Gonif Condo Association is a pretty nice place to live. It has 150 residential units and sits right on the oceanfront in Florida with some lovely amenities (pool, club room, front desk service and more). In Gonif Condominium lived three friends, Tim an engineer who was the President of the board, Joe who was an accountant and Rita a licensed Real Estate Sales associate. The board had only three members so when two of them resigned Tim (the board president) appointed Joe and Rita to serve on the board of directors with him. This did not bode well for the condo.

Just recently I posted on a social media site a discussion about your community association’s ledgers and asked if you really know that they are being maintained properly. Do you really know? I did not think that this subject would cause a lot of discussion but it has and I have been asked to elaborate and give a few pointers to board members and association managers. Once again, this may seem to be Florida specific but it pertains to all associations in all states. So here goes some humble advise.

Periodically in every state of the United States (mostly it would be annually) the state legislature gets together, and most of the time they change the laws. Bills are introduced, old language is deleted, and new language is inserted. The statutes are brought up to date to meet the new challenges that evolve as time marches on. In many states statutes are changed in regards to community association business. What about your community association? Do you review your By Laws, Rules & Regulations, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) to keep up with the dynamic and ever changing conditions in a volatile industry?

Dear Collections Guy:

After four years a bank has foreclosed on a unit in our association that has not paid maintenance fees all that time.  We thought that when the bank took title the situation would improve, but now we see that the bank is not paying the dues, what can be done?

Signed,

Frustrated in Florida