2013 Southern California Law Seminar

Seminar Law SOUTHERN THE 2013 CALIFORNIA February 22, 2013 8:00 am - 5:00 pm The Disneyland Hotel

New Location for 2013!

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C alifornia CID Law Exclusively from the Manager’s Perspective

Nearly 600 managers and more than 100 service providers gathered for CACM’s 2013 Southern California Law Seminar at The Disneyland Hotel on February 22. Manager attendees explored new legislation and case law, dangerous requests made by boards (and how to address them), the impact of AB 2237, Davis-Stirling updates and more during the educational sessions.

Attendees had fun “casting their vote” on legal scenarios and responding to questions posed by the presenters through their smartphones as part of instant audience feedback. They also had the option to participate in Legal Q&A sessions focusing on large scale, high rise and general management topics.

Special thanks to the sponsors who support our managers’ education and the Legal Advisory Steering Committee for their efforts to make this a successful event.

View more event photos in the online Photo Gallery at www.cacm.org.

TABLETOP SPONSORS Accurate Termite & Pest Control

AMS Paving, Inc. Angelo Termite & Construction Animal Pest Management Services, Inc. Beaumont Gitlin Tashjian BofI Federal Bank

CID Insurance Programs, Inc. CommerceWest Bank

Community Legal Advisors Inc. DM Construction Services

Dunn-Edwards Paint Corp. Elliot Katzovitz Insurance Agency Epsten Grinnell & Howell, APC Fenton Grant Mayfield Kaneda & Litt, LLP First Bank

Firstline Security Systems, Inc. Flood Pro

Guralnick & Gilliland, LLP Harvest Landscape Enterprise Ivey Engineering, Inc. Judge Law Firm, ALC, The LaBarre/Oksnee Insurance Mailboxes "R" Us

Massie-Berman, APC Mutual of Omaha Bank

Nautilus General Contractors, Inc. Nordic Security Services O'Connell Landscape Maintenance Orange Coast Building Services, Inc. Payne Pest Management PCW Contracting Services Perry Law Firm, The Pilot Painting & Construction

Popular Association Banking Powerful Pest Management PrimeCo Painting and Construction ProTec Building Services Real Estate Data Solutions

Roseman & Associates, APC

S.B.S. Lien Services

Seacoast Commerce Bank

Securitas Security Services USA, Inc. Silldorf & Levine, LLP Sunwest Bank

SwedelsonGottlieb

Three Phase Electric, Inc. Timothy Cline Insurance Agency, Inc. Union Bank

Witkin & Neal, Inc. Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin, LLP

OBSERVATION VS. INSPECTION

Is there potential liability associated with using the terminology “property inspection” or “walkthrough” inspection? Possibly. According to Black’s Law dictionary, an inspection is “the careful examination of something.” According to standard dictionaries, observe means “to see, watch, perceive or notice.” So, when a manager is conducting an inspection, he/she should be carefully examining the project. If the contract is silent as to what he/she is to inspect, then it leaves the door wide open to require a very broad inspection obligation.

For example, if the management contract says management is to “inspect” the property once a month and nothing else, that could mean inspect from the roofs to the foundations. If management is required to do a walkthrough, in my opinion the obligations to be performed in that walkthrough should be limited and defined. Many times I have seen management contracts require the property be inspected, namely carefully examined.

RISK MANAGEMENT TIP: Management needs to clearly define what they are looking at during their walkthroughs (risk avoidance) and who is responsible to follow up on the matters observed (risk shifting).

SOURCE: JON EPSTEN, ESQ. EPSTEN, GRINNELL & HOWELL, APC