The CotoBuzz Journal
Community Journalism, Newsletters and Blogs Covering South Orange County, CA
The CotoBuzz Journal is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and NAHJ
August 2007 Issue
We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and the Coto de Caza Board of directors and report the facts!
COLUMN
Management
company's tape-recording tactic puts homeowners at
risk
By Stephen Glassman and Donie Vanitzian,
Special to The Times
July 15, 2007
Question:
Because our management company has been sued before,
it has a policy of recording all incoming and outgoing
phone calls. Before a management employee answers the
phone, there is an automatic announcement warning
callers they are being recorded. But when company
employees place outgoing calls to homeowners, even
though we are being recorded, no such warning is
given.
Since learning this, homeowners will no longer call
the management company — even in an emergency —
and they now refuse to speak to company employees on
the telephone. We communicate only in writing. The
management company says it's not cost-effective to
limit communication with owners to written letters and
it refuses to do so. What should our board do? Also,
since the company announces the taping prior to
speaking with callers, can I also record my
conversations with the management company, and would I
need to tell them I am taping?
Answer: Boards should hire vendors
whose actions are in the best interests of the
titleholders. Whether taping telephone calls qualifies
as cause for terminating the management company may
depend on the contract terms.
The law allows calls to be tape-recorded as long as an
announcement is made or an audible tone is heard
throughout the call. Once the announcement is made and
the homeowner begins to speak, he or she has consented
to the taping of the conversation. There is no need
for formal consent.
Even if the management company's announcement states a
purpose for taping calls and what the tape allegedly
will be used for, the homeowner may still limit the
company's use of that recording. As a party to the
call, you have a right to demand to know how the tapes
will be used. When speaking on the record, state your
own warning limiting the recorder's use of your
conversation. Management's announcement that the call
is being recorded is sufficient notice to everyone who
is a party to the conversation, including a homeowner
who may be taping the same telephone call.
The board has a duty to obtain copies of all the
management company's recordings of its
association-related business. All such recordings are
considered to be "documents" that are
property of the association. The board has a duty to
demand that the company provide copies of all such
recordings, and to ask for "written
assurances" that the tapes will not be destroyed.
A management company that will not put anything in
writing and tapes its phone calls is a liability to
the association. Until a temporary restraining order
can be obtained, an attorney must put the management
company on notice using language such as:
"The recordings and the information on them
cannot be used, shared, lent, sold, stored, reproduced
or transmitted in whole or in part in any form or by
any means, including any system now in use or to be
invented, for any purpose without written consent from
the association and the titleholders who were
tape-recorded."
The association should obtain a court order requiring
the retroactive preservation of documents (including
tape-recordings) and another order preventing the
management company from destroying any existing tapes
and documents. Even if the company claims it has
stopped taping, a court order may be needed to
preserve all recorded calls regardless of such claims.
If the board will not take appropriate action, the
titleholders should consider pooling their resources
and hiring their own attorney. Board members who hire
a vendor whose job it is to communicate with
individuals on behalf of the association, when the
vendor refuses to do so except in tape-recorded
telephone conversations, have failed to protect the
titleholders who elected them to office.
No board should sign a management company contract
that places its records and titleholders' private
information at risk.
It appears to be time to elect a new board of
directors.
--
Send questions to P.O. Box 11843, Marina del
Rey, CA 90295, or e-mail noexit@mindspring.com.
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