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We will assist the Association in the preparation of an annual budget based on prior operating expenditures, estimated future expenses and required capital reserves. In addition, we provide the services listed below:
- Maintain a current database of all property owners.
- Account for assessments and all other charges due by the owners.
- Maintain checking, savings and other bank and investment accounts on behalf of the Association.
- Maintain financial records of the Association.
- Mail notice of delinquency to any owner in arrears and take reasonable action to collect these assessments, including working with the Association’s attorney.
- Make all disbursements from assessments collected for normal recurring expenses as provided in the budget and approved by the Association.
- Provide monthly and year-end financial statements prepared on a modified accrual basis, which include all income and expenses, meet the State of Florida’s requirements, and reflect the net cash position of the Association.
- Assist with the timely and accurate preparation of the Association’s annual tax return.
- Assist in performance of audits in conjunction with auditors appointed by the Board.
- Assist the Board in contracting for a Reserve Study.
- Provide title company or closing agent with required closing information for sales within the community.
We will regularly inspect the community for issues not in compliance with the Association’s governing documents, as well as for those beautiful, well maintained homes (see The Difference-Commendation Letter) throughout your community. When we notice a concern with a homeowner’s property, we will send the homeowner a polite, professional letter requesting the concern be addressed.
It is our responsibility to treat your residents well. There is no need to send the industry-standard “nastygram” as the first letter to an owner; it is difficult enough to be told that one’s property is out of compliance without a threatening letter to make the issue worse. Of course, if our initial correspondence is ignored, we will forward a more strongly worded letter advising the homeowner of his or her options. We are not soft on compliance, but we do feel the job can be done in a professional, neighborly manner.
When we run into that rare owner who simply will not abide by the community’s governing documents, we are very experienced at working with the legal community to enforce compliance. We have negotiated rates with legal firms in the Tampa Bay area for these types of services and can make recommendations if the Association is not currently working with a specific attorney. To avoid any concerns about favoritism, we follow a standard compliance program. If our letters are ignored, the attorney will send a letter to the owner indicating that the compliance issue is not voluntary and requesting that the issue be addressed within the next fifteen days.
If the property owner has not resolved the issue within fifteen days or contacted us to arrange for other terms, the next step in Florida is filing for mediation. We regularly participate in mediations on behalf of our clients and have a very good track record of compliance. The Board can choose to attend the mediation themselves or authorize us to attend in their place, along with the Association attorney, to resolve the issue. In the rare case where the compliance issue is not resolved in mediation, the Association is left with no choice but to file suit.
Our experience is that most covenant/rule enforcement issues are resolved by Communities of America through our correspondence program. Those few that are passed on to the attorney are usually resolved after one letter, and virtually all the rest are resolved through the mediation process. Litigation is very rare in our enforcement process; however, the Association, through the Board of Directors, should not start the legal compliance process unless it is fully supportive of taking it to its final conclusion.
Usually, the largest contract expenditure a community has is its landscape maintenance contract. Virtually every community we manage already had a written agreement with their landscaper when they signed with us. However, the problem with using the landscaper’s contract form is that it usually protects the landscaper, not the Association. We prepare comprehensive, customized landscape specification packages for all of our clients based upon what you want your property to look like, not on what the landscaper tells you it will look like.
Our 12-page specification package consists largely of indemnification clauses and protections for the Association. However, because it is the Board of Directors’ responsibility to keep from placing the Association in peril of liability due to an improperly worded agreement with a contractor or vendor, every specification package we provide must be reviewed by the client’s attorney prior to use. Although our form has been reviewed by many attorneys over the years and it has frequently been updated as a result of statute changes, case law and legal opinions, we will not allow a client to use our form unless their attorney has reviewed it.
All contracts into which your Association enters should be
reviewed by your attorney prior to signing.
The single most important element in the operations of a community association is adequate and clear communication between the Association’s manager and the Board of Directors. In meetings, Association leaders and members come together to communicate and exchange ideas, discuss important topics, and make decisions regarding physical, financial and/or operative issues concerning their community.
Our management philosophy is that the Board of Directors, not the manager or the management company, is the policy-making body of the Association. We will act as advisor to the Board when our expertise and experience can add value and will carry out the directives of the Board, including delegation of day-to-day operations of the Association.
Your manager is also responsible for assisting the Board with administrative functions for your annual members meeting and any special members meetings.
The state of Florida presents some special issues when it comes to our insurance portfolio for a homeowners association. At Communities of America, Inc., our staff has over twenty years of combined insurance experience, including experience as agents, adjusters and underwriters. We know what questions to ask and where to go for the answers. Not all community association managers have this type of experience.
We do a thorough review of every new client’s insurance policies when we start our management contract. We will contact your insurance agent/broker with any questions we might have, and then report to the Board of Directors with our findings. The worst time to find out that you do not have the proper coverage is when you have a claim.
You would be amazed at some of the things we have found in new clients’ insurance portfolios, so let us find these pitfalls for you before they make for unpleasant surprises at the worst possible time.
We provide an assortment of other services to our client communities such as:
- Maintaining the records of the Association
- Newsletters
- Resolving individual owner’s requests as they pertain to the administration of the Association
- Providing an approved color wheel for your architectural review committee
- Handyman services for minor maintenance items around the community
- Preparing and mailing legal notices, proxies and ballots for community elections
- Filing of State of Florida Corporate Report and much, much more!
When you hire a community association management company, the most important assets it should bring to the table are experience and education in this industry. You must be comfortable relying upon the company to guide and advise you on issues such as the development of policies and rules, obligations of Board members, the provisions of the governing documents, your insurance portfolio, the administration of your architectural review committee, and a thousand other things.
Volunteer Board members are not expected to know the ins-and-outs of the community association management field, but the Association needs to make certain that its management company can provide the Board with proper counsel when needed, including when to recommend you speak with your Association attorney. Managers and attorneys serve different roles in your Association’s governance, so Board members should use both for counsel and advice. Your manager should never provide legal advice to the Association; not only is it illegal to do so, it would not be competent counsel for decision-making.
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