Lessons S
WUCIOA Community
in Living in a
By Ila Kane, CMCA, AMS of EMB Management & Dean Martin, Esq. of Barker Martin, PS
o you’ve transitioned your new community through the homeowner election process. Maybe you manage a couple of communities
that are somewhere in the process of electing board members as the developer sells off the remaining units. You’ve reconciled the sometimes- drawn-out process of getting documents and accounts from escrow, done the tallying, held the elections required by RCW 64.90.415 at 25%, 50%, and a homeowner transition at 75%. Now you’re fully managing an owner-run Washington Uniform Common Interest Owner Act (WUCIOA) community. Now what?
Start Off Right
Set up your association calendar as if you haven’t been managing this community throughout their transition. Any transition, be it declarant or new client, is a good time to review the information and make sure you’re set up for success. Double-check the reserve study timing, the budget season/fiscal year, that your insurance is up to date and it includes all buildings and newly added board members. Transition is a great time to obtain insurance bids, especially if construction is fully complete. Finally, make sure the annual meeting is scheduled for the correct time of year because the timing for the annual meeting is set in the governing documents and is not related to the transition meeting.
28 Community Associations Journal | March 2022
Transition Smoothly
Having proper handoff systems in place is important for new boards and managers. In most cases, this encompasses a review of existing vendors and possibly getting bids from new vendors. This process should ideally include a walk of the property by the new board president or their homeowner representative and the declarant with the intention of showing the incoming manager the current state of the common elements at transition. This inspection should include a discussion of responsibility and documentation so that outstanding issues are addressed and deferred maintenance issues are mitigated. The inspection should be done with the association manager and ideally a maintenance representative for both the association and the developer, all of whom should be prepared to take notes and photos of punch list items. Some typical items we see during a walk-through are paint deterioration, curb repair/replacement, and larger bond- related items like NFPA sprinklers and city code fixes.
Any changes should be completed as early in the transition as possible.
Establish Good Habits
Hopefully, you’re also on your way to creating a pattern of homeowner involvement at meetings, so that you have a good idea of who lives at your WUCIOA property and what they’re looking for in a community. If this has been established by the several (likely virtual) board election meetings you’ve had up and through transition, you likely have a good idea of issues that may warrant changes to your rules and regulations to have them better fit how the owners live and want their property enforced. Any changes should be completed as early in the transition as possible to establish the new guidelines and an enforcement policy. It is also important to educate your new board about the contracts the declarant signed and how to be good and fair board members according to CAI guidelines. Creating the culture of care in your communities from the start is really the best part of transitioning a new association, and WUCIOA’s meeting guidelines help prompt those conversations easily.
Set Priorities
Hopefully, by this point, it’s likely that the board and owners have spoken up about their initial goals for their community; this typically happens during the time when everyone has been meeting to elect board members. We’ve often found this means establishing some kind of social committee
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