Page 5 - New England Condominium January 2021

NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -JANUARY 2021 5 Disclaimer: Th e answers provided in this Q&A column are of a general nature and cannot substitute for professional advice regarding your specifi c circumstances. Always seek the advice of competent legal counsel or other qualifi ed profes- sionals with any questions you may have regard- ing technical or legal issues. Legal Q A& QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Do you have an issue with your board? Are you wondering how to solve a dispute with a neighbor? Can’t fi nd informa- tion you need about a building’s fi nances? Our attorney advisors have the answers to all of your legal questions. Write to New England Condominium and we’ll publish your question, along with a response from one of our attorney advisors. Questions may be edited for taste, length and clarity. Send your questions to:patgale@yrinc.com. Q&A Keeping Old Records Q I was a condominium board mem- ber of a 60-unit condominium as- sociation for four years. During that time, I kept copies of every- thing regarding incidents, meeting minutes, emails, anything that I submitted, contracts that I worked on, etc. I have been off the board for four years. What is the length of time that would be advisable for me to keep these records? —Buried in Paper A “A legal requirement for the keeping of condominium records is not a crystal-clear concept,” says Gary M. Daddario, partner at Marcus, Errico, Emmer & Brooks, PC, in Braintree, Massachusetts. “In addition, it can vary by state. Th e Massachusetts Condomin- ium Statute requires seven years’ worth of specifi ed records to be maintained. Th e New Hampshire Condominium Act requires three years with respect to certain items. Of course, in responding to any condominium question, condominium practitioners will always in- clude a recommendation to ‘check your docs’ as part of the answer. If your association’s gov- erning documents speak to record retention at all, you’ll want to comply with any language there as well. I am not a ‘tax guy,’ but I seem to recall that records should be kept for seven years to the extent that they have any bearing on a tax return. Th is is something you could confi rm with the CPA who does the associa- tion’s tax fi ling. “Th ere is also a second level of consider- ation introduced by your question. Appar- ently, you are holding the documents de- scribed, but you have been off the board for a number of years. Th is raises the question of whether or not you are holding the associa- tion’s records or just your personal notes and copies of items. Either way, when you reach the point of disposing of them, it might be nice to check in with the current board to see if they wish to take these documents and to store them with the association’s records. In my experience, the issues associations have with records tends to be the lack of them. Some boards would appreciate the opportu- nity to obtain a good deal of information if you aff orded them the opportunity. In that instance, you should take a fi nal review to avoid passing along any of your private notes regarding your own thoughts or deliberations on matters and, instead, just provide copies of the objective documents (contracts, offi cial meeting minutes, etc.).” n