New VA POA act change regarding Electronic Version of Resale packet

On July 1, 2008, a new change in the VA POA act allows for the HOA or PM to provide the seller with an electronic version of the resale package, unless the seller appears in person at the PM's office and request a hard copy. My question is this... Has anyone in VA or other states gone digital with the HOA Docs/Resale Package?

I'm very curious if anyone else has gone digital and started issuing electronic version of the docs. Many questions come to mind that probably only PM's can answer,...
IE - 1. Is it very expensive to have this professionally scanned?
2. Can any part of it be OCR'd instead of scanned?
3. Do the components of the package change too often so that this would just
be too difficult to modify or keep updated?
4. Is more trouble than it's worth?
5. Is there a cost savings?
6. The law says that you cannot charge more for the electronic version. Can
you or would you want to charge less? Currently the charge is $250.

The new law also says "If the seller does not request a particular method of transmission, the management company or association may choose the method, but must comply with any in-person requests of the seller at the management company or associationʼs principal place of business to provide a hard copy of the packet."

Here's what it says about charging for the electronic form.
In addition to changes relating to who may receive the packet, House Bill 516 also elaborates on the methods of transmitting the packet by providing detailed requirements relating to electronic transmission. Section 55-509.5(C) provides that the seller or authorized agent may request the management company or association to provide the disclosure packet in hard copy or in electronic form. If the seller does not request a particular method of transmission, the management company or association may choose the method, but must comply with any in-person requests of the seller at the management company or associationʼs principal place of business toprovide a hard copy of the packet. The management company or association cannot charge a seller an extra fee to use its electronic network or system if the seller requests an electronic transmission. In addition, the seller may designate: (1) in condominiums, up to two additional recipients; but (2) for property owners associations, one additional recipient, to receive the electronic disclosure packet at no charge.

John, In Colorado the controlling docs, and certain financials and minutes must be provided prior to a sale. So we have and provide all HOA documents in digital text PDF format. Besides use for home sales the controlling docs are posted on a website for any prospective buyer to view and the financials and minutes are posted for owners to view.

The docs which were only available on hard copy, such as the Declaration, were scanned and reformated using OCR to create text format. This is done to significantly reduce the file size. We currently use OCR program Omniscan 16 to convert. Those text documents are then edited to correct any errors created during the conversion. On the Declaration we post a disclaimer which specifies each step on how the document was created. The Association is charged for the cost to scan, OCR, and edit. There is no charge to the Seller for providing digital copies by email. We would charge for paper copies and for faxing but have had no recent requests for either.

RogerB,

We have followed a similar process to scan and convert our documents. However, we have several amendments that modify the original document. For ease of use by residents and prospective buyers, we have incorporated the changes and produced a new document.

While most people seem to appreciate the changes, we were criticized by one escrow firm for not providing the original documents as they are on file. We did comply with that request.

Are we out of line in trying to make life easier? Whatever we provide is not a 'legal' document under any circumstance - originals are on file at the County.

Opinions?

If you are providing the documents on a CD, then it should be quite easy to provide a copy of the documents as they are at the courthouse and a copy of the documents as they now read. I want to see our HOA move to this method. The copy as recorded will probably be nothing more then an image in PDF format. Then the copy as they now stand will be a searchable document. You could even offer the document in multiple formats.

To all,
Facinating. I expect my experience is typical in getting something like this off the ground and Roger has noted it in his remarks. He gets everything proofed. We received a CD with our documents on them after being scanned with OCR. They were never proofed and now everyone has a CD with BAD and confusing documents and a couple folks took their copy, set it right and put it on our Web site, so now, my CD sits on the shelf, no good to anyone and I would bet a ton of folks think they actually have good copies. Boards don't like to admit they made mistakes. It will gradually be fixed.........over time. I use the Web Page copy.

I didn't ask if the scanned copy was registered at the court house and if so, has it been changed. I will one day.