A management company in Florida has been called the “Condo crime family” by a Floriday state legislator who chairred a committee on condominium abuses. The management company is accused of stealing money, fraud, rigging elections, kicking board members off of boards who asked to many questions, threatening to sue owners who speak up in HOA meetings, and refusing to provide condominium financial information. Family members at the company have been convicted of forging checks and other crimes. Fortunately for HOA owners in Florida, managers must be licensed so this management company has been fined and penalized. Through the state licensing divisions, investigations and enforcement action continue.

Unfortunately for community associations in Utah, there is no regulation or oversight of HOA managers. A person could finish a ten-year prison sentence for embezzlement and fraud and start managing an HOA the next day, taking over control of hundreds of thousands of dollars of unkowning homeowner funds. The Utah CAI legislative action committee – of which John Morris of Morris Sperry is a member, has been working for years on a bill to provide for manager registration that would require some minimum certifications and education for managers. So far, that bill has been stalled in the legislative process but the Utah CAI LAC members remain committed to introducing and passing the bill.