Academy/Community Management Companies
What does an HOA manager do?
The job in plain terms: what a manager actually runs, and where the board's authority begins.
A community association manager implements the policies your board sets: handling finances, administration, and maintenance oversight for common areas. The manager advises the board and enforces its rules, but has no vote and does not set policy. Individual homeowner disputes and hands-on vendor supervision fall outside the role unless association rules are implicated.
What the manager actually runs
Your manager oversees three things: money, paperwork, and property upkeep. That means billing and payroll, preparing the budget, organizing meetings, keeping records, and coordinating landscapers and other vendors.
That authority stops at the edge of the common area. A manager runs the business operation and the shared spaces, not the inside of anyone's unit or lot. That is what separates a community association manager from an apartment or rental property manager, who is responsible for individually leased units instead.
"A community association manager's role is to implement the policies set by the board of directors, oversee operations, services, and programs as laid out in the contract with the association, and provide information and advice to assist board members in their decision-making."
Source: Responsibilities of a Community Manager, CAI HOAresources
The manager advises, the board decides
The manager has no vote at a board meeting and is not a board member. Recommendations are advice, not decisions. If a manager tells homeowners a rule has changed before the board actually voted on it, the relationship between board and manager has inverted.
"The manager does not set policy. That is done by the board of directors."
Source: Responsibilities of a Community Manager, CAI HOAresources
Board instructions to the manager should come from the board acting as a body, in writing, not from one director's hallway request. Exactly how formal that instruction needs to be can depend on your bylaws.
Where the manager stops
Three boundaries a manager should hold without being asked. Homeowner disputes: the manager stays out unless an actual rule is being violated, a disagreement over fence color is not the manager's fight if the covenants say nothing about fence color. Vendor supervision: the manager monitors whether the landscaper or other vendors are doing the job, but does not supervise those vendors' own employees, the vendor's company is responsible for that. Rule enforcement: the manager enforces the rules the board already adopted, and does not decide what the rules should be.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A board member mentions a parking rule change in the hallway, but the board never voted on it. What should the manager do?
The landscaping crew keeps missing spots and the board asks who is supervising them. What is accurate?
Two neighbors argue over a shared fence color that the covenants never address. What should the manager do?
Sources
- Responsibilities of a Community Manager, CAI HOAresources
- How Community Managers and Property Managers Have Distinct Roles, CAI HOAresources
Community Management Companies
Next, learn exactly what a manager should never do on their own, so you can spot the difference in real time.
Whether your state licenses managers, and what specific tasks a manager may perform without a lawyer's involvement, vary by state. Your management contract sets the specific scope of what your manager is actually authorized to do.