Is Your HOA Properly Retaining and Storing its Records?

Every homeowners association needs to have established procedures to ensure the safe storage and retrieval of HOA records and documents. Those procedures start with the establishment of a secure location for the association’s headquarters and maintenance of records. The developers of larger projects typically plan for and construct a suitable office for the conducting of the association’s business but smaller associations that don’t have extensive common area facilities frequently lack any office space or a secure place to store the association’s records. It is common in smaller developments, especially those that do not have professional management, to randomly store the HOA’s records and important documents in portable boxes that are passed from one set of officers to another and occasionally lost, damaged, or destroyed in the process. Some associations may allow each director or officer to retain the records for their respective areas of responsibility, resulting in association records being spread out over multiple locations. Older records may be found (or lost) in various attics, basements and garages.