QUESTION: Our manager/board president died. Meeting agendas, financial documents, etc. were never published in 30 years. The records are in her home. Her husband still lives there and seems cooperative. How and who should be asking for the records? Can any homeowner ask for them or should we obtain a lawyer?
ANSWER: I’m sorry for your loss. Serving on a board will shorten a person’s life. So will managing an association. Your president did both.
Lawyers. There is no need to hire a lawyer. The nicest person on your board should make a friendly request to the husband. Offer to help find the records and move them. He may be happy to get rid of them.
Records Policy. Not all the records need to be kept. Your board should adopt a Records Retention Policy. Once that is in place, you can sort through and dispose of most records. For example, you want to keep all minutes from the beginning of time. Financial records, expired contracts, etc. older than seven years can be shredded.
RECOMMENDATION. To avoid any premature deaths to your members, you should hire a management company. Most are good at handling stress. They can also assist with recordkeeping. Whenever possible, you should scan and save your records electronically. It saves trees, eliminates storage, and makes it easy to find documents.
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