A Florida condominium president paid himself hundreds of thousands of dollars for “managing” the condominium and purchased a car with association funds that he used. He was criminally charged for managing without a license and as part of his plea deal, he agreed to resign from the board, do 25 hours community services, serve three months’ probation, return the car, and write a letter admitting wrongdoing. The association has also filed a civil suit to recover the money he paid to himself.

Association boards should always be wary of hiring board members and their relatives to provide any services to the association and should carefully abide by conflict of interest procedures if they consider those relationships. Moreover, associations need to make sure multi-member boards are functioning properly to provide the oversight needed to manage conflict of interest transactions.

Unfortunately, Utah has no requirements for licensing or regulation of condo or HOA managers. Morris Sperry lawyers are part of a committee working hard on a new law that would provide at least a minimal amount of regulation over HOA managers in Utah. If passed, the new law would require managers to have a certain level of industry training, a minimum level of insurance, and require registration with the state. Unfortunately, this law has been stalled in the legislature for the last two years. Morris Sperry remains hopeful that this manager registration act can be passed so that situations like that in Florida are less likely to happen in Utah.