As a follow up to a recent post, the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) report indicated that of the 478 unique complaints (complaints from different individuals rather than multiple complaints from the same person) received by DORA 32.8% or 157, involved the association’s manager. This percentage rises to 59.33% or 278 complaints if you include the following categories of complaints:
- manager/association not performing maintenance (53 complaints)
- manager exerting too much control over the board (11 complaints)
- manager/association not listening (57 complaints)
It may be this magnitude of complaints upon which a call for manager licensing is based on the claim that managers are abusing their relationships with association boards of directors. The DORA report indicated that “It was very surprising that many homeowners were unable to distinguish between their board and their manager and often attributed board actions to manager and manager actions to boards.” While this could be due to a lack of owner education, it could also be due to the fact that in many situations, the association manager is the “face” of the community. Managers are often the ones who send out all communications, have most, if not all, homeowner contact, and receive all homeowner calls.
Given the large part the manager plays in the daily life of an association, will manager licensing make a difference? Is manager licensing the best approach to the concerns of homeowners? As the regulation on community associations becomes more comprehensive including manager licensing, the number of complaints against managers may also increase as there will be a new entity to listen to these complaints.