The short answer
You almost certainly need your association, and in practice that means your community manager — the person at the management company who handles day-to-day business for your community.
Three different organizations are involved in the mail you receive, and they are often mistaken for one another. The rest of this page is about telling them apart and finding the phone number.
The three parties, and what each one does
Your association. The homeowners association or community association your home belongs to. It is a legal entity made up of the owners in your community, including you. It is run by a board elected from among those owners — your neighbors, unpaid, doing this in their own time. The board adopts the budget, adopts the rules, and makes the decisions that determine what you pay and what you may do with your property.
Your management company, if your association uses one. A company the association hires to do the day-to-day work: collecting assessments, arranging repairs, sending notices, keeping records. Your community manager works for that company. They carry out the board's decisions. They do not make them, and they cannot overrule them.
Roam. The software your association and its manager use to keep those records and send those notices. We are a technology company. We do not set your assessment, write your community's rules, decide whether something breaks them, or resolve disputes. See What is Roam?
Words you will see, in plain terms
| The word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Assessment or dues | The regular amount every owner pays toward shared costs |
| Special assessment | A one-off charge on top, usually for a large or unexpected cost |
| Governing documents | Your community's rulebook: the declaration or CC&Rs, bylaws, and rules |
| The board | The elected owners who make the decisions |
| Your manager | The paid professional who carries those decisions out |
| Owner of record | Whoever the association's records say owns the home. Notices go there. |
Who can actually do the thing you need
| What you need | Who can do it |
|---|---|
| Change a charge, waive a fee, agree a payment plan | Your association, usually through your manager |
| Explain a charge on your account | Your manager |
| Explain a rule, or how it was applied to you | Your manager, then the board |
| Approve an architectural or exterior change | Your association's board or its committee |
| Get portal access, or correct your contact details | Your association or manager |
| Get a copy of the governing documents | Your association or manager |
| The portal will not load, or shows an error | Roam, reported through your manager |
The pattern is that almost everything is your association. Roam can help when the software itself is not working.
How to find out who yours are
Work down this list. Most people find it in the first two.
- Any letter, statement, or notice you have received. The letterhead, the footer, or the return address on the envelope carries the management company's name and usually a phone number. This is the fastest source and it is probably already in the house.
- The portal, if you can sign in. It may show your association's details. If you cannot sign in, see How do I get access to the resident portal?
- Your closing documents from when you bought the home. The association is named in them, and so are the governing documents you agreed to.
- Your public records office. Associations are usually registered entities, and many states and counties publish a searchable register of them along with a registered agent's address.
- A neighbor who has lived there longer. Not a joke — in a small community this is often the quickest route to a current phone number, and it costs nothing.
If your association has recently moved to Roam, the management company name on a new notice may be one you have not seen before, or the same one under a different look. That is expected during a migration, and it is worth confirming rather than assuming — see I got an email from Roam. Is it real?
What to have ready when you contact them
- Your property address. Associations index their records by property, not by name. A name alone is ambiguous where two owners share a surname or a home has several owners.
- Your association's name, if you know it. Many management companies handle dozens of communities.
- The date and reference on whatever letter or notice you are calling about.
- One clear question. A message that asks one specific thing gets answered faster than one that asks four.
Do not include your full card number, your bank login, or a password. Nobody who is genuinely helping you will need any of them.
If your association does not use a management company
Some communities are self-managed. There is no management company and no paid manager, and the board handles everything directly, often through a volunteer treasurer or secretary. In that case the board is your contact for all of it, and the response times are the response times of people with day jobs.
If you are a tenant rather than an owner
Your association's records are keyed to the owner of record, so notices and charges go to your landlord, not to you. You can still report a problem with a shared area, and most associations will deal with you on practical matters. But decisions about the account, the rules as applied to the home, and anything with money attached go to the owner. Tell your landlord as well as the association.
If you still need help
If you have worked through this and still do not know who to write to, or nobody is responding, see Something is wrong with my account. Who do I contact?