Does the management company make decisions for the Board?

No. The Board governs and decides; the manager implements and advises. That distinction is legally significant and it blurs in practice more than anyone admits.

Where it legitimately blurs is spending authority. Most agreements give the manager the ability to authorize ordinary maintenance up to a threshold, and emergency repairs above it, without waiting for a Board vote. That is necessary — nobody wants a quorum call for a broken sprinkler head. Set the threshold deliberately and review it; associations often carry a number set by a previous Board for a smaller budget.

Where it should not blur: interpreting the governing documents, deciding enforcement against a specific owner, granting variances, waiving fees, or setting policy. A manager who is making those calls is doing the Board's job, and the Board still carries the liability.

The newer version of this question is about automation. Firms increasingly use software to generate violation notices, escalate delinquencies, and route architectural requests, some of it AI-assisted. Ask what is automated, what a human reviews before it reaches an owner, and who signs off on anything that affects an owner's money or property rights.