Condo Association Management Blog

I believe they should be kept with copy of the approved budget for each year and retained for seven years.

I would assume that the management company would keep records of all assessments that they collect and also the Association's meeting minutes which the recording secretary keeps. I'm not sure if they are required to keep them for up to seven years.

They should be kept for as long as the requirement to keep tax records -- I believe at least 7 years. As for providing those record to a member, if he wants the past 10 years records and you only have 5 then he can only receive 5! In some state the member is required to state why he wants the records. Check you state law and gov docs to see exactly what the requirements are. Sometimes members ask for records just to make things difficult for the board especially if there is a dispute between the board and member.

In Florida owners have a right to ask for business records, in writing, they do not have to state why they want them. What defines a business record is stated in the statutes for both HOAs and Condos. There are pretty stiff daily fines that can be brought to bear if the association does not produce them in the time defined by the statutes, although I don't have experience on how that is actually enforced. In any case, they have to pay for the cost of producing copies, whatever the mgmt company or the association deems. Check your own state laws for specs. They should have clean access to records as defined, no matter what their reason, imo. Thanks for listening.

Very interesting topic. I purchased a condo last year and after I purchased the condo and found there was an assessment owing, I asked the secretary of the association in writing to mail me a copy of the agreement the seller made showing the sellers agreed to pay the assessment over 15 years (there were 11 years remaining on the assessment)agreement. Secretary informed me "it was destroyed when I purchased the condo." How is that for record keeping for a self-managed property. What if the seller died and the estate is selling the prperty? No record exists???

Our management company and CAM aredirected to adhere to the applicable Forida Statute which prescribes keeping suçh records 7 years.

Using IRS guidelines and our state statute of limitations on fraud and negligence we have been advised by our attorney to use the following guidelines for document retention. Here are some of the items from the list: Financial statements, audit reviews/reports, tax returns, minutes, insurance policies, claims info, keep this information forever. Owner assessment records, bank statements, and budgets keep for 7 years. I know first hand that we have them going back longer than this period. I did question if your owner wants a copy of their ledger to see thier payment history because special assessment payments would have been entered seperately than a regular fee? They are entitled to their personal information, but you can not release other owners payment history. I would also suggest you have a formal policy in place for other records requests so you don't release too much or too little information and you have documentation if needed proving your response. We also give owners their payment ledger free of charge if requested.