Please send your assessment payments along with your coupon or statement tear-off to the following address:
Payment Processing Center
c/o RealManage
PO Box 105007
Atlanta GA 30348-5007
Your community association manager can provide you with this information. It is important to note that your community has an annual members meeting where your board of directors discusses the community’s affairs, including the financial aspects of the association with the homeowners. All homeowners are encouraged to attend their community’s annual meeting to help them understand their community and to get involved in their community. In addition, a chart is available via CiraMobile.
Assessments fund the community’s budget and pay for pay for common area landscape maintenance, repair, and maintenance and also include items such as streets, boulevards, swimming pools, playgrounds, and equipment. Assessments also fund any desired improvements to the community as well as replacing outdated, worn or damaged common area items. Depending on your association, the fees may also pay for community parties, newsletters, a website, welcome packets to new owners, or other programs. The assessments also cover the management and administrative costs of the association, which includes the cost of collecting the assessments, managing the community’s financial affairs, managing the community’s legal affairs, and enforcing the community’s rules through site inspections and notices.
Assessments fund the community’s budget and pay for pay for common area landscape maintenance, repair, and maintenance and also include items such as streets, boulevards, swimming pools, playgrounds, and equipment. Assessments also fund any desired improvements to the community as well as replacing outdated, worn or damaged common area items. Depending on your association, the fees may also pay for community parties, newsletters, a website, welcome packets to new owners, or other programs. The assessments also cover the management and administrative costs of the association, which includes the cost of collecting the assessments, managing the community’s financial affairs, managing the community’s legal affairs, and enforcing the community’s rules through site inspections and notices.
An HOA special assessment is a fee that is charged to each housing unit within a development, to be used to cover an unexpected expense or other short-term occurrences. Special assessments are charged separately from your HOA fees, and they usually arise due to a shortfall in the reserves of the HOA.
The following article will explore more about HOA special assessments. Read More
Your board of directors can only be reached through your RealManage community association manager (CAM) and you can contact your Community Association Manager as follows:
Phone: 866-473-2573
Email service@ciramail.com
Fax: 866-919-5696
Web: www.ciranet.com/residentportal/
Mobile App: via CiraMobile
Your community association is a not-for-profit corporation, and its Board of Directors has the responsibility to run the business of the corporation. The board has a fiduciary responsibility to the stockholders or owners of the corporation. Fiduciary responsibility includes timely collection of assessments as well as payments made for services provided to the association. In general, the board members are the decision makers for the association. The board of directors is either from the developer’s staff or individual homeowners who own property in the community and are elected to that position by the members of the association. All affairs of your association are governed by the board of directors. If you are living in an association that is still being developed, the members of the Board of Directors may be appointed by the developer of your community until control of the association transitions to you, the homeowners.
Learn more about the responsibilities of an HOA Board.
RealManage provides a Closing Portal where title agents may request resale certificates, statements of account, and condo questionaires for use in a sale or refinance.
Complaints should be submitted in writing to us, with the Resident Portal or our contact request form on the Resident Service Center page. Complaints should state the problem, identify the offending homeowner, and the date(s) of the offense(s). After confirming the report during our next regular property inspection, we will notify the owner about the violation that has occurred. If the owner has not corrected the issue after a reasonable period of time, the matter will be presented to the Board of Directors to decide what enforcement action should be taken.
Account information should be updated in writing, and the easiest way is to use our Resident/Owner Portal, which you can sign into from the Home Page or the Resident Service Center page. Alternatively, you can submit your changes to us using the contact form on the Resident Services Center page.
Outside our normal business hours, RealManage employees a telephone answering service with operators trained to identify true emergencies with access to all local on-call personnel at all times.
Calls regarding payments, violations or other matters should wait until the next business day.
Any exterior modifications or additions to your home or any structural changes must have prior written approval from your Architectural Control Committee (ACC). For information, applications and further details, contact us. You should note that this approval process generally may take up to thirty days; therefore, do not schedule any construction work or purchase any equipment until written approval has been received.
The community association deed restrictions specify what approvals need to be sought when making improvements in order to maintain the look and feel of the overall community as well as the overall value of the homes. Simply log onto the RealManage Resident Portal to access your communities deed restrictions.
A homeowner association governing documents are recorded legal documents typically set up by the declarant/builder of your community which may include Articles of Incorporation, Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, Restrictions, and Bylaws. These documents determine the overall structure of a community association and establish obligations and responsibilities of its members and elected Board of Directors.
At the time of closing on your home, your title company provides copies of your governing documents along with other closing documents.
You may also access a copy of your community's governing documents via the Resident Portal.
A property/community association manager should be assisting
Let’s discuss these nine essential areas of a manager’s responsibilities:
A community association is responsible for the collection and management of the assessment funds, the enforcement of the deed restrictions, and the maintenance of common area property.
For more information, you may be interested in reading: Community associations: What are they are what do they do?
Whether buying their first house, or a forever home, potential home-buyers always have the hope of continuously increasing property values. By moving into a Homeowner Association-managed community, new residents are making a key investment into improving their net-worth. In this post, we will discuss the top three waysHomeowners Associations can provide significant property value protection and growth. Read more
What qualities must you have to be a good
Are there ways you can save on products your HOA purchases? Here are three ideas from a board member and our experts.
Do your owners post flyers in the building or on the grounds? What if they’re posting “for–sale” notices of personal property? What about notices that promote their personal businesses? What if they’re posting controversial flyers about religion, politics, or even their neighbors? Should you allow this? Are you even permitted to restrict it?
Here, we discuss five smart guidelines for keeping your property from becoming a bulletin board for both good and dubious causes.
There’s no shame in making mistakes. We’ve all made them when we’ve tried something new. There is
Here we list the nine most common mistakes new board members make and provide tips for turning those mistakes into successes.
You’re not alone if you’re a condo or homeowners association board member who doesn’t regularly analyze financial reports.
“The range of the experience among board members really varies,” says Elizabeth White, a shareholder and head of the community associations practice at the law firm of LeClairRyan in Williamsburg, Va. “So many of our board members—even professionals running businesses—aren’t used to tracking budgets the way we do in the association world. A lot have in-house accounting departments, and what they’re used to is what’s
In this week’s tip, we discuss the dubious practice of condo or homeowner association board members abstaining from votes.
Under what circumstances should a board member abstain from a vote? First, check whether any state laws govern the answers to this question.
In this week’s tip, we give you a jump on annual meeting planning by revealing two mistakes boards make all too often.
This week’s tip may make your skin crawl. I apologize in advance! It also might help you prevent a real infestation.
They’re rare, but HOAs are starting to encounter the disgusting creatures known as bedbugs. “Thank God, but no, I’ve not had one bedbug case!” reports Ben Solomon, an attorney and founder of the Association Law Group in Miami Beach, Fla., who advises more than 500 associations and also represents developers through his second law firm, Solomon & Furshman LLP.
Committee structure is critical to the effectiveness of the Association. There are occasions where the dynamics and reporting or working relationships between Board members, Committees and Management become muddy and the outcome is often frustration and a feeling of wasted time and effort by all parties involved.
A refresher course is sometimes in order to bring the team back together.
A shareholder or a unit-owner has requested a copy of your
Some owners just aren’t suited for HOA living, and they make their own lives and the lives of their neighbors miserable. Are there things you can do to encourage those owners to sell and move elsewhere? Or would any such efforts be out of line? Here we provide answers.
A HOAleader.com reader reports that his new HOA management company wants to change the wording in the HOA’s 10–day demand letter so the HOA would get an automatic judgment, not
What if you want to motivate your owners to do something—like volunteer on a committee or oversee the lobby redecoration? Is it possible to offer incentives—like reduced HOA fees for a given period of time—to attract otherwise–apathetic owners? Here, our experts weigh in.
Tis the season to get to know your neighbors better and strengthen your community. What’s the best way to do that? In the spirit of the season, our experts explain how their clients spread goodwill during the holidays.
Many board members and residents wonder why it is so important to have proper insurance coverage. The right types and limits of insurance create a safety net for the association that protects all members from unplanned, potentially catastrophic losses. This is important in creating a safe atmosphere in which to live. People can volunteer to create a better community as a board or committee member without fear of losing their personal assets.
A reader on the HOAleader.com discussion board asks a question about the online document access future of association governance: Are there property management companies that can allow online access to our association documents?
The short answer is yes. Many property management companies are creating online access to all kinds of association material to make it more available to owners. Here, management companies explain how they’re going paperless.
A HOAleader.com reader is in a quandary. Her HOA is beset with
In this week’s tip, we answer a question vexing an HOAleader.com reader. Our reader reports that his new homeowner association management company wants to change the wording in the HOA’s 10–day demand letter so the HOA would get an automatic judgment, not
You’ve had a contentious battle, and the losing side is still smarting. Are there ways you can rebuild relationships with people who feel angry, left out, or just frustrated they didn’t get their way? Here, we offer tips on bringing angry owners back from the opposition.
What’s new in condo and homeowner association security?
Here we reveal several new high-tech security tools and discuss the potential costs of keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to security.
Does your state require that your condo or homeowner association board have open meetings? If so, what does that mean?
What about executive sessions? Can your board sometimes announce
An HOAleader.com reader asks, “My board had an issue where we had to vote on the dismissal of another board member. The bylaws clearly reflect that he violated his seat on the board. Here are my questions: 1. Does the person that we were voting on have a vote? 2. Out of the member votes, two abstained and three voted. So does the majority rule in this case, and we move on? 3. What does it mean when a person refuses to vote?”
Here we get answers to our reader’s questions, particularly the debatable issue of when and why board members might abstain from voting, and when it’s, frankly, a
Any marketing or sales expert will tell you that to get what you want, you have to “sell” your request to those making the “buying” decision. Funny as it sounds, a special assessment falls into that “buying” and “selling” paradigm.
If your board is convinced your condo or homeowners association needs a special assessment, it must take the process of getting buy-in seriously. Here’s how to “sell” a special assessment by being transparent, having community meetings that allow members to understand the issues and ask questions, and knowing how to overcome objections.
Sure, you can probably require owners who rent their units to pay a security deposit to your HOA to cover the tenant’s potential damage of HOA facilities. You can probably also charge move–in and move–out fees. But can you slap a general fee on owners who rent out their units just because?
A California trial court says yes. Here, we explain the decision, and our experts discuss whether your board might want to try a similar approach.
Would the electronic transfer of money due to your condominium or homeowners association enable you to collect more money in a more timely way? Maybe. Here we explain the pros and cons of implementing an automatic withdrawal system and offer tips to keep in mind if you’re about to arrange for one.
With nearly $1 million in debt, a $112,000 per month 99-year lease for its pool and some parking spaces, and at least 100 unit owners delinquent on association fees, the Maison Grande condo association in Miami Beach filed for bankruptcy in July 2009, according to the Daily Business Review.
The 270-unit Legacy Park subdivision homeowners association in Davenport, Fla., also filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2009, according to TheReporter.com. The association faced a bill of more than $100,000 to its cable company and $253,824.14 in unpaid assessments.
Your HOA is short on cash, and an annual insurance payment is due. Or maybe you’d like to put in new playground equipment, but your board would rather not impose a special assessment.
Can you borrow against that large chunk of money in your reserve fund in instances like these? Would that even be wise? Here we discuss whether taking a loan from your reserves is proper or advisable.
HOA gurus freely banter about the terms “CC&Rs,” “bylaws,” “rules and regs,” and “governing documents.” But what exactly are those documents, and which are the most and least powerful?
Here we lay out what constitutes each governing document and sort out which ones have more authority than others. For instance, do rules and regs trump CC&Rs? No, and here we explain why.
January 2011 – One owner wants to install a cherry-red fence, with one neighbor OK with it, but the other outraged at the possibility of such an eyesore. What’s the Board to do?
That’s what our reader wants to know, asking: “The condo I live in is a side-by-side
According to Ohio community association lawyers David W. Kaman and Jay Cusimano, a growing number of boards are considering going paperless. What would it mean for an HOA to go paperless, and what are the pros and cons? Here’s the skinny.
Spring is in the air, and wet clothes may be, too.
With warmer weather, homeowners in more areas of the country may want to air their clean laundry on clotheslines to both save energy and get that fresh-air scent on their clothes. Can your
“It’s a hot-button issue,” admits Debra A. Warren, principal of Cinnabar Consulting in San Rafael, Calif., which provides training and employee development services to community association management firms and training and strategic planning sessions for association board members.
If your board has hired a towing company to patrol your parking lot and other roadways to tow away people who are breaking your parking rules, be sure to have clear rules in place so that if you tow owners’ cars, you won’t create endless disputes and ill will.
An HOAleader.com reader writes, “What policies can a board implement to ensure the association is paying for common element maintenance only? Our association has a lot of exterior leaks, which hopefully, for the most part, has been resolved. Unit owners claim the damage is from an exterior leak. The HOA pays for the repairs, but there seem to be additional repairs performed that are unrelated to the exterior leak. This has been going on for years and has become a great expense to the association.
Community Board Meetings can be challenging regarding overcoming logistics. As always, the key is time invested in preparation and organization. Please consider the “professional meeting skill tips” provided below that might assist your Community in conducting a successful Open Meeting.
Manicured landscaping increases the curb appeal and aesthetic value of your community. The reason many condominium owners buy into a deed restricted community is that the association handles maintenance and exterior upkeep of units. It is important for the board of directors and manager to ensure that landscaping is adequately budgeted and properly maintained for the association.
As condominium and homeowner association management becomes more complex—and more and more board members are sued—it’s critical to monitor your directors and officers coverage to ensure you’re fully protected for your actions, argues Alan Chesler, a partner at Alan James Insurance in Sunrise, Fla.
Here we get Chesler’s and other experts’ suggestions on ensuring your policy has the right provisions and the right amount of coverages.
The rapid onset of a monsoon storm can change weather and road conditions instantly, placing homeowners in precarious situations. Damage to the community and personal property ranges from severe to “it passed right around us.” This year’s monsoon season has brought blinding dust storms that would rival any New England snow driven white out. Last year, hail damage in the southern states, including the desert, caused insurance claims to escalate, and some claims are still not settled. Flat roof and foam roof buildings were beaten, windows were blown out, vehicles pitted, and landscape destroyed. Mother Nature has had quite a flair for the dramatic!
Graffiti is a crime, not just a nuisance.
Graffiti, or tagging as it is sometimes called, is a misdemeanor crime. It can, however, become a felony-level crime if the damage inflicted is more than $1,000.00. Other penalties such as the severity of the crime, the criminal history of the offender, his/her age, etc. determine the type of probation or jail time received.
This week’s tip offers advice for condominium and homeowners association boards considering hiring a towing company to police their parking lots and roadways to haul away parking scofflaws.
Your state and local government may have laws dictating how you treat towing in your community association. Be sure to investigate before you implement any policy.
Summer has arrived and with it comes the family fun in the sun and wet and wild water parks, pools and lakes. Summer also means that it is time to re-engage your family in water safety practices. In many states, drowning is a leading cause of accidental deaths among young children. It ranks as the second leading cause nationally, according to the National Safety Council. Each year, an additional 4,200 children are treated for submersion injuries at emergency rooms throughout the country. Most of these children were under the supervision of one or both of their parents and more than 75% had been “missing” for less than 5 minutes.
Lawsuits—that your HOA either initiates or must defend—often end up siphoning off money from your association that perhaps never needed to be spent. Here, our legal experts offer up seven rules for implementing policies and procedures and dispute-resolution practices that reduce the number of lawsuits your HOA is involved in.
An HOAleader.com reader writes, “One of our owners planted a tree several years ago, and it just recently caused damage to a sidewalk in our common area. Our CC&Rs define the sidewalk as part of the major components and therefore the HOA’s responsibility to repair. But I’m wondering if the fact that the owner planted the tree that caused the damage means the owner’s
Here, our experts offer opinions on whether this is an obvious problem for the owner to cover.
An owner reports online that her homeowner's association commissioned a study to see how it compared to nearby HOAs regarding their amenities, services, costs, and market value. Should your HOA commission such a study? Where do you find a vendor to conduct such a survey? Are the results of such a study open to owners’ review, or can you keep them confidential? Here are some answers.
An HOAleader.com reader asks: “One of our residents moved out of his house, but it’s still in his name, and he owes $2,000 in back dues plus attorneys’ fees. This person submitted a bid to do the snow removal. Some board members decided that since he is only the vice president of the snow removal company, they hired the company to perform our snow removal. Three people voted against the hiring, and four people voted to hire the company. I say this is 100 percent wrong, but I need something to support my feelings about this hiring.”
How should an HOA use social media to improve your communications with owners? Here are some tips, including five communication dos and don’ts.
Some HOAs are so large and their insurance premiums so hefty that they toy with the idea of self–insurance. Here, we explain what self–insurance is and discuss the risks.
A HOAleader.com reader reports that his HOA is considering keyless access—like swipe or insert cards—for elevators to help increase building security. His board is particularly concerned about those who may have avoided proper screening or requested additional keys to allow unauthorized access
Here, we discuss the pros and cons of such systems.
Do your HOA governing documents have term limit clauses for board members? If not, should they? Here our experts run through the pros and cons.
Too often, developers minimize assessments on owners to entice them to purchase in their HOA. But even if developers start out at proper assessment levels, expenses may increase, and boards sometimes refuse to make the difficult decision to increase assessments because they’ll get guff from owners. Boards also sometimes don’t include the proper amount
How do you know the proper level of assessments in your association? Here, our experts explain how to make that determination.
Some folks call them weeds, to others they’re just a plant growing where it’s not wanted. They seem to sprout overnight and can outgrow the plants you pamper in a heartbeat. Recent rains have prompted vigorous growth. Left unchecked they can steal water and nutrients from neighboring plants. Where do they come from? How can they be controlled, so they don’t take over your yard? Read on for tips on controlling these pesky invaders.
Be Water Smart
As the heat of the summer approaches now is an excellent time to start thinking about water conservation techniques in your landscaped areas.
The catch phrase these days is “everything should go green.” The dictionary defines green in relation to the environment as:
Green – made with little harm to the environment, using renewable resources, or the politics of promoting the protection of our environment.
In community associations, every individual can make a positive impact on our environment, and in some cases, we can save money by going green. Imagine supporting a cleaner and more efficient community and being a steward for its environmental health.
Last August, New York legislators passed a law requiring that rental buildings must disclose any bedbug infestation history, and some real estate agents are requiring New York
In one small Chicago condo association, board members mistakenly thought they had to get the majority of the owners’ approval for every decision; they followed that mode of operation for years. When they double-checked their governing documents, they, of course, learned they had sole authority
Those duties will be performed by management. One writer says his HOA has written emails to the management company about the lack of performance, and the emails have gone unanswered.
What’s your remedy when your manager fails to perform? Can you withhold management pay until the duties are performed? Can you terminate?
February snowstorms revealed the best and worst when it came to associations’ contracts with vendors in Chicago. The worst case? One snow-removal company already under contract with an association suddenly demanded $1,200 to remove snow, though it normally charged about $100.
That raises a question: When one of your vendors suddenly makes demands not included in your contract, what are your remedies? What if your landscaper, under contract, suddenly demands you pay double? Can you terminate the contract immediately? Are there times when you have to renegotiate? Here, we provide answers.
In one small Chicago condo association, HOA board members mistakenly thought they had to get the majority of the owners’ approval for every decision; they followed that mode of operation for years. When they double-checked their governing documents, they, of course, learned they had sole authority
An HOAleader.com reader writes, “A homeowner replaced his roof and chose a color that isn’t in compliance with our replacement standards. It’s not even close to the existing colors. The board stated at the community annual meeting that the owner didn’t follow the procedure of obtaining approval through our architectural request process. The board chose to ignore the homeowner’s negligence and opted to have each of the adjoining townhomes in
Most homeowners association board members know they should avoid conflicts of interest. Here, our experts give us three
If you’re considering
The Young at Heart Homeowners Association (name changed for privacy) has long been an active community of young seniors. Built during the mid-eighties, this community has an established Board of Directors, Committees and Social infrastructure and professional management which made it one of the most desirable Adult Communities in its county.
Residents who are entrusted with the opportunity to serve as newly elected Board Members by constituents of their residential associations have an obligation and responsibility more challenging than the early days of associations.
This fiduciary obligation is not only one of “trust”; which involves protecting the assets of the community, but also protects the overall interest of the association as an entity. The most important way to achieve this success is through knowledge and education!
In this week’s tip, we share details about the growing trend of HOAs shunning paper.
“I don’t know of any of our clients who’ve tried to go paperless yet,” says Nathaniel Abbate Jr., a partner at Makower Abbate & Associates PLLC in Farmington Hills, Mich., who represents associations. “I do hear talk about it, but so far that hasn’t reached our shores yet.”
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