Academy/Developer / Declarant Transition
Records turnover
Know what the developer owes your board at turnover, and how to tell whether the box of files you were handed is actually complete.
Records turnover is the developer handing the association everything it needs to operate on its own: governing documents, financial records, contracts, meeting minutes, plans, warranties, and permits. Some states list the exact items by statute; most only describe the categories. Check your state's turnover statute and your declaration for the binding list.
What has to come over
When a developer hands off control, it isn't just handing over the gavel. The association needs the paper trail behind every decision the developer made on its behalf: the declaration and its amendments, articles and bylaws, board and member meeting minutes, financial statements, insurance policies, the contracts the board signed, and the plans, warranties, and permits tied to what was actually built.
Whether your state spells out an exact statutory list of these items, or only describes the categories in general terms, varies by state; check your state's condominium or common interest community act. Where a category shows up empty, an incomplete contract file, no permit records, treat that as a gap to close, not a detail to skip.
Florida's checklist, as one example
Florida spells out exactly what has to change hands at turnover, which makes it a useful preview of what a statute in this area can require. For condominiums, section 718.301(4) requires the developer to deliver items including the original declaration and amendments, corporate articles and bylaws, and the association's meeting record.
"Minute books, including all minutes, and other books and records."
Source: Florida Statutes, section 718.301, The Florida Senate
Florida's homeowner association statute lists a parallel set for non-condominium communities: deeds to common property, the declaration, minutes and financial records, contracts, insurance policies, permits, warranties, and the owner roster. [S2] This exact checklist is Florida's; your own state's turnover statute, if it has one, may list different items or none at all.
If your state doesn't hand you a checklist
Not every state legislates a specific turnover-records list. Where yours doesn't, two other things still do the work: your declaration's turnover section, which may commit the declarant to specific deliverables, and general contract and fiduciary law, which still obligates the developer to account for what it did with the association's money and authority while it was in control.
The Foundation for Community Association Research, part of the Community Associations Institute, publishes a "Best Practices Report: Transition from Developer Control" aimed at exactly this gap. It's worth pulling directly rather than relying on a summary.
Whatever the source of the requirement, treat the list as a checklist to physically verify, not a formality to sign off on. A missing item is easier to chase down before the developer's attorney and sales office are gone.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
The developer's outgoing management company hands your new board three banker's boxes and says that's everything from the declarant-controlled period. What's the board's first move?
A new director asks whether Florida's itemized turnover list (minute books, warranties, plans and specifications) applies to their own state too. What's the accurate answer?
The board can't find any state statute listing required turnover records. What should the board actually rely on?
Sources
- Florida Statutes, section 718.301, "Transfer of association control; claims of the association", The Florida Senate
- Florida Statutes, section 720.307, "Transition of association control in a community", The Florida Senate
- "Best Practices Report: Transition from Developer Control", Foundation for Community Association Research / Community Associations Institute
Developer / Declarant Transition
Once the records are in hand, the next question is what the contracts inside them actually commit the association to. See contract turnover.
Whether your state requires a specific list of turnover records at all, and exactly what belongs on it, varies by state and by your declaration's turnover section.