What records should the outgoing company hand over?

Everything the association owns, which is more than most outgoing companies deliver on the first pass. Ask for it as a written list rather than a general request, and set the deadline before the relationship ends.

The list: governing documents and all recorded amendments; minutes and Board resolutions; the complete owner ledger with full transaction history rather than current balances; delinquency and collections files; executed vendor contracts and current insurance certificates; the reserve study and any capital project documentation; violation and architectural files by unit; bank statements and reconciliations; tax returns, audits and reviews; the insurance policies and claims history; warranties, plans and permits; and every key, fob, access code and administrative login for association-owned or association-paid systems.

That last category is the one that generates the most trouble. Utility accounts, alarm systems, gate access, the website domain and the association's own email addresses are routinely registered to a departing manager, and sorting it out afterwards takes months.

Format matters as much as scope. A PDF dump of a ledger is not a ledger. Ask for owner data in a structured file — CSV or an equivalent — and confirm the incoming company can actually load it before the outgoing one is gone.