A mid-20th century vignette: A young man stands in tall grass, hands in his pockets, gazing wistfully at an empty diner.

Though condominium living, emerging at around that period, is not exactly the cherished tradition that restaurant diner culture was back then, it will go the way of the abandoned diner cars, if the current troubled state of management isn’t replaced.

At its inception, condominiums were nurtured by umbrella organizations whose purpose was to establish a stable housing model. But with time, wayward motives and schemes gave way to a culture of treachery and abuse against the backbone of this housing mode — the owners.

The heart of the matter: If associations need to be rid of anything, it’s the power of condo attorneys and self-seeking board members to profit from, or create injustices inflicted on, owners.

The current condo self-governance concept is flawed chiefly because of its dependence on attorneys, so many of whom, discontented with providing condo boards mere essential consultation, have in effect taken over the reins of management with their profit-driven motives.

As regards boards, there can be no pretext for self-serving motives and actions — that volunteer service is above scrutiny.

A Plausible Alternative

Submitted here for your consideration is a broad six-point condo management overhaul, perhaps sketchy at this outset, but crucial, from this writer’s viewpoint.

1. Change the volunteer status of boards to compensation on a part-time, 15 hours per week maximum basis. Like commercial business recruitment, a group of appointed owners in each association would assemble a group of candidates who submit applications. They’ll be vetted and evaluated on the basis of their backgrounds and missions for the associations, and salaried commensurately.
2. The hired individuals would make up a management team minimum of a controller/treasurer; a general manager who, along with the assistant manager, assumes some duties of the in-house association manager; an assistant manager; a secretary; and an in-house association manager who would collect dues and assessments from owners, order services, and manage maintenance staff.
3. Funding for the part time salaries would be based on previous association outlays for property management, formerly a full time contracted position. If necessary, additional funding would be provided by aggressive fund investments or minimal annual maintenance fee increases of ideally less than $10 per month per owner.
4. Management personnel would be required to complete education on current condo laws, their own governing documents, collection practices mandated by the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act, prevailing foreclosure laws and other basic legal procedures.
5. Staff acting on behalf of their associations would be prohibited from charging legal fees directly to individual owners for cases other than collecting delinquent maintenance payments. Staff would be required to initiate standard collection procedures — first and follow up demand letters, before necessarily hiring collection attorneys. Association-hired attorneys would not be allowed direct contact with owners, except to request and receive pertinent document submission by owners.
6. Staff would submit monthly reports to owners and undergo monthly performance evaluations.

Foresight

In one sense, the current powers that be in condo administration are right: Self-governance, at least in the cherished American tradition, cannot be imposed by government intervention.

Its structural reform must emanate from the inside out, and be secured by those most crucial to its rebirth — the rank and file owners.

Only the courageous among these can make of a decaying institution what there is no other choice to make — one that endures, based on common justice and equity.