3 bills Florida HOAs should know about -  Three new bills were presented to the Florida Legislature that, if passed, will affect the state’s many condo and homeowners associations. Some of the changes up for vote including limiting the term length of association directors and forbidding members delinquent in payments from running for the Board of Directors. Florida: Lexology.com (free registration)

Texas legislature and HOAs: Conflicts and interests -  One man’s HOA experience in Pflugerville, Texas highlights how associations, ostensibly created by and for the people in a neighborhood, usually operate more like mini-government agencies. Nowadays, cities and counties often require new developments to create property owners’ associations. In a booming state like Texas outsourcing these services to an HOA management company may be the only option for a cash-strapped municipality.  Texas’ a long and colorful history of lopsided special-interest influence has complicated the HOA management industry. Texas: The Texas Tribune

Judge rejects condo’s demand for HOA receivership – Tensions between disgruntled Arizona condo owners and their homeowners association board came to a head Monday in a six-hour hearing to decide whether residents’ allegations of financial misconduct justified placing the HOA into receivership. After the attorneys for several hours questioned and cross-examined experts, board members and residents, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Gordon ruled there was insufficient evidence to warrant putting the association into receivership. Arizona: AZcentral

Colorado HOA-related legislation  - Read about the CAI sponsored legislation that is working its way through the Colorado Legislature.  SB126 requires HOAs to accommodate owners who want to install electric car-charging stations in a complex parking lot. It has been signed into law.  Lawmakers passed HB1276 to revise the way HOAs collect delinquent dues and fines, and setting specific rules for pursuing foreclosure actions against homeowners passed and awaits consideration by the governor.  Headed to the governor, HB1134, would require all HOAs, no matter how large or when they were created, to register with the HOA Information Office and Resource Center. Lawmakers also sent Hickenlooper House Bill 1277 which would require community association managers, management company executives and those who directly supervise managers to be licensed in Colorado. Colorado: The Gazette

By Jeremy Quittner

Construction leads the way, but the recovery is affecting a broader base of businesses, according to a new study.

The construction industry continues to add fire to the economic recovery, according to the March private company index from Sageworks.

While the Sageworks index supports a host of other recent data that point to a housing market recovery, it also indicates economic improvement for a broader segment of private companies.

“Construction is growing sales and growing profitability, which is a good thing for companies in that industry,” says Libby Bierman, an analyst for Sageworks. “But things are pretty positive for [all] private companies, with average sales for the entire sector showing double-digit growth.” Construction is a key indicator to watch because it affects so many other industries, such as the wholesalers and retailers that provide supplies.

Sageworks analyzes 1,000 financial statements from private companies every day. The companies range in size from less than $10 million to over $1 billion. The current data is for the six months ended March 31.

Total sales across all industries increased 10 percent for the last six months, about flat from the same time period a year ago. Meanwhile, profit margins increased significantly: 7.3 percent compared with 4.5 percent in the same time period.

Sales increases in the construction industry jumped to 13.2 percent from 10.4 percent a year ago. Profit margins more than doubled to 4.5 percent.

“The construction industry has grown at a very healthy rate for the past two years, which is encouraging, ” says Brian Hamilton, Sageworks’ chairman, noting that the real estate industry was the worst hit and the last to rebound from the recession. However, that doesn’t mean the pace will continue, bolstering other sectors.

Four years into a recovery, “can we say for the next three years the construction is going to be strong? I don’t know. You are betting against odds on that one.”

The increases in profitability across the board are largely due to companies increasing efficiency, Bierman says.

The picture isn’t entirely rosy, however. Manufacturers’ sales growth increased, but at a slower rate than last year, declining nearly 5 percentage points to 10 percent. Wholesale businesses fared worse, with sales growth slowing by nearly half to 7.7 percent.

Wholesale businesses had been on a tear in 2012, increasing revenues by 13 percent for the year, so they had a much bigger base to improve upon, Bierman says.

The number of days it takes private companies to get paid has also crept up by 8 days, to 46 for the period ending March 31. That could be a worrisome trend in the future, suggesting customers are having cash concerns.

Generally speaking, though, “private companies are growing their top line and bottom line and this bodes well for future investment in companies and hirees, and provides a strategic cushion for business owners to make decisions,” Bierman says.

Jeremy Quittner is a staff writer for Inc. magazine and Inc.com. He previously covered technology for American Banker and entrepreneurship for BusinessWeek.

Ruling spells out limits on HOA superpriority liens

The Nevada Real Estate Division issued an opinion this week that a home-owners association’s superpriority lien is limited to no more than nine months of assessments.

The association’s lien does not include “costs of collecting” as defined by Nevada law, so the superpriority portion of the lien may not include such costs, the Real Estate Division said in the decision released Thursday.

“So basically what they are saying is HOA management and collection companies have been misleading their HOAs the last several years,” said Rutt Premsrirut, who represents investors. “They have been overcharging banks and investors hundreds of millions dollars on superpriority liens for their own benefit.”

Controversy over HOAs pursuing delinquent assessments centered around the practice of turning over debts to collection agencies and including those costs – which in some cases ran into thousands of dollars – in the lien placed against the property.

The advisory opinion clarifies what constitutes a “superpriority lien” and what is not part of the superpriority lien. It provides homeowners associations with a better understanding of the law in order to act in the best interest of members, Real Estate Division spokesman Teri Williams said.

Nevada law makes special provision for recovery of past-due assessments through establishment of a superpriority lien, which is superior to a residential unit’s first security lien.

By giving priority lien status, the law provides extraordinary protection of the HOA’s interest in collection of up to nine months of unpaid assessments. After evaluating each situation, a determination should be made concerning the best course of action, officials said.

“It may not be in the association’s best interest to routinely turn over unpaid assessment accounts to a collection agency since the association may ultimately be responsible for the costs of collecting,” said Gail Anderson, administrator for the Real Estate Division.

HOA management companies sued the state’s Financial Institutions Division after it came out with a declaratory order two years ago. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled FID didn’t have jurisdiction over laws in NRS Chapter 116, which govern homeowners associations. Now that the Real Estate Division has issued a decision, the FID should be able to enforce it, Premsrirut said.

“Bottom line is HOAs are really exposed by millions (of dollars), and it’s the collection companies’ fault for misleading them,” he said.

California - Chris Barna, 33, a former employee of Stockton-based M & C Association Management Services, was arrested last month for embezzling more than $950,000 from his employer, Diablo Grande’s homeowners association.  Barna embezzled 342 checks from April 2008 to May 2011, according to the federal indictment. Those included checks to M & C or its parent company, Dallas-based Associa, and from M & C to third parties, prosecutors said. He forged endorsements on certain checks and endorsed them as “deposit only,” prosecutors said. If convicted, Barna faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine for each count. Read the full story here.

Pennsylvania – Sinkholes continue to give the residents of one Ephrata Township development a sinking feeling because it remains unclear who is responsible to deal with them as they arise.  Connell O’Brien, representing the Charity Gardens Homeowners Association at the most recent meeting of the Ephrata Township Supervisors, raised questions about what, if anything, the township might do to compel the developer to take financial responsibility for the problem. In the process, however, they found the township may be somewhat limited in what solutions it can offer. Read more about their sinkhole dilemma here.

California – Moreno Valley City Manager Henry Garcia’s most recent city update states that code enforcement and police officers are addressing residents’ concerns about squatting. The report comes about two months after Robin Gilbert, president of the Celebrations Homeowners Association, urged the City Council to take action to stop squatters. Gilbert said that within the past few years, about 60 squatters, including some identified by police as gang members and prostitutes, moved in his east side neighborhood. They took over foreclosures as well as vacant and occupied houses, he said. Do you have squatters?  Read the full story here.

Nevada – One homeowner writes, “Our HOA streets are city streets, and for years we have been following the governing documents regarding street parking.  Now, we have some people who want to bust the HOA and are insisting that since the streets are city streets we cannot enforce our rules of no-street parking. We have for years enforced these policies.  Our CC&Rs direct homeowners not to park on the street. There are exceptions for visitors of 14 days or less, and owners who are cleaning a recreational vehicle or boat. Our architectural standards states that each residence must have three parking spaces and two must be in a two-car garage. For 18 years we have enforced this. What is your view of this problem? See the answer to the question here.

Beginning January 1, 2013, the CMCA computer-based examination will be delivered in partnership with Pearson VUE, a leading provider of computer-based licensure, certification and assessment examinations around the world.  The transition of CMCA test delivery to Pearson VUE offers CMCA candidates:

• A robust domestic network of state of the art testing centers
• An extensive network of international testing facilities
• An enhanced level of test security
• An excellent level of candidate service

The move to test delivery through Bloomington, MN-based Pearson VUE will be accompanied by a shift to a fully “on demand” test delivery model.  In place of the current CMCA model which requires candidates to select and test during a fixed three-month testing window, after January 1 candidates will have one year from the date their application is approved to sit for the CMCA examination and may test at any time within that one year period.  The CMCA examination will be offered on an on-going basis at Pearson VUE testing facilities.

Through a partnership with Pearson VUE NBC-CAM is pleased to offer CMCA candidates greatly increased flexibility in scheduling the CMCA examination, access to a network of secure, world class testing facilities, within the United States and abroad, and a strong commitment to timely, responsive candidate service.

You’re likely familiar with the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Windows Store, but what about the Intuit App Center?

Probably not on your radar. But maybe it should be. There you’ll find nearly 50 apps that work with QuickBooks, and more than 25 that work with QuickBooks Online.

Here are five of them to check out because they integrate with the popular business accounting software to offer more features and functions. Best of all, they’re free to try for 30 days.

BodeTree

BodeTree sits on top of Quickbooks and helps people who are freaked out by numbers, ratios, and formulas by giving them hard facts in a light, visual way. It gives you a current estimated valuation of your business, one-click reports, and an interactive optimization tool that lets you compare your company’s performance to the competition, test scenarios to see how various metrics impact your company’s value, and set specific targets to help you reach your goals. Cost: $49.95 a month or $495 a year.

Mavenlink

This collaboration app keeps project and accounting teams on the same page and integrates with both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. It lets you work on projects with others; share files; track budgets, time, and expenses; and send financial information to QuickBooks. Mavenlink also integrates with Google Apps so you can sync deadlines with Google Calendar, take care of “to-dos” in Google Tasks, and search and embed Google Docs. You can choose to receive notifications about events, messages, and comments in real-time or bundled in a once-a-day email. Cost: $39 a month.

Method CRM

This customer relationship management app lets you create Web forms to help you get leads from your site as well as create invoices, payments, and estimates, and sync them all with QuickBooks Online. You can also use Method to build self-service portals for customers–a “My Account” area on your website–where they can ask questions, see past transactions, make payments, and print existing invoices. Method also lets sales people share leads with each other and includes analytics that identify your best customers and staff, and the ones need more of your attention. Cost: Either $25 or $40 a month per user.

ProOnGo Expense

ProOnGo Expense lets you track, approve or deny employee expenses. It syncs with your QuickBooks credit card registers so that you and your employees can edit and categorize credit card transactions from mobile devices running iOS, Android, or BlackBerry. First you activate online banking in QuickBooks, which pulls credit card transactions from your bank. QuickBooks then pushes those transactions out to ProOnGo. You can use your mobile device to edit and categorize the expenses, which sync back to QuickBooks. It also records timesheet info and mileage data, and auto-extracts information from receipts snapped with a smartphone camera. Cost: Plans start at $15 a month for one user and go up to $290 a month for up to 100 users.

SOS Inventory

SOS Inventory offers serious inventory, order management, and manufacturing features and is designed specifically to integrate with QuickBooks Online, which on its own doesn’t include sales orders. SOS Inventory lets you create sales orders, shipments, and invoices. It also lets you manage inventory in multiple locations, track items by serial number and cost history, track multiple stages of work-in-progress, and create pick tickets and packing slips. Cost: Plans start at $25 a month and go up to $200 a month.

CondoHOALaw App

A new app has been created be the law firm of Katzman Garfinkel & Berger. The App currently contains the statutes for the 14 U.S. states that have the largest populations of community association residents: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington DC.  Sun Sentinel (Florida)

$50 million lawsuit against Loudoun board, homeowners associations

Telecommunications provider OpenBand filed a $50 million lawsuit Tuesday against more than a dozen defendants in Loudoun, alleging that county supervisors acted beyond their authority in their efforts to negotiate an agreement between the Dulles-based company and the communities it serves.  The lawsuit added to the years-long, litigious drama involving OpenBand, its customers and the Board of Supervisors. Defendants include the board, two of its members and two homeowners associations.  Washington Post (Maryland)

Campaign signs in CICs are a private matter, not a free-speech issue
Many common-interest communities prohibit residents from displaying campaign signs and other messages on their lawns. Residents such as Dianne Black of St. Paul, Minn., say the rules violate the right to free speech, but a spokesman from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office says that after residents sign papers related to a CIC’s regulations, it becomes a private matter. Such restrictions are meant to preserve property values in CICs and to help keep the peace among neighbors, a real estate lawyer says. Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

New lending rules will affect condo buyers, HOAs
Fannie Mae this week will change the lending rules for home buyers looking for a condo or a property that falls under a homeowners association. The mortgage financier’s director of media and external relations says condo buyers will have to fill out a questionnaire about the homeowners association’s financials and reserves when putting less than 20% down; previously such questionnaires were required when putting less than 10% down. The new rules also will require the lender to review HOAs’ budgets. Chicago Tribune (free registration)