Management Company fees?

Only the Board, not the management company, has the fiduciary responsiblity to "run the business" of the association. Review your articles of incorporation, bylaws, declaration and state law on common interest communitites. Management should not have any signing authority on association checks. Specify an emergency dollar amount e.g., not to exceed $500 that Management can do in the absence of the Board only. Management must be hired according to your documents (if it addresses this). Note that management is there only to assist the Board AT THE BOARD'S DIRECTION in order for the Board to carry out its duties. Find the statute for your state that covers common interest communitites and look up Board responsibilities, AND for association manager's--what they're supposed to do and not supposed to do. Your bylaws should state how many board members your community must have. Document that you tried to get people to be on the board. If not in compliance may pose a problem. You do not want to have your association run by an attorney by going into receivorship due to lack of interest for participation in the Board to carry out its duties. Ask a CPA firm that does annual tax filings for common interest communitites for some advice, or your state Real Estate Division for qualified management companies that are properly licensed (with a permit or a certificate)to do common interest communities. Look in your yellow pages under Association or community management, real estate property management, or ask someone in another nearby common interest community (that looks well maintained) who they use or could recommend. Since you have such a small community, likely the management company would charge a minimum fee. Get an itemized list of everything they charge for, postage, copies per page, seller's packages for resales, site inspections, late notices, or other expenses such as attending arbitration proceedings. Check also with your state statutes as to the required number of meetings associations like yours as supposed to have per year. In Nevada, Boards must meet at least quarterly to review financials and annually for a membership meeting. An annual audit should be done and atleast annually review reserve accounts and operating budget to see if you're on target. Ideally, this should be on-going or at least quarterly.

JimG,
I am chairman of a development in north puget sound area and can empathize with your problems. Previously, I was on a condo HOA. The fees quoted to me recently ranged anywhere from $5 to $8 per month per household for a minimum of $1275/month. Our development has 1/4 of common areas as yours. As previous members mentioned; it the boards responsiblity to run the development. WATCH OUT - Many communities grow so apathetic that your board ceases to exsist and then your development no longer has anyone concerned over property values or the maintenance of exsisting common areas. That is scary! You will find even with a mgmt co. you will meet just as often AND maybe not so long. Did this help? Any other questions? Good Luck, Michelle