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We pride ourselves on providing invaluable services to HOAs/COAs and their property managers throughout S. Florida that facilitate the improvement of safety and appearance of their communities while preserving the integrity of property values. Our first division, Garing Parking Enforcement, was started in 2007 to help communities regain and maintain compliance with their vehicle restrictions and parking regulations.
Our second division, Garing Property Services, was just launched with a similar intent of bringing the residences, recreational and common areas in a community into compliance with the community’s governing documents pertaining to the appearance and upkeep of their dwellings.
Dear Paul and the Garing Staff
Just so you know, we were more than satisfied with the patrols. I know what your guy went through at times; the threats […] abusive residents, etc. l also know it would be hard to duplicate this service for little or no cost if we choose to do so because you are extremely reasonable with the costs. You have been a tremendous help to our violation enforcement […] I just personally wanted you to know that we appreciate everything you have done for our community.
Chuck Forcucci
and the Genesis Board of Directors
I’ve read carefully the report of Garing’s parking ranger. I have no comment other than l do appreciate very much everything that he did on Saturday night, June 21, 2008 between 12:30 am and 1:50 am.
He conducted his duty strictly in accordance with the professional regulations of your company and the agreement with Sawgrass Preserve HOA. The owners of vehicles that were subject of towing in this incident were very well known as frequent violators, not only in illegal parking, but also in other cases (broken gate arm, tailgating…)
On behalf of the Association l praise the professional stand of your ranger and use this opportunity to thank him for everything he did that night to protect the Association rules. Could you please pass to him our great satisfaction for his approach in conducting of his duties.
Thanks.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to condo communication, there are some basic principles and strategies that can help you maximize communication. For instance, we can all agree that using digital communication tools is faster and more efficient than outdated paper and mail.
Read on to find out how technology and sound communication strategies can facilitate smooth operations and cohesion with homeowners.
One of the best ways to capture and maintain unit owners’ attention is to communicate with them frequently. Property management software such as Condo Control Central simplifies the process for you. It offers a discussion forum where unit owners can voice their opinions in a safe and confidential manner.
Residents can use this feature to report property damage in the common areas, and you’ll be able to moderate the forum by adding pre-defined topics.
The event planner tool also makes it easy to inform and update residents about upcoming community events such as get-togethers and AGM meetings.
Tired of printing documents and posters every time you update community bylaws? Say goodbye to printing costs and upload updated documents straight to your community’s file library. It has quick search functionality and allows you to seamlessly notify residents when you upload a new document. Now you’ll have no excuse but to keep unit owners updated on every move.
Make sure your state allows for the electronic transfer of large documents because it’s not legal in every state.
People generally don’t like to actively seek out information so you need to make it easy for them. Otherwise, no-one is going to go out of their way to read the rules unless they’re made visible. Going digital will not only help you to cut costs while captivating people’s attention, but it also simplifies the communication process. Using property management software forums means that you don’t have to rely on residents to open an email, or log in to a website.
But, it’s important to modulate the information you make available to residents online. Intelligently designed communication strategies speak volumes and will help you manage and reduce conflict.
Like most condo associations, your condo declaration stipulates how often your board should meet. It’s important to include residents in HOA meetings to promote transparency and honesty. The minimum requirement in most state regulations is for the HOA board to meet annually to plan the yearly budget. But, it helps to hold regular meetings in-between to keep residents in the loop about important issues.
If you want to find out how often your condo board should meet, check the association’s bylaws for detailed information. Most bylaws have a minimum meeting frequency of five to six times a year. It’s important to note that this is merely a suggestion, and the board can choose to meet more or fewer times than that, based on the needs of the community.
Granted, things like weather conditions can contribute to the frequency of board meetings. Associations that in areas with extreme winters may hold regular meetings to deal with issues like snow removal or lawn maintenance. Some associations need to hold frequent meetings to deal with tenant disputes and other kinds of drama. Larger condo associations with 30, 50 or more units may also meet frequently due to unique circumstances.
The important thing is to address problems as they arise and do so publicly. Don’t allow things to fester as this may lead to detached involvement from homeowners. For instance, if an HOA board holds six meetings in a year, then homeowners should be present for at least half of those meetings.
Every association should have a website and social media presence. This makes it easier to raise awareness about the latest association news, meeting minutes, etc.
Plus, you can control the amount of information included on the website and who has access to it.
Most associations use social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn as well as association blogs as a way to keep community members in the loop about important news and happenings. Through private groups within these platforms, you can safely and effectively share meeting minutes, community alerts, invitations, and announcements.
The only downside to using public social networks is that you don’t have control over the platform itself. Facebook or LinkedIn’s community and privacy rules can change at any moment. This can affect the way you communicate with association members and compromise privacy. After all, social media doesn’t offer the level of confidentiality required when sharing certain information.
Since these platforms aren’t designed with condo associations in mind, they may not have certain functions you’d find in dedicated property management software.
Social media also comes with issues like out of control comments that cause misunderstandings and communication barriers. For instance, it’s easy for comments posted by board members to be misconstrued as a representation of the board itself, when it’s only the perspective of a single board member. Situations like this can create a hostile environment and lead to unnecessary strife.
This is just one example of how Facebook can instigate controversy trough miscommunication. It’s difficult to moderate comments and conversations that happen on the platform, hence the fighting that often happens on Facebook and other social media websites.
It’s better to communicate with homeowners using an internal platform. That way, you can moderate the conversation and address questions in an orderly fashion. An open forum is a great way to do th
is, along with Control Central’s dedicated announcement feature.
The website builder feature from Condo Control Central is ideal because it allows you to create a customized platform for your community. Here, you can safely share important and mundane information alike. This includes things like your pest control schedule to your recreational event calendar, board meeting schedule, planned improvements and parking requirements to name but a few.
It’s the best way to ensure confidentiality and privacy when communicating with unit owners electronically. It also encourages ongoing interaction between unit owners and can foster a strong sense of community.
Are you having trouble with disinterested unit owners? Then you should point out a few reasons why they should take an interest in association affairs. Most absentee unit owners are that way because they don’t live in their units and simply rent them out as an investment property.
In such cases, it helps to incentivize meeting attendance with something like a free gift card or a percentage off from their assessments. At the end of the day, these types of owners are interested in the financial value of the property. So, they will take part in association meetings and affairs if it means maximizing their bottom line or investment.
We can’t stress this enough. Transparency is paramount in a condo association because you don’t want unit owners to ever feel alienated or unheard. Transparency is the easiest way to avoid disgruntled unit owners while making sure that you’re sharing all the right information with them.
For the best results, we recommend you consult with state regulations to see what the requirements are. Most states call for regular association board meetings that involve unit owners in every major decision.
The last thing unit owners want is to find out about an important decision via email or text notification. Especially if it affects the value of the property or their quality of life, which it probably will. Everything should be discussed in an open board meeting, and the board should give unit owners due notice before each meeting.
Unfortunately, association boards have been coming up with new ways to exclude board members, much to their detriment. One popular approach is to hold “working sessions” which are board meetings meant to exclude homeowners. The argument commonly used by board members is that they don’t want any interruptions from unit owners.
Even if the board is not planning to make motions during the meeting, community members must be informed of the meeting so they can attend if they want to.
This is the basis of transparency and the first step to building trust and open communication with your community.
Lack of communication is one of the biggest challenges HOAs and condo associations face today. This usually happens because the board fails to share decisions made on the backend. But, it’s important to share as much as possible with homeowners, keeping in mind that that the more transparent you are the more they will trust you.
It might be helpful to distribute regular newsletters either on a monthly or quarterly basis to keep community members in the loop about important issues. Even when an HOA board is experiencing problems with unauthorized renters, it’s important to share these issues so community members know what the board is dealing with.
Don’t forget to distribute the meeting minutes as soon as possible. This could be anything from a few days to a few weeks from the meeting depending on how fast the board approves them. Meeting minutes are a form of communication too and can help to shift perceptions about board transparency.
HOA boards should go beyond legal requirements when it comes to transparency and make financial records available to unit owners. That’s because financial transactions are often a leading cause of suspicion in condo associations and HOAs.
We recommend a yearly audit to improve transparency and the budget mail-out feature from Control Central is a lifesaver. It offers customized mail-out templates that you can use to digitally and automatically mail-out condo fees to residents.
Accounting and tax services are about more than just numbers on a page. Unlike other accounting firms, when you call us you will get a live human being not voicemail and unlike other accounting firms we will work with you on your business helping you to grow profits and cut taxes. Unlike other accounting firms we will tell you before we begin work exactly what it will cost for our help.
Our tax accounting professionals will be happy to assist you with; tax planning, tax preparation and tax representation.
Our tax accountants are EA’s (Enrolled to practice before the IRS). They know the tax laws and will make sure you don’t pay one penny more than you have to. Visit us for a free consultation with a tax accountant, who will review your tax situation, with you to determine the best course of action. The tax accountant will provide you with a free fee quotation.
At a time when it would make sense for the condo and HOA laws to become easier to learn, they are becoming harder. Much has to do with why in the world are there such differences between the condo and HOA statutes? It’s actually ridiculous. For example:
There are more, but you get the point. There are no reasons of which I’m aware as to why these statutes are different for condos and HOAs, yet they continue to exist. At a time when it’s confusing enough to learn the laws, The Florida Legislature should amend the statutes so that the laws are the same and fair across the Board, regardless of whether you live in a condo or HOA.
Tags: Condo and HOA
The Risks of Not Purchasing Insurance For Your Condominium Unit
Do you think you do not need condominium insurance because your condominium association has it? You would be so very wrong if you do! It has happened more times than I can count—the supply line that feeds the toilet ruptures in the upstairs unit while the owner of the unit is out of town, the upstairs unit owner forgot that he or she started to fill the tub and it overflows, or the upstairs unit owner ignores a broken toilet, all of which result in water flowing down into the unit below. Next thing you know, the remediation workers arrive and start ripping out the soaked, damaged drywall in the units below and after cutting holes in the drywall use their industrial-sized blowers to dry things out to prevent mold.
Meanwhile, the downstairs unit owners want to have a “word” with the upstairs unit owner to discuss who is going to pay for the repairs. They demand a copy of the upstairs unit owner’s insurance policy. The owner of the upstairs unit where the leak occurred smiles and explains, “The condominium association has insurance. They’ll take care of it.” Right? Wrong! Even if the condominium association has the duty of repair to portions of the damaged property, typically the damaged common elements, the upstairs unit owner is not off the hook because both the condominium association and its insurance company can often “subrogate” their financial damages against the upstairs unit owner and so, too, can the downstairs unit owners and their insurance companies. At the end of the day, the upstairs owner who caused the damages could have significant financial liability. (In plain English, to “subrogate” a claim means that one party goes after the other for their financial damages for having caused the damage in the first place.)
So, now that I have your attention, most especially if you are a unit owner who does not have insurance for your unit—in the example described above, not only can the upstairs unit owner bear significant financial liability, but even their condominium unit is at risk of being foreclosed to satisfy a judgment against them—and there is no homestead protection! Because the upstairs unit owner decided not to purchase insurance, he could actually lose his unit in a foreclosure. The following explanation is why:
By way of oversimplification, the Condominium Act, more specifically, §718.111(11)(f), Florida Statutes, requires the condominium association to insure everything that the unit owner is not responsible to insure. The unit owner is responsible to insure
all personal property within the unit or limited common elements, and floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments, including curtains, drapes, blinds, hardware, and similar window treatment components, or replacements of any of the foregoing which are located within the boundaries of the unit and serve only such unit… the association is not obligated to pay for any reconstruction or repair expenses due to property loss to any improvements installed by a current or former owner of the unit or by the developer if the improvement benefits only the unit for which it was installed and is not part of the standard improvements installed by the developer on all units as part of original construction, whether or not such improvement is located within the unit.
But, however, the unit owner’s insurance policy, typically referred to as an “HO-6 policy,” not only includes coverage for the items set forth above plus other personal items, but also includes liability coverage for having caused damages to the condominium property.
§718.111(11)(j)1–2, Florida Statutes, makes patently clear that
A unit owner is responsible for the costs of repair or replacement of any portion of the condominium property not paid by insurance proceeds if such damage is caused by intentional conduct, negligence, or failure to comply with the terms of the declaration or the rules of the association by a unit owner, the members of his or her family, unit occupants, tenants, guests, or invitees, without compromise of the subrogation rights of the insurer.
The provisions… regarding the financial responsibility of a unit owner for the costs of repairing or replacing other portions of the condominium property also apply to the costs of repair or replacement of personal property of other unit owners or the association, as well as other property, whether real or personal, which the unit owners are required to insure. (emphasis added.)
Furthermore, also pursuant to §718.111(11)(g)2, Florida Statutes
unit owners are responsible for the cost of reconstruction of any portions of the condominium property for which the unit owner is required to carry property insurance [set out above], or for which the unit owner is responsible, and the cost of any such reconstruction work undertaken by the association is chargeable to the unit owner and enforceable as an assessment and may be collected in the manner provided for the collection of assessments pursuant to § 718.116, Fla. Stat. (emphasis added.)
§718.116, Florida Statutes, is the unit fore-closure section of the Condominium Act which explains the steps necessary to foreclose against an owner’s unit for failing to pay assessments.
In condominium living, the general rule is that the party who has the duty of purchasing insurance for a particular portion of the condominium property also has the primary duty to repair the damages to such portion regardless of fault (unless the condominium association has opted out of that regime by a vote of the unit owners, which is a rarity). But, simply because the condominium association has insurance and may have that primary duty of repair after the insurable casualty event, that does not mean that the negligent unit owner that caused the damage will not be the primary target for reimbursement for expenses incurred by the condominium association’s insurance company or by the condominium association for its deductible and related expenses. The same concept applies for the downstairs unit owners, who could seek reimbursement from the upstairs unit owner for any necessary expense incurred because the upstairs unit owner was negligent.
There are typically two parts to the HO-6 insurance policy, the primary coverage for personal losses and the other for liability coverage. Condominium associations should consider amending their declaration to require every unit owner to have both personal and liability coverage, and at a minimum, liability coverage. Your condominium association should discuss this requirement with the condominium association’s insurance agent as well as review the possibility of amending the declaration of condominium with legal counsel.
Anytime a condominium association experiences a casualty event, in addition to reporting the claim to the insurance carrier, usually through the condominium association’s insurance agent, the condominium association should be in touch with its legal counsel to explore all the different aspects necessary to both repair and reimburse the condominium association for its financial losses. At the end of the day, owning a condominium unit and not having purchased insurance is similar to taking a rowboat out on a rough sea day without life preservers.
Kaye Bender Rembaum, Attorneys at Law |
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The law firm of Kaye Bender Rembaum, with its 20 lawyers and offices in Broward, Palm Beach and Hillsborough Counties, is a full service law firm devoted to the representation of more than 1,200 community and commercial associations, developers, and their members throughout the State of Florida. Under the direction of attorneys Robert L. Kaye, Michael S. Bender and Jeffrey A. Rembaum, the law firm of Kaye Bender Rembaum strives to provide its clients with an unparalleled level of personalized and professional service that takes into account their clients’ individual needs and financial concerns. |
Meet Eduardo Mondragon, the President of 1st Choice Restoration Consultant Inc./dba Roofing Team. An SFPMA Member and Licensed and Insured Roofing Contractor in the State of Florida.
This introduction is to let you learn more about our goal to working with the property management, condo and hoa’s to provide you our services.
We have a lot of experience accumulated over 30 years in the construction sector and specialized in Roofing. My crews are bilingual. I am located on Palm Beach, We do all phases of roofing like repairs, re-roofing, new construction roofing and roof maintenance.
Our corporate experience and the individual skill of our superintendents and tradesmen are keys to a successful job. We know what materials and techniques will yield the highest performance for your specific conditions and budgets. We advise clients on the methods most appropriate for cost and time savings. The best evidence of our successful craftsmanship is the long list of repeat customers, owners, contractors and construction managers who invite us to work on their projects.
Our strength is in our ability to address any situation presented. Whether it is development and completion of yearly maintenance plans, or the complete structural restoration of a structure, we have the knowledge, ability, and manpower required. Our knowledge and experience allows us to work hand in hand with owners, operators, and engineers in the development and implication of project budgets, repair techniques, and high-quality on-time repairs.
We are Valcourt Building Services, the premier provider for waterproofing, window cleaning, and restoration services. With over 30 years of experience, we’ve performed tens of thousands of repairs and maintenance on the complete 
building envelope. So no matter what your building requires, we have the knowledge and expertise for all of your exterior maintenance needs.
Founded in 1986, we have grown from a single-operating company serving the Washington, D.C. area into one of the largest exterior maintenance companies in the nation. We maintain offices in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. Each of our offices has a strong local staff with decades of experience in the industry — and our corporate team backs them all with resources and best practices to ensure we’re operating at the highest level in every market.
If you have a commercial property in the Florida/Southeast US market, Valcourt is the premier provider for all your restoration needs. As a specialty contractor that has been waterproofing and restoring commercial building exteriors for over 30 years, we know the issues inside and out.
We specialize in servicing the complete building envelope with a full range of services, including facade restoration and repair, garage restoration and repair, plaza deck restoration and repair, and more.
President Paul Alliston leads a full-service team with departments dedicated to operations, safety, sales, administration, and customer service. Our team is composed of employees at all levels of our organization who are experts in the building restoration and waterproofing industries; from management to our field superintendents, many of whom have been with Valcourt for over 10 years.
So give us a call and experience firsthand why thousands of property managers and building owners choose Valcourt Building Services every year.
“We have been able to partner with Valcourt on exterior restoration and enhancement projects at multiple locations around the country. Their organization, professionalism, and communication has been spot on for each project. I especially appreciate their team approach to business and attention to detail. We’ve been able to work hand in hand seamlessly to provide an end product for facility owners that meets their goals of improving their facility image.”
-John Ketenbrink, LMH Architecture
Antonio Posadas
863-244-3495
aposadas@valcourt.net
Valcourt Building Services
Business Development Manager
Florida Office: 941-747-7277
SFPMA works throughout the State of Florida, we are a multi-member organization for the Condo, HOA and Property Management industry. Through knowledge based Articles, Events and our Members Directory, Clients find the right information to make an informed decisions for their Florida properties.
