Welcome to Ungated

The community or property management business may be thriving, but please tell me how does a community association find and develop a long-term, professional relationship with a community/property management company that will deliver what they promise after the contract has been signed and reality sets in? My association is on it's second management company in 8 years. As the president , it is frustrating when I or one of my fellow board members emails or calls our property manager with legitimate questions regarding budgetary or maintenance/repair issues and wait days, even weeks for a response. Or we get a response (always a voice mail or email that provides no opportunity for immediate interaction) which doesn't even answer our original questions. Our property management company touts their association and extensive involvement with CAI, but as time goes on, it appears they don't practice the tenents of CAI with regard to professional practices and procedures. Is this a common, universal problem in this industry - could it be because it appears anyone can hang out a shingle proclaiming to be a community/property manager without any significant required educatiion, training or experience? I don't know, but would appreciate hearing what other homeowner associaiton board members have or are experiencing with their managers. Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for sharing your concerns regarding your relationship with your professional community association management firm. Creating and sustaining a successful, trusting relationship between a board and management company requires the same fundamentals interactions and communications as any other business or personal relationship.

If you are not receiving satisfactory responses to your questions, inquiries or requests from your manager, then the president of the board should communicate those concerns, along with reasonable expectations, to the manager. Should there not be a marked improvement within the designated time frame, then it is certainly appropriate to contact the management company CEO or President and share your concerns with them.

It is very important that you have an established process for communicating and working with your manager and management company. The board should define who and under what circumstances individual board members or owners should be contacting and making requests of the manager. In addition, there should be a regular review process to address any performance issues. With several of our larger clients I schedule a quarterly contract review and discuss the last three months staff performance, pending or future large projects, issues and find mutually agreeable solutions or time tables. This allows both parties to openly discuss our disappointments and equally importantly our successes.

Changes in board members may also alter the chemistry of the relationship between the association and management. Conversely, this is the perfect opportunity to discuss changes inside the management company with clients.

While surprises can be fun for birthday parties and celebrations, most business relationships don’t benefit from unexpected events. Open, direct and effective communications can significantly foster the relationship between board and management, leading to a mutually successful long-term relationship.

Some management companies, like associations, do over-commit or promise, especially during the marketing or courting phase. Everyone is at their very best and then, with time, the true individual characteristics become more visible. This is true for all relationships.