CHOPAS Community Portals for Condos, Homeowners, Property Managers

Do you help with Setup and Support? - When you signup for CHOPAS you will receive free assistance with setup and free US based telephone support. Within your portal there is an extensive HELP area and Video Tutorials. If you request it we will help build out your portal so the required content is available.

What sort of security does CHOPAS maintain? - Our servers are located in Dallas Texas in a hardened facility and are secured by the latest in Secure Socket Layer technology (SSL). The files that you add to your site are protected so only the correct members of your association can access them. CHOPAS provides each portal's administrator a way of checking who has logged in to your site and from what IP address.

Does CHOPAS maintain backups? - All content is backed up to a fail-over location incrementally. Even if your laptop is lost your content is safe and recoverable.

How much will CHOPAS cost our association a year? CHOPAS costs $199 per year for the Board of Director's edition, which includes 25 user accounts. This will enable your board members to effectively collaborate. The Community Edition costs $349 for 100 members. The charge for additional community members is discounted by the number of members requested.
Next 100 Users: $50 Per Year
Next 500 Users: $200 Per Year
Next 1000 Users: $300 Per Year

Can we pay by check for your product? Yes, but you will need to contact our office to arrange for alternate payment.

Why did we see a charge from SAME-PAGE.com LLP? Charges for CHOPAS will appear under the billing name Same-Page.com LLP (our parent company). See our AboutUs page for more info.

Can we apply our association's domain name to your product? Yes, go to your domain registrar and add a CNAME pointer. CHOPAS includes a free landing page for your association, to which you can point your community's domain. The landing page can be outfitted with the login form, a photo gallery, and text. Alternatively, if you already have a domain name and a website, you can embed our login form on your current website.

Can we customize your product? CHOPAS can be customized with your association's logo and color scheme to match your existing site. Invitations to new members can be customized. Features that are not needed by your association can be hidden.

Can our property management services use your product? CHOPAS is designed to work for your community. If your association has a company that manages your property they may still use their software for their regular workload. CHOPAS helps a Property Management office interface with the board of directors and the community.

Can we use your product to collect dues and fines? Our product is not used to collect payments for association dues, rent, or violations charges. Associations can share accountant documents and dues ledger in our secure file area.

Are there any legal parameters for association portals? Many states have specific regulations regarding the sharing of confidential information, including the sharing of email addresses and other personal information. CHOPAS includes advanced functions that give administrators the ability to limit the visibility of each registered user. This includes the ability to see (or not see) email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, and other private personal information. In most instances, these items can be restricted by user or group of users. It is the legal responsibility of the subscriber to determine if the service abides by your state laws regarding Condominium and Homeowner Associations. CHOPAS and its parent company Same-Page.com LLP can not be responsible for any disruption because of the misconfiguration of the service.

What are some best practices for association sites?

Privately Accessible to Owners

Governing documents in digital form. This includes:
- Your declaration
- Articles of incorporation
- Bylaws
- CC&Rs
- Every amendment that has been made to any of the above.
A list of all executory contracts or documents (a contract that has not yet been fully performed or fully executed) as well as a summary of any open bids.
Current and upcoming budgets.
Annual financial reports. Additionally, you will need to include the financial statement for the most recent calendar period.
Info on your board of directors, including each member's certification document, any contracts between them and the association, and any declarations of a conflict of interest.
Supporting documents for consideration at unit-owner and annual general meetings, at least 7 days prior to the meeting.
Board meeting Notice, Agenda, and supporting items pending votes, at least 48 hours prior to the date of the meeting. The Board is expected to redact or withhold any information not intended to be accessible to owners.

Publicly Available

Meeting notices for unit-owner and annual general meeting, 14 days prior to the meeting. This info must be linked from the homepage or listed on the homepage under a section titled "Notices."
Association's estoppel designee. "Each association shall designate on its website a person or entity with a street or e-mail address for receipt of a request for an estoppel certificate issued pursuant to this section. The estoppel certificate must be provided by hand delivery, regular mail, or e-mail to the requestor on the date of issuance of the estoppel certificate." This change was passed under SB 398: Estoppel Certificates, and applies to Statutes 718 (condos), 719 (co-ops) and 720 (homeowners associations) APPLIES ONLY TO FLORIDA

Is a Facebook page enough?

Your Facebook group, in the eyes of FLORIDA law, doesn't count. Neither does your owner-run independent website.

According to the law, the website must be, "An independent website or web portal wholly owned and operated by the association; or A website or web portal operated by a third-party provider with whom the association owns, leases, rents or otherwise obtains the right to operate a web page, sub-page, web portal, or collection of sub-pages or web portals dedicated to the association’s activities and on which required notices, records and documents may be posted by the association."

The association and the board must officially run and operate the site.

Is a free website enough?

The main issue is you need to have a private, password-controlled section on your website that only homeowners can see. From Florioda Law:

"The association's website must be accessible through the Internet and must contain a sub-page, web portal, or other protected electronic location that is inaccessible to the general public and accessible only to unit owners and employees of the association."

So, if your free website has a private area you control, then it’s compliant.

FAQs

Privately Accessible to Owners

Publicly Available