The Unit Owners Association

Often overlooked, and seldom utilized, the unit owners have considerable power over the governance of the community association. Typically, the documents grant the power to remove Directors and approve expenses over various limits solely to the unit owners association. Such powers are generally exercised by the unit owners at a petitioned Special Meeting, or by the request of the Board of Directors at the Annual Meeting.

The Board of Directors

Your Board of Directors is always ultimately responsible for the management of your Community Association.

As the governing body of the Community Association, The Board of Directors is elected by the unit owners. The restrictions on the powers of the Board of Directors are outlined in the Community Association governing documents.  

The dedicated Board members of many small communities manage their association successfully with minimal outside help. Larger communties often require degrees of experience and time that require outside expertise.  Many larger communities' documents require the Board to employ a managment company. 

In those cases, the Borad will hire a professional management company, and delegate some of their duties to them in the management agreement. 

The Management Company

The management company is contracted by the Board of Directors to provide specifc services, such as: collection of assessments, supervision of subcontractors, obtaining bids for subcontracted services, providing financial statements and collection reports, as well as a general clearing house for problem solving, communications with homeowners and the Board of Directors and to serve in an advisory capacity. The management company reports directly to the Board and all decisions that can not be made by the management company, under the terms of its contract, are made by a majority vote of the Board of Directors.

The performance and success of the management company in a full service contract relies largely on the Community Manager they assign to the community.

Types of Management Agreements

There are two basic types of contracts. The "full service" contract is similar to that described above.  The second type of contract is "financial only", wherein the management company only provides financial services and has little to do with operational actvitities. There are often variations on these two basic types of agreements, to address the community association's particular needs.

Community Managers

Traditionally, larger community associations employ their own on-site community manager to deal with the heavy day to day demands of a busy community. The management company's community manager generally deals with the "big picture": the overall management, financial health, government and administative liaison, and contractual obligations to and from the community association.

It s becoming more common for very large community associations to employ a highly experienced community manager to serve both of these requirements. It is generally a good idea to have some degree of oversite by the management company, to provide a degree of continuity. 

A broad overview of their duties includes:

• Advise and provide administrative, managerial, and operational counsel to the Board of Directors
• Exhibit professionalism and loyalty to the Board
• Exercise diligence in performing duties on the Board's behalf
• Account for financial activities covered by the Management Agreement
• Perform onsite property inspections
• Solicit and evaluate bids for association services
• Supervise maintenance activities and contractor performance
• Oversee and authorize payment for primary association services
• Fully understand the community association documents