Articles
Practical, plain-language governance guidance for volunteer community association board members — free to read, no login required. Start with one featured piece from each topic below, then search the full library.
One read from every topic
A starting point across 20 governance topic areas. The full collection lives in the Open Library.
Assessment Liens and Foreclosure in Florida: §§ 720.3085 and 718.116 Explained
How Florida association assessment liens and foreclosure work under § 720.3085 and § 718.116: 45-day notices, the first-mortgagee safe harbo…
Read articleBoard FundamentalsThe Stage Self-Assessment: A Lifecycle Diagnostic Your Board Can Run in One Meeting
An evidence-based diagnostic built on CIC-SC Working Paper 2026-01. Six questions, the documents that answer each one, and what every answer…
Read articleBudget & Assessment StrategyFlorida Special Assessment Rules for Condos and HOAs: Notice, Purpose, and Use of Funds
Florida special assessment rules for condos and HOAs: 14-day notice requirements, stated-purpose limits on spending, excess funds, and the S…
Read articleCapital Strategy & ContractingDeferred Maintenance Is a Loan. Here Is the Interest Rate.
Deferring a repair does not save money — it borrows money from the building, at a rate nobody disclosed and the board never voted on. Here i…
Read articleCommunity RelationsSelf-Managed or Professionally Managed? Evaluating the Real Costs and Risks
The most overlooked governance decision in community associations — not vendor selection, not budget setting, but whether to self-manage or …
Read articleCost Analysis & ContractingThe Fixed-Cost Trap: What You Take On When You Put Someone on Payroll
The five-year model says hire. This is the argument against it. The in-house option is 100% fixed and the contract is 100% variable, and an …
Read articleDeveloper TurnoverDeclarant Control and the Transition That Never Happened: Stages I and II in Practice
What owners can see during declarant control, what a transition record should contain, and how a turnover goes wrong quietly — read through …
Read articleElections & GovernanceThe Election Clock: Notice and Candidacy Timelines Texas Boards Must Hit
A board-level walkthrough of the Texas election calendar, run backwards from election night: the 10-to-60-day notice window under § 209.0056…
Read articleEnforcement & ViolationsWhen “All” Means All: How to Read a Covenant Before You Interpret It
Covenant interpretation is a reading discipline, not an authority question. Built on Ekstrom v. Marquesa at Monarch Beach (2008) and Davis v…
Read articleFinancial OversightThe Association That Ran Out of Money
The financial-oversight library describes warning signs. This article describes the endpoint. Two condominium communities — Lynnhill in Temp…
Read articleFlorida LawFlorida 2026 Community Association Legal Landscape: 2025 Reforms in Full Effect & 2026 Session Results
A compliance briefing for Florida HOA and condominium boards, updated August 26, 2026: which 2024 and 2025 reforms are now fully effective, …
Read articleIndustry AnalysisCICSC and CAI: Understanding the HOA Education and Standards Landscape
How the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and the CICSC fit together — trade association vs. standards body — and where boards and mana…
Read articleInsurance & RiskDirectors & Officers (D&O) Insurance: What It Covers and What It Doesn't
A board-level guide to D&O insurance for community associations — what claims it pays, what it excludes, the difference between Side A/B/C c…
Read articleLegal FrameworkActual Notice and the Director Who Knew
Frances T. v. Village Green Owners Assn. (Cal. 1986) is the decision the business judgment rule articles do not reach: an association can ow…
Read articleManager PracticeThe Job Nobody Described to You: Five Working Tools for the Manager's Week
The professional-discipline system from Chapter 1 of The Career Association Manager — the Eisenhower Matrix, the Weekly Reset, the Daily Fro…
Read articleMeetings & ProcedureBoard Resolutions in Practice
A board resolution turns a decision into a durable, reviewable governing act. Learn the four elements of a defensible resolution — authority…
Read articleResearchCalifornia Chose to Regulate a Word
The largest market in the country considered manager licensure for three years and deliberately chose something smaller. The reason is the m…
Read articleReserves & CapitalThe Special Assessment That Reprices a Building: Stage IV and the Harbor Towers Bill
How an association arrives at a capital assessment measured as a fraction of unit value, the decisions upstream that produce it, and what ow…
Read articleTexas LawTexas HOA Architectural Review Under § 209.00505: Committee Rules, Denials, and Appeals
How Texas Property Code § 209.00505 governs HOA architectural review: who it covers, committee eligibility, written denials, appeals, and 20…
Read articleVendor ManagementThe Five Questions to Ask Any Vendor Claim
Lasts longer. Saves more. Pays back at sixteen percent. Five questions, ninety seconds, no statistics required — and the answer a vendor giv…
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These are just one piece from each topic. Search the full collection — 171+ governance articles, guides, and checklists — by topic, type, and state in the Open Library.