheet print out. To tell you the truth I'm not sure.

As to who hired the companies - the Board did on behalf of the association. That is how associations are run.

As to the separate contracts for management and grounds maintenance it is normal. Generally (at least in this area) HOA management firms do not directly provide landscape services.

As for the amounts, well it is hard to say without knowing many more things, but we pay $5 a month per unit with 308 units. Part of the contract is that management company monitors the landscape company and of course pays their monthly invoice.

You Board should review the landscape contract and see if they can get a lower bid. I personally think such should be done every few years if for no other reason then to ensure that you are paying a fair rate.

I don't know what to tell you concerning the repairs that are needed. You should look for an accounting of what is needed. Also, you should have a "reserve fund." This fund should pay the major repairs to items. For instance if your HOA owns a house, then you know the roof will need replaced one day. The reserve fund should collect enough to have that money on hand when the day comes. Basically you pay for the wear and tear as it occurs.