A property management agreement can affect nearly every aspect of an HOA’s operations. Yet boards are often presented with a management company’s standard agreement and asked to approve it without a systematic review of the provisions that could later create significant financial, operational, or legal problems.
The HOA Property Management Agreement Review Checklist gives boards, directors, and management committees a practical framework for reviewing a proposed or renewal management contract before it is signed.
Rather than simply asking whether the monthly management fee is acceptable, this checklist helps the board examine the entire management relationship.
It covers key issues including:
- Contract terms and automatic renewals
- Basic management fees and additional charges
- Services included in the management fee
- Management spending and contracting authority
- Emergency authority
- Association bank accounts and handling of association funds
- Financial reporting requirements
- Vendor relationships, referral fees, and potential conflicts
- Indemnification provisions
- Limitations on the management company’s liability
- Insurance maintained by management
- Termination without cause and termination for cause
- Early termination fees and other financial penalties
- Ownership and control of association records
- Electronic records, passwords, databases, and other data
- Cybersecurity and data protection
- Record turnover following termination
- Assigned community managers
- Board meeting charges
- Construction and project-management fees
- Insurance claims and collection services
- Selection of attorneys and other professional service providers
- Arbitration and dispute-resolution provisions
- Attorney-fee clauses
- Assignment and subcontracting
- Confidentiality
- Required notices, governing law, and venue
The checklist also identifies potential management agreement red flags and provides a final series of questions directors should be able to answer before approving the contract.
A management company’s agreement is a negotiable business contract. The fact that language appears in a company’s “standard agreement” does not mean the association must accept it unchanged. This checklist is designed to help boards slow the process down, ask the right questions, identify provisions that deserve attention, and make a more informed decision before signing.
Ideal for: HOA board members, directors, management committees, community association managers, and anyone participating in the review or renewal of an HOA property management agreement.
