Written by Lee Ann Weir, AMS

Lee Ann has been in the community association industry for the past 28 years. She is currently the general manager of Lionsgate at Woodmont Corner Condominium in Bethesda, MD. Lee Ann is active in Rockville High’s After Prom Party and Booster Club, as well as president of the Twinbrook Swimming Pool.

 

You may have little interest in this article if you have a new property and haven’t accumulated boxes and boxes labeled Invoices, Audits, Employee, Financials, Minutes, etc. But many properties are 50+ years old and paper is something that has been collected since the community began. So, what should be done with all that paper? In my professional realm as a manager of a very large-scale, homeowners association with mixed housing and some commercial aspects, the last months of the year and the start of the new year are very predictable in some ways and unpredictable in others. What follows is perspective for community management on activities and considerations for associations during this season.

 

First, take look at the boxes and get a sense of whether they are labeled correctly and if not, correct them, and organize them by year or type.

Second, review the guidelines provided by Michael Kerr of Turner, Leins and Gold LLC below:

Documents that should be kept forever:

  • Organizational documents (articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, Declarations, and any subsequent amendments to these documents)
  • Board of Directors meeting minutes where significant votes or discussions occurred
  • Audits
  • Documentation of significant litigation and settlements

 

Seven Years:

  • Tax Returns
  • Bank statements – both operating and reserve

Three Years for IRA examination:

  • Receipts to support expenditures – both operating and reserve
  • Aging reports to support receivable and payable balances
  • Approved Budgets
  • Contracts to support expenses

Third, create and approve a Records Retention Resolution. A sample is provided at the end of the article.

 

Lastly, if you aren’t sure whether or not a document should be kept, KEEP IT. You will never regret keeping a few extra documents even if they are a few inches thick, but once they are gone, you can never get them back.

 

SAMPLE CONDOMINIUM UNIT OWNERS ASSOCIATION

Resolution No. ______

Records Retention Guidelines

Recitals

  1. Article ____ , Section ____ of the Bylaws assigns to the Board of Directors (“Board”) all of the powers and duties necessary for the administration of the affairs of the Association and further states that the Board may do all such acts and things as are not by the Condominium Act, the Declaration, the Bylaws or the Rules and Regulations required to be exercised and done by the Association.
  2. The Board has the authority to establish guidelines for management operations.
  3. For the benefit of the Association and the unit owners, the Board wishes to adopt guidelines for the retention of Association records by Management.

 

NOW THEREFORE, the Board hereby repeals any previously-adopted guidelines for retention of Association records, and adopts the following Records Retention Guidelines.

 

  1. The following documents will be permanently kept on file: Board Resolutions, attorney correspondence and advice files, Declaration (and all amendments thereto), Bylaws (and all amendments thereto), Rules and Regulations (and all amendments thereto), recorded covenants, and so on…
  2. The following documents will be kept on file for a period of 7 years: check registers, personal property tax returns, contractor insurance certificates, and so on…
  3. The following documents will be kept on file for a period of 3 years: bank reconciliations, petty cash records, approved budgets, and so on…
  4. Not on the PDF
  5. Not on the PDF
  6. In appropriate circumstances, the Management Agent or the Board may designate specific records to be retained for periods longer than those set forth above.
  7. As used in these guidelines, the term “correspondence” includes all paper and electronic communications, including but not limited to memoranda, letters and email messages.

 

Most documents that are no longer needed, should be shredded versus being tossed in the recycling bin. This is the perfect opportunity to have a Community Shred day. There are many contractors and prices vary, so call around.

Now that your storage room is clean, organized and there are empty cabinets, what should you do with them? Most are made of aluminum and can easily be broken down for scrap metal at your local recycling facility or scrap metal yard. Prior to that, if they are in decent shape, you may want to consider Freecycle, FB Marketplace, or similar.

 

Retrieved on February 13th, 2023 from file:///C:/Users/Admin/Downloads/CAWM0123-dl.pdf, p. 18-19.