---
name: "hoa_management_operations"
description: "Run a homeowner association day to day for a small management company or a self managed board: assessment billing and delinquency steps that follow the governing documents, violation notices with photo records and hearing steps in order, architectural requests tracked from submission to decision, board meeting packets and minutes that match the bylaws, and reserve and vendor records the next board can find. Use when setting up or running HOA operations, chasing delinquent assessments, issuing a violation, processing an architectural request, preparing a board packet, or organizing association records."
---

# HOA Management Operations

## Purpose

Give a small association a complete operations method that fits a volunteer
board or a small management company. Big portfolio platforms charge per door
and board templates stop at sample letters. This skill covers the whole
quarter: billing, collections, enforcement, architectural review, meetings,
reserves, and records, all tied back to the governing documents so every
action the board takes can be traced to a rule the owners already agreed to.

This is an operations method, not legal advice. HOA law is state law plus
the association's own documents, and both control over any general guide.
When a step involves a lien, foreclosure, or a fine an owner is fighting,
route it to the association's attorney.

## Workflow

1. **Build the authority file before doing anything else.** Collect the
   declaration (CC&Rs), bylaws, articles of incorporation, rules and
   regulations, architectural guidelines, fine schedule, and collection
   policy. Note for each power the board uses (assessments, late charges,
   interest, fines, liens, privilege suspension) the exact document and
   section that grants it. If a power is not in the documents or state law,
   the board does not have it. Keep the file in the 00-governing-documents
   folder described in `references/templates.md`.

2. **Adopt the two policies in writing if they are missing.** A collection
   policy that states due dates, when an account becomes delinquent, late
   charges, interest, payment application order, the notice sequence, and
   when an account goes to a lien or to counsel. A fine policy with a
   schedule of fines by violation type, distributed to all owners on the
   schedule state law requires. Board adopts both by vote, recorded in
   minutes, before either is enforced against anyone.

3. **Run billing on a fixed calendar.** Bill every period on the same day.
   Assessments are the owner's obligation whether or not a statement
   arrives, but send the statement anyway and keep proof of sending. Use
   the tracker (`scripts/hoa_tracker.py`) or a ledger with one row per lot
   per period: amount, due date, paid date, balance. Reconcile the bank
   account monthly against the ledger before the board packet goes out.

4. **Work delinquency by age, in policy order, the same for everyone.**
   Run the aging report (`hoa_tracker.py aging <folder> <date>`). Send the
   first reminder when the policy says, the second notice next, then the
   intent to lien step, then referral. Each notice states the itemized
   balance (principal, late charges, interest, credits), how to pay, and
   how to dispute. Offer a written payment plan where the policy allows
   one and log it in the register. Deviating for one owner and not another
   is how selective enforcement claims start, so log every exception with
   the board vote behind it. Check the current state statute before the
   second notice and before any lien step: several states have changed
   required notice contents and delivery methods recently, and a notice
   sent wrong has to be sent again.

5. **Run violations as a case, not a letter.** Observe, photograph, then
   write. The photo record names the date, the lot, and the condition, and
   the photo shows enough context to identify the property. The courtesy
   notice and any formal notice cite the document and section, describe
   what cure means, and give the cure deadline from the rules. Log each
   step in the violations register. Templates for the notice and the
   hearing record are in `references/templates.md`.

6. **Hold the hearing before any fine.** No fine or privilege suspension
   lands until the member has had written notice of the hearing and a
   chance to be heard, in the order the documents and state law set. As
   one concrete example, California Civil Code 5855 requires written notice
   at least 10 days before the board meets on discipline, stating the date,
   time, place, and the nature of the violation, a hearing in executive
   session if the member asks, a chance to cure before the meeting, and
   written notice of the decision within 14 days. Other states set
   different numbers. Pull the numbers for your state and your documents
   and write them into the hearing checklist before the first case. Record
   the decision and vote, then deliver the written decision on time.

7. **Track architectural requests from submission to inspection.** Log the
   request the day it arrives. The decision clock in most documents starts
   when the submission is complete, so check the packet against the list
   in `references/templates.md` and tell the owner what is missing instead
   of letting an incomplete file sit. Review against the written design
   guidelines, not taste. Decide inside the window the documents set
   (commonly 30 to 45 days) because some documents treat silence as
   approval. Send the decision in writing: approved, approved with
   conditions, or denied with the specific guideline behind each reason.
   Note the appeal route to the full board. After the work is done, inspect
   it against the approved plans and log the inspection date. Owners must
   not start work before written approval, and the file should say so.

8. **Build the board packet from the registers, not from memory.** Packet
   checklist is in `references/templates.md`. Agenda, prior draft minutes,
   financials with operating and reserve balances shown separately, aging
   summary, open violation and architectural lists with deadlines
   (`hoa_tracker.py due <folder> <date>` shows what is overdue or due in
   14 days), and the documents behind every vote. Send it on the notice
   timeline the bylaws require.

9. **Write minutes that record decisions.** Minutes are the legal record
   of what the board decided, not a transcript of what was said. Record
   association name, meeting type, date, time, place, directors present
   and absent, quorum, approval of prior minutes, each motion with its
   exact wording, mover, seconder, and result, and adjournment time.
   Draft within a few days, approve at the next meeting, and file the
   approved version without overwriting drafts. Keep executive session
   minutes separate and restricted. Minutes skeleton is in
   `references/templates.md`.

10. **Keep reserves separate and funded on a plan.** Hold reserve money in
    its own account. A reserve study lists each major component, its
    remaining life, and its replacement cost, and gives a funding plan.
    Study cycles and funding duties vary widely by state: California
    requires a visual inspection at least every three years for qualifying
    associations with annual updates, Nevada runs a five year cycle, and
    some states set no statutory requirement at all and leave it to the
    documents and the board's fiduciary duty. Whatever the state requires,
    the board should vote to adopt or modify the study's funding plan,
    record the vote and any reasons for funding below the recommendation
    in the minutes, build the contribution into the budget, and compare
    actual balances against the plan at least quarterly. Borrowing from
    reserves, where allowed, gets recorded in minutes with a repayment
    plan and a date.

11. **Keep vendor records where the next board can find them.** One folder
    per vendor with the signed contract, certificate of insurance with its
    expiry date, the bids received for the job, and change orders. Track
    contract end dates and insurance expiries on the same deadline check
    as violations and architectural requests, and start rebidding early
    enough that the board is choosing, not scrambling. Retention periods
    for every record type are in `references/templates.md`.

12. **Close the quarter with a worked pass.** Bill the period, send
    statements, work the aging list in order, inspect open violations on
    one scheduled drive, clear the architectural queue before its
    deadlines, hold the board meeting off a packet built from the
    registers, approve minutes, file everything in the folder layout, and
    compare reserve balances to the funding plan. An annual meeting adds:
    election records kept per state law, the adopted budget, the fine
    schedule and policy distributions owners are owed, and the reserve
    summary the documents require.

## Output Contract

Work in this skill produces, as the task requires:

- An authority file summary: each board power, the document and section
  behind it, and any power the board believes it has but cannot source.
- A collection policy and fine schedule ready for a board vote, with every
  number pulled from the governing documents or marked as a board decision
  still to make.
- An aging report with the next policy step named for each delinquent
  account, in the order the policy requires.
- A violation case file per case: dated photo record, notice citing the
  rule, cure deadline, hearing record, and written decision.
- An architectural decision letter per request, with conditions or
  guideline based reasons, the appeal route, and an inspection log entry.
- A board meeting packet and a set of minutes that record motions, votes,
  and decisions in the form the bylaws expect.
- A records layout and retention schedule the next board can run without
  asking where anything lives.

## Operating Rules

- The governing documents and state law outrank this skill, any template,
  and any habit. When they conflict with a step here, follow the documents
  and note the conflict in the file.
- Never invent a deadline, late charge, fine amount, or interest rate.
  Every number comes from the documents, the adopted policy, or the state
  statute for that association. If the source cannot be found, say so and
  leave the field blank for the board and its attorney to fill.
- Enforce in order and on the record. Skipping the hearing, backdating a
  notice, or fining off schedule makes the action voidable and the board
  looks arbitrary even when the violation is real.
- Treat every owner the same at the same stage. Exceptions happen, but
  each one gets a board vote and a line in the register.
- Keep owner account detail and disciplinary matters out of open session
  materials beyond what state law allows. Hearings sit in executive
  session when the member asks or the documents require it.
- Store records in accounts and folders the association owns. A board
  turns over, and the records must survive the turnover without depending
  on one person's laptop or personal cloud drive.
- Verify before reporting: check the register, the bank balance, or the
  filed document itself before telling the board a step is done.