CAI-NJ June 2021

TRANSITION... from page 54.

transition election meetings that comply with the Condo Act, PREDFDA, and the governing documents (and are, therefore, not susceptible to legal challenge) and also assist in managing the transition engineer and accountant (espe- cially if the association is not yet represented by counsel). Property managers do not have to work exclusively for one community; a small development can be one of multiple communities in an individual manager’s portfolio. Having a manager assist a small community on more of a part-time basis will certainly help save costs, but still provide the resources and experience that the manager and his or her company bring to the transition process. Conclusion Smaller communities with limited funds often do not have the luxury of engaging a vast army of top legal, engineering, accounting, and property management pro- fessionals. However, limited funding should not be seen as an excuse to go through the transition process alone and without any professional guidance. Without an engi- neer, the association board will have virtually no way to

capably represent the association. In addition, because transition and construction defect litigation is expensive, boards should consider alternative billing structures such as contingent fee arrangements (where the attorney does not bill hourly and instead gets paid at the end of the case based on a percentage of any recovery) or a hybrid of reduced hourly fees and a smaller contingency fee per- centage. 5. Hire Property Manager with Experience in Dealing with Transition Although some smaller communities opt to self-manage and save the cost of hiring a property management com- pany, boards should consider using a property manage- ment company at least during the period of transition. An effective property manager with experience in transition will be able to help the association properly set up its books, operation and collection forms and protocols, run

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