The safety and security of the community you manage should be a top priority. You’re faced with many challenges when trying to keep your community safe and secure. You can take care of many cut-and-dried problems on your own or with help from your staff, if you can get the association to approve your recommendations. For example, investing in certain types of landscaping can increase visibility at the property and reduce blind spots where intruders could commit crimes unnoticed. Or you could install a surveillance system in your parking lots or common areas.

Facts: A homeowner in a planned community that was situated on a lake witnessed an employee of the community’s hired landscaping company spraying fumes without wearing protective clothing or a face mask. The homeowner complained to the association and also made a report to the state’s department of agriculture, regarding “an environmental and public health incident.” According to the homeowner, the board of directors and management staff had willfully failed to take any safety precaution to prevent this incident.

Facts: Two homeowners with a townhouse in a planned complex sued the association for making alterations to and performing work on a protective berm located in the complex’s common area near their lot. They alleged that the alterations to the berm resulted in a loss of seclusion and privacy for their lot, thus lowering its value. The homeowners asserted six causes of action for: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional damage of property, negligence, trespass pursuant to state law, and an accounting.

Community Associations Institute (CAI), the leading authority for community association education, governance, and management, has awarded the most prestigious and respected designation—Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM)—to 86 community association professionals. The PCAM designations were earned between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2016, and the recipients joined the more than 2,800 total managers who have earned the prestigious PCAM designation. For the first time, the PCAM case study was administered outside the United States—in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Finances are a huge consideration for community association boards and managers. It takes money—and sometimes lots of it—to keep a community or condominium building up to high standards and running smoothly. If you manage an association or serve on your association’s board of directors, you already know that almost everything you do depends to some degree on whether you have a budget that you can work with realistically.

Unfortunately, since the presidential election, there have been several incidences of graffiti in community associations that have been featured on the news. The messages refer to some of the politically charged campaign sentiments. Besides being unsightly, graffiti leads to other problems. It annoys members, diminishes curb appeal, lowers the quality of life at your community, and invites additional crime. But a community that’s clean, well maintained, and free of graffiti sends the message that the association enforces its rules.

Finances are a huge consideration for community association boards and managers. It takes money—and sometimes lots of it—to keep a community or condominium building up to high standards and running smoothly. If you manage an association or serve on your association’s board of directors, you already know that almost everything you do depends to some degree on whether you have a budget that you can work with realistically.

Legal problems for associations have evolved along with technology that while helpful, can also hurt board members and managers. With the help of technology, you might be able to conduct business more efficiently, but you also need to understand that a lawsuit will potentially require handing over electronically stored information (ESI)—such as email, documents, voice messages, and digital images.

Q: A weather disaster has severely damaged many of the homes in the planned community I manage. The local government is determining whether the community should be demolished. Several board members want to do this, but homeowners are protesting. The board members are worried that if they take action, they’ll be held legally responsible. What are the chances of this, and are there any recent cases that address this issue?

The Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interests most recent national survey has uncovered higher dissatisfaction with associations from their members. A whopping 81 percent of community association residents cited a lack of transparency and poor communication as the top concerns among those who live in planned communities and condominiums.