When you decide to work with a Winston-Salem community association management company, you’re going to have a lot more time and a lot less stress.
Deciding who is responsible for what tasks can be a little confusing in the beginning of any new relationships, so we’re sharing some thoughts on where you might want to start. These are five responsibilities that HOA boards should delegate to their property manager.
1. Communicating with Board Members and Homeowners
One of the main reasons most HOA boards decide they need professional management is that they’re feeling pulled in dozens of different directions and their time is limited. We can help by working with the board and the leadership as well as the entire association and the homeowners in your community.
A good management company will be the link between the board, the association, and the community. Your property manager will handle your owners and their tenants. You can ask your management company to communicate with homeowners, vendors, and the board. Management companies are good at systems and processes, and communication is often a specialty. Things will feel less chaotic and a lot more organized and efficient.
2. Providing Professional Accounting and Financial Support
Good homeowner association management includes accounting and financial services that are detailed, accurate, and transparent. This is one of the most essential functions of any HOA property management partner. You need a qualified and experienced team of professionals who can collect and account for dues, manage violations, and keep the community running according to the goals and priorities of the association.
You need property managers who can solicit bids from vendors and contractors for work that needs to be done and make sound recommendations on how to put together an operating budget and a reserve fund.
3. More Efficient Meeting Management
Forget trying to organize an agenda or take minutes of every board meeting. Your property managers can do that for you. With the right management team in place, your board meetings will be more organized, more productive, and possible better-attended. Let your management company schedule the meetings, get the word out to homeowners, and follow up on action items and agenda issues.
4. Screening and Hiring Maintenance Vendors
Property managers have outstanding relationships with local vendors and contractors. The board doesn’t need to waste its time asking for proposals from landscapers, roofers, pool cleaners, and other service providers. Hand this off to your property management team. They’ll know what to look for and how to measure cost against value and services.
5. Enforcing Rules and Regulations
If your association is enforcing the rules with one homeowner but not another, you’re welcoming a lot of legal liability into your HOA. The board must enforce the rules uniformly in your homeowner association otherwise the entire organization will be vulnerable to lawsuits and legal claims.
One of the best reasons to delegate enforcement is that it removes liability from the board. The community has to trust that the HOA is going to hold everyone accountable to the same standards and requirements. If your board allows rules and regulations to be broken without consequences or enforcement, you will lose your ability to maintain the trust of your homeowners. The entire community will feel like the HOA doesn’t care about the rules they’re supposed to uphold. This will strip away any authority or legitimacy of the association.
These are five good places to start when you’re looking for ways to enlist your HOA management company in making things better in your community. For more helpful advice, contact us at Capstone Realty.