If condo boards are compensated, what should condo owners know?
Why waiving condo assessments is shaky territory
If you’ve ever been on a condo association board, then you already know that it is often a time-consuming job. You can end up dedicating more time to contractors, building maintenance and day-to-day owner concerns than you would dedicate time to a paying job. So it makes perfect sense to me for condo association board members to be paid for their services — or just pay a property management company and skip the blurred line between volunteering and a paid job. But before a condo board makes the decision to start paying board members, there are some blurry details that should be worked out ahead of time.
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Do not let condo board members waive assessment fees.
There is a story in HOA Leader about a condo board president who (allegedly) didn’t pay assessments for one full year and only three months the prior year. On the surface, this makes sense. Instead of just paying the board member — especially for a similar rate of pay — just waive the assessments to make the same amount. But for record-keeping purposes, especially for a treasurer, it may be too difficult to figure out which is which. Did the president take on the role to get out of paying assessments? Did the president choose this method of payment to dodge paying late fees if he couldn’t pay on time? Why can’t the president just deduct assessments from whatever monthly payment is made, as in a check for a check?
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Allow the owners to have a say to avoid complaints later.
While condo bylaws may spell out whether board members are volunteers or can receive payment, there are usually lines in the wording about whether a board can choose to pay a board member with or without the owners voting on it. Personally, I think that all the owners should vote on this decision. Why? If all of the owners are aware that the condo board is hiring a property manager, why make any other assessment-related payment a secret? Is it sneaky for a board to vote on this independently? Not really, considering the owners voted on these board members in the first place.