Records

Every common interest community is a business and every business is required to address record retention.  Board members consistently ask: what documents do we need to keep on file and for how long?  

State statutes typically address procedures related to books and records.  In Washington State, both nonprofit corporation AND common interest community (CIC) statues require a combination of document retention, disclosure and/or inspection.  Notably, WA CIC statutes prior to WUCIOA (effective as of July 2018) do not contain detailed lists of records to retain.

Retain ALL the records that are reasonable to keep for future reference (not just the records listed by statute).  Not sure what to include?  View this example records policy and read Practical Advice Responding to Owners' Records Requests to learn more about establishing a records policy.  Records you should keep and records you should disclose are not the same (legally or in terms of best practice).   Don't make the mistake of conflating what you must do at a minimum to not break the law with what you should do at a minimum to operate a successful community association (business).   Read Know Your Business: You MUST Go Beyond 'The Basics' to learn more.

Data continuity is essential for every organization!  What happens to your association's relationship (business or otherwise) with the person or entity keeping track of your records ceases to exist?  Does your association maintain its own file infrastructure to preserve the continuity of information?  There is an abundance of human work required to organize records -- analog or digital -- into a viable, readily indexed repository.

Many management companies supply their customer associations with a software package that evaporates when the management relationship ends.  This particular nuance makes common interest communities perhaps the only business vertical that willingly chooses to have record access relegated to a file dump when a vendor relationship runs its course.  If your community pays a staff and/or management company for assistance, homeowners should have little need to be routinely interact to maintain their longitudinal CRM solution.  Ensuring your staff and/or management representatives are directed to maintain your CRM system is essential.

Failure to establish and maintain an association-controlled electronic information system guarantees a loss of continuity when your management relationship ends.  CIC document management (storage, retrieval and collaboration) is an area of CIC operations that deserves more attention and stands  to benefit homeowners, volunteers staff and management representatives by increasing synthesis and teamwork and providing smoother, more meaningful transitions and greater continuity of information.

DOCUMENT BREAKDOWN BY AUDIENCE / EASE OF ACCESS

• Documents available to the public (relevant if your community offers a public-facing website)

• Documents available to all owners proactively (minimum friction, maximum efficiency)

• Documents available to all owners by request (VIEW our Disclosure page)

• Documents that are confidential to the Board

  •  e.g. legal opinions that haven't been unsealed, administrative proceedings, etc. (VIEW our Confidentiality page)

• Documents that are typically accessed only by a community manager / management company

  • e.g. certain types of employee records, individual unit files, etc. that are often not shared with the Board

WHERE DO YOU STORE FILES?

• Email <<< Email is both the most popular way to exchange information and the worst place to store it!

• Paper (are printers, copiers and three-ring binders are still in vogue?)

• Association-managed document repository (CRM portals, Dropbox, Google Drive, MS365, Sharepoint, etc.)

• 3rd party IT infrastructure (Active Building, BuildingLink, Condo Control Central, CondoSites, eUnify, Manage my Nest, etc.)

CONSIDERATIONS

• Consider the difference between IT infrastructure that your association can easily control vs. third-party infrastructure that may cease to exist if you change management or change IT vendors

• Does your IT infrastructure

  • facilitate collaboration features for a team of people (Board and Committee members, etc.) to share and edit documents?

  • allow you to search for documents and index the text they contain for maximum identification potential?

  • allow you to easily download and/or transfer all your files to another platform?

  • provide data security and backup/disaster recovery?

    • READ: 7 Ways to Avoid a Data Breach | Calculated Risk | Technology Use & Data Security

• If your IT infrastructure is not cloud-based, how are you ensuring redundancy in case of storage failure?  Do you have a written digital redundancy policy and/or backup procedures and checksums?

• Regardless of the technology you adopt, developing a reliable human process to maintain your file infrastructure is paramount.