Tennessee HOA and condo laws: management company interview questions

Tennessee boards should not hire a management company based on a generic promise to "handle compliance." The useful question is whether the company can identify the legal framework that applies to the community, turn board decisions into documented operations, protect association funds and records, and escalate legal questions before a default workflow creates a problem.

The legal starting point differs by community. Tennessee has a Horizontal Property Act and the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008 in Title 66, Chapter 27. The 2008 Act generally applies to condominiums created after its effective date, while specified provisions also apply to certain later events involving older condominiums. A non-condominium homeowners association may depend heavily on its declaration, bylaws, corporate form, contract law, the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act when applicable, and narrower statutes addressing particular topics. Local ordinances and federal law may also matter.

Do not ask a management-company salesperson to make the final applicability decision. Give Tennessee association counsel the declaration, master deed if applicable, plat, charter, bylaws, amendments, formation date, corporate record, and development history. Then require the management company to build its operating calendar from counsel's confirmed framework.

This guide was reviewed against official Tennessee sources available on October 20, 2026. It is general board education, not legal, accounting, tax, audit, insurance, reserve-study, real-estate-licensing, employment, fair-housing, debt-collection, foreclosure, construction, or cybersecurity advice. Tennessee law, agency guidance, licenses, and local requirements change. Have qualified Tennessee professionals review the current law, governing documents, contract, and community facts.

Give every finalist the same association profile

Before interviews, prepare one written fact set:

• Condominium, planned community, master association, cooperative, mixed-use development, or another form.
• Formation and recording dates, development phases, annexations, and declarant-control status.
• Declaration or master deed, plat, charter, bylaws, rules, policies, resolutions, and amendments.
• Legal entity name, Tennessee Secretary of State status, registered agent, and tax identification number.
• Number and type of units or lots, common elements or common areas, amenities, and private infrastructure.
• Current assessments, reserves, debt, delinquencies, insurance, claims, litigation, major contracts, and capital projects.
• Current manager, staff, banks, payment processors, software, domains, records repositories, and vendors.
• Board and committee structure, annual calendar, elections, owner requests, violations, collections, and open decisions.

Ask each candidate to identify assumptions and open legal questions. A thoughtful answer will distinguish what the company can administer from what counsel, accountants, engineers, insurance professionals, or the board must decide.

1. Which Tennessee legal framework applies to us?

Ask:

Based on our recorded documents, formation date, community type, corporate form, and development history, which Tennessee statutes and governing documents will shape your operating checklist, and who confirms that analysis?

The candidate should be prepared to coordinate around:

• The Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008 in Title 66, Chapter 27, Parts 2 through 5.
• The earlier Horizontal Property Act for communities and issues within its scope.
• The association's declaration or master deed, plat, charter, bylaws, rules, policies, and amendments.
• Tennessee nonprofit-corporation requirements when the association is organized under that law and the requirement is not displaced by a more specific statute.
• Narrower Title 66 provisions that may apply to homeowners associations or particular restrictions.
• Federal fair-housing, debt-collection, tax, accessibility, employment, communications, and other law when relevant.
• City and county requirements affecting rentals, parking, noise, permits, waste, stormwater, fire safety, building operations, and other property issues.

The official 2008 public act includes an applicability section that treats newer and older condominiums differently. A management company should not assume that the same meeting, records, budget, reserve, lien, insurance, or disclosure procedure applies to every community using the word "HOA."

Require a short legal-operating profile in the transition file. It should state the confirmed governing framework, unresolved questions, counsel instructions, recurring deadlines, and procedures that differ from the company's standard template.

2. What licenses and registrations apply to the proposed work?

The Tennessee Real Estate Commission currently states that people engaged in property management need an active Tennessee broker or affiliate-broker license and affiliation with an actively licensed Tennessee firm. Community-association engagements can involve a different mix of tasks than rental property management, so the board should ask the finalist and counsel to identify which proposed activities fall within real-estate licensing requirements and whether any exemption applies.

Ask:

• What is the exact legal name of the contracting entity?
• Is the firm active with the Tennessee Secretary of State?
• Which Tennessee professional or firm licenses does the company rely on for our scope?
• What are the license numbers for the firm, principal broker, assigned manager, and anyone performing licensed activity?
• Which proposed tasks will be performed by unlicensed assistants, accountants, call centers, contractors, or offshore personnel?
• Who supervises those people and reviews their work?
• How will the board be notified if a license, principal broker, assigned manager, disciplinary status, or supervision arrangement changes?

Use the official TREC public verification tool to check current status, expiration, and public disciplinary information. Preserve the verification date and result in the procurement file. A professional designation, association-industry credential, biography, or email signature is not a substitute for a license when state law requires one.

3. How will you maintain records and respond to requests?

The Tennessee Condominium Act addresses association records and information that must be available or provided in circumstances within its scope. The exact duties depend on the condominium, applicable provisions, request, requester, records, and current law. Other communities may have different rights and procedures under governing documents, corporate law, contracts, or court decisions.

Ask the finalist to demonstrate an anonymized record for one board decision, one owner account, and one request. The system should connect:

• Governing documents, plats, amendments, resolutions, and policies.
• Meeting notices, agendas, packets, minutes, ballots, proxies, and results.
• Budgets, financial statements, ledgers, reconciliations, invoices, approvals, tax files, and reserves.
• Owner rosters, addresses, consents, communication preferences, and unit or lot history.
• Assessments, payments, credits, fines, payment plans, collection status, and corrections.
• Contracts, bids, vendor records, insurance, claims, permits, inspections, and warranties.
• Architectural, maintenance, violation, accommodation, complaint, and dispute files.
• Requests, deadlines, review decisions, redactions, production, and delivery evidence.

Ask how a request is received, classified, calendared, searched across systems, reviewed for protected or privileged material, approved, produced, and retained. A shared inbox without a request register and backup owner is not a controlled process.

4. How will you support board and owner meetings?

Require the company to show its annual meeting calendar and one complete meeting file. It should address notice, agenda development, packet deadline, owner submissions, director conflicts, executive or closed-session topics when authorized, quorum, proxies, voting, minutes, and follow-up.

Ask the manager to distinguish:

• An owner or membership meeting.
• A board meeting.
• A committee meeting.
• An informal work session or social gathering.
• Action that may occur outside a meeting under applicable law and governing documents.
• Confidential discussion and the record of any later board action.

The manager should support procedure without pretending to be association counsel. Ask what happens when quorum is disputed, a director has a conflict, an owner challenges notice, the board adds a late item, electronic participation fails, or an instruction appears inconsistent with the documents. A reliable answer includes escalation, documentation, and a clear pause point.

5. How will you build the budget and capital plan?

Ask for an anonymized annual budget package from a Tennessee community similar in property type and complexity. It should show recurring operations, contracts, utilities, insurance, payroll or staffing where applicable, bad-debt assumptions, reserves, debt, capital work, contingencies, and owner-facing explanations.

For condominiums, ask the candidate which current Tennessee provisions apply to annual assessments, budgets, reserve studies or updates, disclosures, and board duties. For other associations, ask how the declaration, bylaws, board resolutions, reserve study, contracts, and corporate requirements shape the process. Counsel and a reserve professional should resolve the legal and technical conclusions.

Ask:

• Who prepares each assumption and who challenges it?
• How are maintenance, replacement, improvement, and reserve activity distinguished?
• What condition data supports the project schedule?
• When must the board act to deliver notices or adopt assessments on time?
• How are special assessments, loans, insurance deductibles, and emergency projects evaluated?
• What happens when the board delays a decision?

The management company should bring alternatives and evidence to the board. It should not quietly fill a structural funding gap with optimistic assumptions.

6. How will you protect association money?

Require a written funds-control map before the board evaluates software branding. It should cover:

• Legal title and tax identification number on every bank, investment, lockbox, merchant, and payment account.
• Operating, reserve, capital, debt-service, and other account purposes.
• Signers, online users, administrators, recovery contacts, and access removal.
• Assessment deposits, returned payments, owner credits, lockbox activity, and correction controls.
• Vendor onboarding and independent verification of bank-detail changes.
• Invoice intake, duplicate review, coding, authorization, release, payment, and cleared evidence.
• Reserve transfers, capital disbursements, and board approvals.
• Monthly reconciliation, preparer, reviewer, deadline, and unresolved-item reporting.
• Fidelity, crime, cyber, and other relevant insurance.

Walk through one owner payment and one invoice from source to the monthly report. Then test a fraudulent email asking to change a vendor's bank account. The candidate should show the independent verification method, separation of duties, payment authority, alert, and audit history.

The association should maintain direct institutional awareness of its accounts even when the manager performs daily work. Confirm who can establish ownership, recover access, stop a payment, remove a former employee, and transfer the relationship to a successor.

7. What financial package will directors receive?

Ask for an anonymized month-end package and identify the preparer and reviewer for each component:

• Balance sheet.
• Income and expense statement.
• Budget-to-actual comparison.
• General ledger detail.
• Bank reconciliation summary and source evidence.
• Assessment receivable aging and collection status.
• Owner credits and prepayments.
• Accounts payable and open bills.
• Reserve and capital-project activity.
• Variance and exception notes.
• Board decisions needed.

Ask when the month is considered closed, how late entries are controlled, how old outstanding items are investigated, and how a correction is labeled and redistributed. A portal dashboard is helpful, but it is not a substitute for reconciled books, source support, and a documented review.

8. How will maintenance, insurance, and reserves stay connected?

Ask for one combined risk and capital calendar covering:

• Insurance renewal, valuations, deductibles, applications, certificates, claims, and loss recommendations.
• Roofs, structures, exterior surfaces, roads, drainage, elevators, fire and life-safety systems, pools, gates, utilities, and property-specific equipment.
• Preventive maintenance, inspections, permits, warranties, and vendor qualifications.
• Reserve-study updates, project timing, bids, owner communication, and funding decisions.
• Emergency contacts, incident reports, evidence preservation, and insurer notice.

The manager should not present itself as the association's engineer, reserve specialist, attorney, accountant, or insurance producer unless separately qualified. Its job is to maintain the calendar, records, contracts, follow-up, and escalation that allow those professionals and the board to act in time.

9. What will the board and owners see in the software?

Ask for a role-based demonstration using anonymized data:

• President.
• Treasurer.
• Director.
• Committee member.
• Homeowner.
• Independent accountant or auditor.
• Vendor.

Test financial reports, bank evidence, invoices, approvals, owner ledgers, documents, communications, maintenance, architecture, violations, meetings, and exports. Identify which modules, users, storage, mailings, payments, transactions, support, integrations, and data conversions cost extra.

Require an association-level recovery path. At least two currently authorized people should know who controls the primary account, recovery email, multifactor method, domain, payment relationship, integrations, and emergency support path. That does not require giving every director unrestricted administrative rights.

10. Can the association leave with usable records?

Ask the company to produce a sample transition package before the contract is signed. It should include:

• Owners, units or lots, charges, payments, credits, delinquencies, and collection status.
• General ledger, chart of accounts, budgets, reconciliations, statements, and tax files.
• Vendors, invoices, approvals, contracts, insurance, and claims.
• Governing documents, minutes, ballots, policies, and owner notices.
• Maintenance, architecture, violations, accommodations, complaints, and legal files.
• Communications, attachments, audit history, open work, and user lists.
• Bank, processor, utility, domain, phone, and vendor-account transition steps.

Confirm file formats, naming, delivery date, conversion fees, final close, open-items register, read-only access, retention, and successor cooperation. A portal that disappears on termination is not a transition plan.

11. Does the agreement match the sales presentation?

Review the contract with Tennessee association counsel. Clarify:

• Scope, exclusions, service standards, response times, and after-hours coverage.
• Assigned team, portfolio size, supervision, backup coverage, and staff-change notice.
• Recurring fee, event fees, pass-through cost, payment-processing fee, and annual increase.
• Board and manager spending authority.
• Bank, reserve, invoice, vendor, and payment controls.
• Records ownership, software access, privacy, security, and incident response.
• Insurance, indemnity, conflicts, affiliated vendors, and compensation.
• Legal, collection, maintenance, emergency, meeting, and owner-service responsibilities.
• Term, renewal, termination, transition support, and data delivery.

Map every proposal promise to a contract section, named role, frequency, evidence, and price. If a workflow appears only in a demonstration, the board should assume it is not included until the agreement says otherwise.

Tennessee finalist scorecard

Score evidence, not confidence:

1. Correct identification of the association's legal and governing-document framework.
2. Current firm and professional status for all activities requiring a license.
3. Records, request, complaint, and privacy procedures.
4. Meeting, election, budget, assessment, and disclosure calendar controls.
5. Bank, reserve, invoice, vendor, and payment safeguards.
6. Monthly close quality and board reporting.
7. Maintenance, insurance, reserve, and capital coordination.
8. Software roles, recovery, owner experience, and export depth.
9. Assigned-team capacity, supervision, continuity, and escalation.
10. Contract clarity, total cost, and transition rights.

Use the same scorecard, demonstration script, references, and contract questions for every finalist. Keep proposals, license checks, conflicts, notes, scoring, and the board's decision in the procurement file.

Questions to ask Tennessee references

Speak with communities similar in legal form, age, size, building type, and complexity. Ask:

• Did the assigned team match the proposal?
• Were financial packages accurate and on time?
• Could directors see invoices, reconciliations, owner balances, and reserve activity?
• Did the manager administer meetings, records, budgets, and owner issues consistently?
• How did the company respond to a mistake, staff vacancy, claim, or major project?
• Were event fees and pass-through costs predictable?
• Did the association receive usable records when staff, software, or managers changed?
• What would the reference negotiate differently today?

Ask for one specific example after every general answer.

Official sources and live checks

• Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, Public Chapter 766
• Tennessee General Assembly legislative publications and current code bill volumes
• Tennessee Real Estate Commission real-estate firm and property-management licensure
• Tennessee Real Estate Commission license verification and complaint resources
• Tennessee Secretary of State business services and entity search
• Tennessee Attorney General Opinion 20-05 on HOA declarations and contract analysis
• Tennessee Advisory Commission report on condominium and homeowners-association frameworks

Use the Tennessee General Assembly, TREC, Secretary of State, and current professional advice to recheck statutory text, effective dates, entity status, licenses, and agency procedures before relying on this guide.