FL - Whose responsibility is it to calculate reserve funding?

HOA in FL. Who has responsibility for determining appropriate amounts to fund annual reserves? Should this be handled by professional property manager, CPA, or the board? The governing docs are original (over 20 years old) and they do not specify. The docs DO require an annual audit to be performed by a CPA. The board has chosen (by majority vote) to ignore this because in words of Pres, "We can figure it out." Would an audit also include projections for reserves?

I do not believe FL has any statutory requirements for HOA's. I think the funding of reserves should be done according to accepted accounting principles that assign a certain number of useful life years for each item. Is this correct? I joined the board just after we had had a disastrous change in HOA property managers where transfer of documents and historical info was a mess with many missing items that the board did not seem interested in pursuing. As a part of the budget process, the president put together a list of when certain roofs were replaced and was trying to use the warranty life of shingles to determine how much should go to reserves. On the whole, the board has a fairly unsophisticated approach to determining amounts to fund reserves and also a reluctance to fund them at all. They keep on saying, "We have lots of money. . ." and they are not using reasonable figures for future expenses. Any suggestions?

I would state the board's obligation more strongly than stated by RogerB. The board has a fiduciary duty to protect the assets of the Association. Since members of the board generally do not have the expertise to conduct the required reserve study, the board is obligated to engage a reserve specialist to do so.

The board may or may not follow the advice from the reserve specialist, but assumes the accountability if not following the advice without valid reason.

In both an audit and a review, the CPA is obligated to disclose the status of reserve funding.

The obligation is with the board to provide a sound basis for the reserve study and funding.

Thanks, Don. Your answer confirms what I had hoped - that a CPA audit would review and comment on reserve funding. Our governing documents state that the "Treasurer shall cause an annual audit to be completed by a CPA." I have raised the issue directly with the Treasurer; she ignores her duty. I have raised the issue at a board meeting (no vote) but our property manager incorrectly said that we were governed by a FL statute which requires audits only if total revenues meet a certain $ amount. He is wrong; our governing documents prevail in that instance. Finally, I made a motion at our last board meeting that the board request the audit. The president would not allow the motion because he said it is the Treasurer's job. So I introduced another motion whereby the board DIRECTS the Treasurer to do her job. The motion passed with the president voting no. The next day the president said he wants to put that issue back on the agenda for the next meeting! Because in the meantime, he hopes to appoint a new board member. ANy suggestions. We have had no audit for at least 2 years, possibly more. We have had a rocky transition from one property manager to another where info was lost or not accounted for and we are about to transition to another property manager. We definitely need an audit NOW.