President and manager relationship
No. The board does, as a body. Here is what that actually means for the president's day-to-day contact with the manager.
The board directs the manager, not the president personally. The board sets policy and decides significant matters at a meeting; the manager or management company carries out that direction. The president has no personal authority to instruct the manager beyond what the board has authorized, though the bylaws may name the president as the routine point of contact.
Who actually directs the manager?
A newly elected president often assumes the manager reports to them personally. It does not work that way. Authority to direct the manager belongs to the board as a whole, exercised through votes taken at a properly convened meeting, not to any single director or officer.
"It's the board that generally has the duty to act. The board can assign responsibility to a managing agent, but no individual board member can direct the managing agent."
Source: Individual HOA Board Members: Your Authority is Limited, quoting Christopher J. Shields, Partner, Pavese Law Firm
The same division holds for the manager's own scope: the board sets the overall direction, and the manager carries it out. One practitioner source describes it this way: the management company "carries out the direction of the HOA board and serves as an agent of the HOA in its dealings with outside parties," while the board keeps decision-making authority for anything outside what it has delegated.
What the president can do without a board vote
Under Robert's Rules, the president's core duties are procedural: opening the meeting, announcing business in order, recognizing speakers, and putting motions to a vote. Anything beyond that, including signing a contract, approving an invoice, or telling the manager to change a vendor, comes from the bylaws, not from the office of president itself.
So a president who calls the manager and issues a new instruction is not exercising presidential authority. They are, at best, relaying something the board already decided. If the board has not decided it, the manager has no obligation to act on it.
Where the bylaws and the management contract set the line
Whether the president (rather than another officer, or the whole board) is the manager's routine point of contact, and what the manager may approve without going back to the board, is set by your bylaws and your management contract. Check both before assuming the title of president carries any standing authority over the manager. A policy-level decision, meaning anything that sets direction rather than executes it, should trace back to a board vote, not a phone call.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
The HOA president calls the management company and tells them to hire a new landscaper without a board vote. What's true?
Who decides whether the HOA replaces its management company?
The management company asks who has authority to approve a new community policy. What should the manager check first?
Sources
- Individual HOA Board Members: Your Authority is Limited, Pavese Law Firm
- HOA Board vs Management Company, RISE Association Management Group
- Robert's Rules of Order Revised, Ch. XI, The Officers and the Minutes, public domain edition
Board Roles
Next, see exactly what falls outside the board's authority to delegate at all.
Whether the president or another officer is the manager's designated point of contact, and what the manager may approve without a board vote, is set by your bylaws and your management contract, not by the title of president.