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When the coronavirus forced many of the usual community association activities to shut down this past spring, some of your clients may not have needed all of the services they’d already contracted for — or their vendors might not have been able to perform due to government orders or staff shortages. In such circumstances, it’s…

Hoarding is more than just fodder for reality TV fans. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has formally recognized it as a disorder that affects an estimated 2 to 6 percent of the population. According to the APA, sufferers excessively save items that others may view as worthless, leading to clutter that disrupts their ability to…

A lakefront homeowners association recently found itself in hot water when it tried to implement a reorganization of owners’ docks. The implications of the case, though, aren’t limited to associations on the water. “Lakefront property owners and associations that manage lakefront property are very litigious,” concedes Dan Artaev, senior attorney at Fausone Bohn, LLP, in…

Owners renting their units can lead to all sorts of complications for a community, but, just when you think you’ve got your arms around the potential issues, another one can pop up. The manager and board of directors for a condominium association in New York City, for example, probably never considered the possibility that an…

Proximity to wildlife is a draw for some community associations, with owners treasuring the opportunity to live close to nature. But that nearness can lead to destruction and the risk of bodily harm. As the president of a Florida gated golf community recently told the Panama City News Herald, “[i]f someone was to get hurt…

Just about every association manager has dealt with a problem client who’s difficult to work with, if not downright rude and obnoxious — probably more than one. These clients eat up time that could be spent more productively, create unpleasant and stressful work conditions, and lead to turnover. For many managers, these clients have become…

Leaps in technology have made it easier and less expensive to conduct surveillance, prompting more and more community associations to consider installing cameras in their common areas to combat problems like crime and rules violations. But cameras might not turn out to be the simple solution they expect. In fact, they could create problems of…

The idea of DNA testing to get to the bottom, so to speak, of dog droppings left around a community struck many as absurd when it first came on the scene. The practice remains far from widespread, but more associations’ boards are giving it a second look as they and their managers struggle to cope…

Community association boards of directors often rely heavily on their managers to help them obtain insurance coverage for the association and the board. But what about the managers themselves? According to insurance professionals, many managers have insufficient protection, whether because of misunderstandings about their coverage under association policies or other reasons. “Many managers mistakenly believe…

In the January 2020 issue of Community Management Association Insider, we talked to two property management professionals with decades of experience about how the numerous codes of conduct for association managers play out in the real world. They provided valuable insights on why ethics are so important in management and explored the first “bucket” of…