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MANAGING THE
MANAGER – PART TWO
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published December 12, 2016
Four years ago, I wrote a
column about how difficult it is to be a community association
manager. The amount of hats that a community association
manager often has to wear is amazing. Simultaneously, he or she
needs to serve as the number cruncher, interior designer, police
man, collection agency, master of ceremonies, complaint
department, tech expert and unit owner liason. They have to be
friendly and professional, even when they don’t get the same
treatment in return. They also have to walk that delicate
balance of trying to appease the board members, while being
tough enough to say “NO I WON’T DO THAT” when asked to do
something that they know isn’t quite right or legal. It isn’t
easy.
One job that your manager cannot
have however is selecting the vendors that service your
community. That’s the job of the directors. I see this problem
arise all the time when I teach our seminar. Some board members
actually have no idea what I’m even talking about when I tell
them that the management company works for the board and that
while a Board may seek a recommendation as to which vendor to
hire, the manager or management company has no say whatsoever in
who actually gets selected. Their recommendation can be
accepted or completely ignored.
Time after time after time board
members approach me and tell me, “We tried to change our
accounting firm but our management company said we can’t.” Or,
we want to go with a new law firm but our manager said “No”
you’re stuck with this one.” And the terrible thing is……. The
board believes it. Worse yet, it is more prevalent as the
average age of the board members go up.
I’m looking forward to Darlys’
blog on Wednesday which follows up to this one. I’m guessing
though that she will also agree that if your manager or
management company mandates who to hire, it’s time to ask them
to recommend other community association managers or management
firms.
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Associates, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at noon each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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