Dealing With

Managing Smoking, Pets, and Other Nuisances

Regardless of where you’re located, or how long you’ve been in the business, the same types of problems tend to crop up over and over, don’t they?

It’s not the big emergencies that make you pull your hair out, but the everyday hassles that start to grate when you get lots of people living together in the same community. Things like pet issues. And smoking. And the other chronic niggling nuisances that, over time, become a real pain in the neck.

Which is why we’ve pulled together this Special Report specifically about managing these sorts of challenges.

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Client Relations: How to Develop Your Ideal Roster

Client Relations Report Cover Image

Strong relationships with your community association clients are always important — but not always easy — to maintain. When times are tough economically, you can’t afford to lose clients, but even when finances are robust, an unhappy client or former client can cause trouble for your future prospects.

That doesn’t mean, though, that managers have to settle for rocky treatment from clients that are overly demanding, unappreciative, or even abusive. Concessions can be made for exceptionally trying times, of course, but wouldn’t you rather develop solid, productive, and mutually satisfying relationships with your clients?

This exclusive Special Report aims to help you do just that. It provides valuable guidance on how to identify and land the right clients, establish and enforce boundaries, manage poor conduct, and leverage happy clients.

Start creating the business and the client relationships you want and deserve today.

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Up in Smoke: Association Management Issues in the Age of Marijuana Legalization

Up in Smoke: Association Management Issues in the Age of Marijuana Legalization - report cover

More than 60 percent of American states have legalized some form of marijuana since 1996, and the legislatures in many of the holdouts have recently considered doing so. Those states with legal marijuana have seen it rapidly commoditized, with new businesses such as delivery services cropping up and becoming a part of homeowners’ daily lives.

Not surprisingly, the proliferation of pot has begun to have repercussions for community association managers, both as property managers and employers. Whether you live in a state where marijuana is fully legal, partially legal, or on the cusp of some degree of legalization, you need to know what that means on the ground.

This Special Report takes an in-depth look at some of the most pressing marijuana-related issues for community association managers and their clients and provides expert guidance on how to mitigate the associated risks.

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Association Can Return Owner Checks with Restrictive Endorsements

Attorney Daniel Miske, of Milwaukee, Wis., firm Husch Blackwell LLP, calls them “professional debtors” — the kind of people who try to evade their financial obligations by, for example, getting cute with the endorsements on their payment checks. An owner in Ohio dragged a condo association through years of litigation because of such an endorsement.…

How to Keep the Board Full and Fresh

This week, we’ve got some practical tips on how associations, their current boards, and their management companies can effectively recruit new members for the board of directors. Board recruitment has long been a challenge, and many associations find it harder than ever to find fresh, qualified, and willing replacements. “It’s an especially huge issue in…

4 Tips for Recruiting New Board Members

Board recruitment is a challenge many community associations face, and, for some, the problem is only getting worse. Long-standing board members are aging out or simply want to step back, but no one seems willing to fill their shoes. “It’s an especially huge issue in smaller associations, where a group of dedicated people serve for…

How to Handle “Chronic Complainers” in the Community

Most community association managers have run into the unpleasant phenomenon of the “chronic complainer” in at least one of their communities. Owners who are never happy and may even turn to the courts for relief, no matter how minor the issue, can cause some frustrating and costly headaches. A judge in the Chicago area recently…

Owner Who Denied Access to Her Unit for Repairs Liable to HOA

A recent case involving a California owners association demonstrates that HOAs in the state may be able to recover their costs when they have to go to court to force owners to grant access for units for maintenance or an emergency repair. Access Denied Throughout February and March 2016, the association made repeated efforts to…

Online Owner Payments, Part 2: Choosing the Right Path

This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Read Part 1 here: In April, we discussed the numerous benefits associated with allowing owners to make payments online, as well as how managers can overcome resistance to the change from boards of directors. Now we have some advice for managers to smooth the transaction once they’ve…

Are You Ready for New Overtime Rules?

This week we fill you in the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest proposed rules for overtime pay. Proposed rules introduced during Obama administration created quite an uproar among employers — not surprisingly, considered that they were expected to make more than 4 million salaried workers newly eligible for overtime. A federal district court judge halted…