Townhome owners and the management company.

[Murdock75]

We bought a townhouse 18 months ago and I got on the board and now have questions about the duties of the management company. Whenever an issue comes up they want the board to find a resolution to the problem. Example the insurance master policy skyrocketed from $27,000 to $51,000 per year. Shouldn't the management company have several options as to how to deal with it? We can't be the only ones having to deal with this issue. I question the amount of water used for the sprinkler system and they had no idea what the controllers were set at or where they were. Why aren't the sprinklers adjusted from July vs September? What are we paying for besides a once per month Zoom meeting.

 

[COcheesehead]

We live in an HOA community. We are firm believers in HOA’s, however we are on our third manager in five years. The board must dictate the manager duties and responsibilities. If you are not pleased, fire them.

 

[cathy63]

What are we paying for besides a once per month Zoom meeting.

You are paying for whatever your contract with them says you're paying for. You need to get a copy and read it to find out what services are included.

For the 10-unit building where we had a rental, the board paid a management company to handle money and paperwork. In their terminology we were a self-managed HOA that had an Admin Services contract with them. It was our responsibility to do all the kinds of things you listed.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I live in a condo complex that has 150 units and I am the president of the HOA. We are not self managed as our complex is way too big for that. Besides Irene management company we also have many vendors that do services for us. It’s a management company is responsibility to get all the bids and to manage our vendors.

In the 4 1/2 years I’ve been here we are on our second management company and we were going to leave this company because our manager was so incompetent but she quit luckily and they hired a very good manager.

We actually have an insurance broker that shops our insurance for us with at least 30 different companies. Last year, our insurance for the buildings literally doubled, and the broker provided us a list of all the companies that she had shopped trying to find us a better price. no one bid less and many companies refused to bid at all. In the case of your sprinkler system, our manager from the management company would’ve called our landscaping vendor to come out and fix the sprinklers.

 

[Lorenzo]

I lived in a 30-unit building for 20+ years, and our management company handled day-to-day operations only. If something was broken, the management company sent out a vendor to fix it. If there was an improvement project, the management company oversaw its execution by the vendors. But all decisions were made by the Board. Insurance issues certainly were, though likely in consultation with the management company. To get an answer to a sprinkler question I would have had to ask a board member to look into it with the management company, who would in turn have had the sprinkler vendor look into it. If you want to cut the red tape, live in a single-family dwelling.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I found HOAs to be a PIA. My single town home experience in FL, I found them to be unresponsive and always blaming the management company. They also have a double standard of friend or foe and often a unilateral determination of compliance. My Son was president of a Palm Beach HOA. He had nothing headaches. In fact the HOA situation in FL was so bad that the FL Legislature recently (2025) passed many laws that govern their power. We'll see if this corrects some of the huge issues that plagued that arrangement of Management and HOAs for so many years.

 

[Chuckanut]

Our management company used to be a locally owned company. Over the years it has been bought by a large nation a wide company that owns not only management companies but companies that provide services to home owners. You can see where this is going. There is an inherent conflict of interest when something needs fixing, replacing or there is an improvement on the property.

IMO, the management company should contact assorted insurance companies, give them the necessary data about the property and then provide the HOA with at least three insurance bids. Then the board can make a decision. Ideallly, if there is a homeowner who knows the insurance business, he/she might volunteer to help get the best rates. But, that does not often happen.

 

[ncbill]

Sounds like the OP is in a condo if they're under a master policy.

The management company should be getting multiple bids from other insurers gives such an increase.

Of course, they may find that $51,000 is still the cheapest...

 

[COcheesehead]

Insurance went up for everybody.

 

[pb4uski]

We bought a townhouse 18 months ago and I got on the board and now have questions about the duties of the management company. Whenever an issue comes up they want the board to find a resolution to the problem. Example the insurance master policy skyrocketed from $27,000 to $51,000 per year. Shouldn't the management company have several options as to how to deal with it? We can't be the only ones having to deal with this issue. I question the amount of water used for the sprinkler system and they had no idea what the controllers were set at or where they were. Why aren't the sprinklers adjusted from July vs September? What are we paying for besides a once per month Zoom meeting.

I was on the board and Treasurer of a 144-unit condominium association in Florida. Technically, you need to look to the contract to see what the managment company's duties are, but also look at what the management company has historically done for the association as IME most management company contracts are rarely granular enough to answer such questions, at least ours was not.

Prior to joining the Board, I would have thought that the management company did most everything and the Board's role was more big picture and strategic, setting the parameters within which the management company operated. That was not the case. The Board did a lot of things that I would have thought the management company should have done. Part of it was that we had a long-time rep from the management company that was generally incompetent so over the years Board members had picked up his slack. Also, that manager was a bit of a neanderthral with respect to technology so any practice improvements for the association fell to the Board members since this guy was clueless... he couldn't even run a Zoom meeeting without screwing it up.

For insurance, we had a relationship with a local insurance broker who shopped available companies for coverage at the best premium. We also had an insurance appraisal of our buildings annually or bi-annually, I don't remember which but I think annually, that was used to set the coverage limits. While I would have thought that the insurance renewal would be handled by the management company and served to the Board on a silver platter, that was not the case... the Treasurer was the key contact with the insurance broker for renewals.

I reluctantly ran for reelection not because I wanted more but because the alternatives were worse. When I narrowly lost I was overjoyed... I've never been so happy to lose something in my life.

 

[Koolau]

Insurance went up for everybody.

And the insurance company dictates major changes (like, in our case, adding sprinklers in the building) or they won't insure us at all.

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, in Florida, some insurers would dictate roof replacements in order to keep coverage. Luckily, we had replaced roofs recently.

 

[engineernerd]

Be a bit careful about calling the management company out on the carpet until you know the whole backstory. First step is reading the contract, as cathy63 says. If that doesn't clear it up, try asking any Board members (current and/or former) who've been on the Board a long time why it is the way it is.

It has been my HOA's experience that finding and keeping a good General Manager is not easy. The same may be true in your area. It seems to me that finding competent ethical services in general is more difficult than it used to be.

 

[hesperus]

The insurance increase from $27k to $51k is massive, the management company should absolutely be finding alternative quotes from different brokers. It’s part of their job to manage expenses. The sprinkler issue shows a lack of attention to detail and utility costs. You should request a copy of the current contract and clarify their responsibilities.

 

[COcheesehead]

If a higher percentage of units have become rentals the insurance rates for those HOAs have shot to the moon. FYI.

 

[Teacher Terry]

When we asked our broker why our insurance doubled it was because of the age of the building which is 48 years old and that they lumped us in a region with wildfire risk although where our condo is located, that is definitely not the case.

When 30 other insurance companies were contacted by our broker most refused to even bid and the ones that did were higher than our insurance company that doubled the price.

Locally we have a shortage of managers and so even if they get fired by one company for lack of performance, they can keep going to other companies. I guess they aren’t paid well especially considering what they have to do. In the time I’ve been here we have changed companies and managers have quit and we’ve gotten new managers.

It was so bad at one point that I got the bids myself for the parking lot because I couldn’t count on the manager to do so and we have a limited season to do this type of work and you need to be on their schedule in the spring.

Just as we were going out to bid to other management companies because we were so fed up, our management company hired an excellent manager with 10 years of experience. He is nothing short of amazing and luckily he’s young. I told him if he ever tries to leave all the old ladies on the board are going to tie him up so he can’t. ).

His philosophy is that in January the board discusses everything they want to do for the year and then he goes out and gets all the bids and then they’re scheduled for the entire year.

One of the other problems we would have with our old manager was that when we’d ask for bids from companies, we’d get widely discrepant scope of work because there were no PDFs provided to the companies. This manager always gives the companies a PDF to bid on so all the bids are bidding on exactly what needs to be done.

 

[jazz4cash]

I was on the board and Treasurer of a 144-unit condominium association in Florida. Technically, you need to look to the contract to see what the managment company's duties are, but also look at what the management company has historically done for the association as IME most management company contracts are rarely granular enough to answer such questions, at least ours was not.

Prior to joining the Board, I would have thought that the management company did most everything and the Board's role was more big picture and strategic, setting the parameters within which the management company operated. That was not the case. The Board did a lot of things that I would have thought the management company should have done. Part of it was that we had a long-time rep from the management company that was generally incompetent so over the years Board members had picked up his slack. Also, that manager was a bit of a neanderthral with respect to technology so any practice improvements for the association fell to the Board members since this guy was clueless... he couldn't even run a Zoom meeeting without screwing it up.

For insurance, we had a relationship with a local insurance broker who shopped available companies for coverage at the best premium. We also had an insurance appraisal of our buildings annually or bi-annually, I don't remember which but I think annually, that was used to set the coverage limits. While I would have thought that the insurance renewal would be handled by the management company and served to the Board on a silver platter, that was not the case... the Treasurer was the key contact with the insurance broker for renewals.

I reluctantly ran for reelection not because I wanted more but because the alternatives were worse. When I narrowly lost I was overjoyed... I've never been so happy to lose something in my life.

Thinking of that Seinfeld episode.