PATS Tools for Smarter Community Association Oversight
The PATS framework provides boards and owners with a transparent, data-driven approach to association oversight. By standardizing how financial and governance health is measured, these tools transform complex data into a clear roadmap for long-term stability.
PATS Reference
This guide defines your legal right to a clear and full financial picture of your community. It provides a working list of key documents—from Board Meeting Minutes to Related Party Transactions—designed to help owners challenge management control and protect shared assets.
Download PATS ReferencePATS Runbook
This playbook provides a systematic process for identifying fraud, poor spending, or illegal actions. By following these phases, you will learn how to verify your legal rights, audit monthly reports, check for insider self-dealing, and build the evidence needed to take formal action.
Download PATS RunbookPATS in the News
PATS has been featured in Inside Publications, where financial forensics expert Michael J. Novak addresses the critical question: "What to do to find the facts?" His answer: Ask PATS. The article highlights how the PATS framework empowers homeowners and associations to uncover the truth about their finances, providing the tools needed to verify legal rights, audit monthly reports, detect mismanagement, and protect their investments through transparency and accountability.
Novak, Michael J. "What to do to find the facts?: Ask PATS" Inside Publications, 4-10 February 2026, Commentary section.
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Clients Review
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In the under-regulated world of homeowner associations—where owners are too often left in the dark and vulnerable to exploitation—Common Interest Advisors, LLC stands out as an essential safeguard. Led by Michael J. Novak, CPA (Illinois), CMA, CFA, the firm brings unmatched independence and expertise to HOA accounting, governance, and reserve studies. Michael’s deep command of the arcane rules and accounting practices that govern HOAs equips him to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse that ordinary owners or even conventional auditors routinely miss.
What sets Common Interest Advisors apart is its commitment to empowering owners and boards with clarity and accountability. Michael’s record of expert testimony in high-stakes legal disputes and his relentless forensic analysis have delivered real-world impact—strengthening communities, holding management companies to account, and ensuring transparency where it is often absent. By choosing Common Interest Advisors, communities gain not only an expert in the complexities of HOA finance and regulation but also a trusted ally who transforms obscure rules and opaque practices into protection and empowerment for homeowners.
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