BECOMING A PAPERLESS ASSOCIATION
BECOMING A PAPERLESS ASSOCIATION
by Enrolled Agent Steven J. Weil, Ph.D., EA, LCAM,
Royale Management Services, Inc.
Is it time your association did away with paper records? Paper records take up lots of space, are difficult to share and expensive to store, not to mention the fact that they often attract bugs and other vermin.Digital records, on the other hand, allow nearly unlimited storage using little or no physical space. Combine this with easy back-up, ease of access and decreased probability of loss of records or mis”ling, and digital records can be very appealing. They are also easier to search, harder to change and can be easily protected from loss due to “re, $ood or other disasters via “cloud” back up. Computer data storage in the “cloud” is inexpensive or sometimes free, and it is encrypted for security. Files can be organized into folders and quickly and easily accessed. Best of all, digital records can be shared and still remain intact so that records are never missing.
The State of Florida is on board. Condominiums with 150 or more units are now required by law to maintain a website and to post a myriad of association documents on it that are accessible only by unit owners.
There are legal considerations in any transition to paperless. It’s a good idea to be sure that the Statutes and the association’s governing documents do not mandate the use of paper documents delivered by mail. Association documents are generally silent on the topic of digitized
records. In fact, they typically don’t even cover paper records since many were written when no other form of record keeping existed. In the absence of any reference to how records are to be maintained other than that they must be maintained, electronic records meet all the requirements.
Florida community associations are permitted to send membership meeting notices and certain board meeting notices to the owners electronically only if the association obtains the written consent of the subject owner.
Further, association business conducted by Board members via email must be retained since they may need to be accessed in the event of a lawsuit.
Association business should be conducted on a dedicated email account, and document storage should be handled with care.
Here at Royale Management, we have been digitizing our associations’ records for many years; and while we still have a few clients that have insisted on keeping paper records, we are in the process of converting those associations to digital records as well.
Royale Management Services, a registered and licensed community association management corporation in Florida, works with association Boards of Directors throughout South Florida to oversee the daily activities required for proper management, helping to educate them on their responsibilities, duties, and obligations. Royale’s team members are highly trained in all aspects of community association management and customer service to ensure that proper procedures are followed that keep the association in compliance with all of the rules governing elections, budgeting, accounting, operation, collection and assessment. The #rm and its president are members of the Community Association Institute (CAI),State of Florida Property Management Association (SFPMA) and the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.
Tags: Business Articles, Management News
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