Condo Association Management Blog

Get a Forensic Audit from a firm that is licensed and a written narrative on their findings. Report theft to authorities. Enter pertinent facts into your minutes. Good Luck.....

I absolutely APPLAUD YOU! I as a unit owner would love for people like you to be on our condo board! 
 
In my case, succintly, prop. mgmt company, and board not knowledgeable, have crossed over to numerous bylaw violations! No where to go..I have so tried! Any info from you would be so very valuable.. 
 
 
 
My Sincerest Thanks,  
 
Melinda 
 
 
 
GREAT for YOU in taking this on! I know it must be difficult!

I highly recommend you to seek legal advice from association attorney and proceed with legal punishment  
 

The preservation of all the association documents is very important. This would include financial statements, check registers, vendor invoices, and other related documents. Basically any all documents from the management company.  
 
I would suggest taking the following steps: 
 
1. As mention earlier in the blog, hire a very good forensic accountant. 
 
2. Get the association's attorney involved and seek advice as to who should have possession of the records. In my opinion, the board needs to distance themselves from actually records, let the professionals investigate and report back to you.  
 
3. Under the advice of the attorney, I would then contact the authorities. 
 
4. The association will need to go through the process of hiring a new management company. The board's focus should be on the business processes and controls in place to prevent any wrong doing. Be very up front and explain your situation to the prospective company. 
 
5. The board needs to make sure to document the process in the meeting minutes. I would suggest to create a separate folder or binder to record the process. Items I would include would be reports, engagement letters from the CPA and attorney, letters of opinion, police reports, and so on. The reason is to keep all the information together for future reference. 
 
6. Now the most importance item, I would believe, is to be up front and communicate the issue with all the association members what is going on. I recommend doing this under the guidance and advice of the association's attorney. 
 
I have more recommendation regarding this matter, but this is a blog and I am will keep this short. Feel to contact me if you wish to have a little guidance regarding this issue, email or phone is fine with me. 
 
Todd Auspitz, President 
 
Auspitz Management Group, LLC

How big is this pool? 100K is quite a large sum for pool chemical and/or pool service. Are you sure there weren't refinishing of pools or something else in there? Do you know how many pools you could build for that price. 
 
Instead of running out and spending money on audits and attorneys, I would start by getting bids for the work at task, and then comparing them against the bills in the past. If they are out of line with what you were paying, then I would say yes, audits, attorneys, police. Not that the police are actually much help...at least not in Miami. If you are in Miami they will most likely tell you it is a civil matter even if you have pictures, copies of checks, fingerprints and proof.

it's not a civil matter if it involves a felonious crime and you can produce enough evidence to obtain a warrant thru the magistrate.  
 
 
 
yes, my Dad got involved in a condo assn. by purchasing property with an assn. in place, but he had an excuse. he had a severe left brain stroke and that's about all i can think of that would be a valid excuse for ANYONE to have a controlling interest in not only THE major investment of their (most peoples')lives, but a huge investment in how the unit owners LIVE their life. 
 
i've posted so much on these threads re my disdain for these well-dressed thieves, i'm sure y'all are sick'ah hearin' it. 
 
i swear it wasn't but easy as hell to actually read the bylaws. the bylaws were prevalent in my Dad's mortgage paperwork, yet the whole premise of strong-arming folks to pay their fees by that little slice'ah chicken shit heaven was negated, out tha window, over tha hill'n down tha country when i forced their hand to SHOW ME RECEIPTS OR CONTRACTS for every budgeted item. according to their own bylaws (which are'ah crock, i can write bylaws, bygod... and so can you). the mgmt has 10 days to produce the results of my request and can be requested once a year.  
 
 
 
they didn't come up with 'em, hmmmm. i was quite cruel, which i ain't too proud of, but i had'ah ball showin' up at the atty's office everyday and irritatin' tha hell outta him. he'd tell me i reminded him of his ex-wife and finally said i scared him and he'd run to his car with me yellin' "SHE MUST NOT BE FROM HILLBILLYVILLE, REDNECKERTON, ALABAMA, CUZ YA STILL GOTTA TOOTH'RE TWO AND SHE DIDN'T BEAT THA BRAKES OFF YA...and ya didn't drown with cement shoes on"... i'd laff so hard, i was'ah cryin' daily. 
 
(which is neither here nor there, i just like that story. i gotta plenty, too.) i gave them tha "what fer" til i finally got'em in court after they "foreclosed" on my condo for non-payment. i saw their hand'n raised em'ah default judgment cuz i didn't wanna take the chance of having a judgment against me with a countersuit in the mix. i filed my own suit cuz i wanted it on record in probate they'd taken it to a foreclosure point and they didn't even HAVE A FRIGGIN' DEED ! "Lenny, baby (i loved callin' him that)...how much is'ah car worth without'ah title? and how many bars did ya NOT pass b'fore ya finally passed tha one that gives ya a venue ta stick out like'ah sore thumb in tha 'i am stupid and ya can't fix stupid... stupid is forever,' department?" 
 
 
 
so of course i didn't pay the mortgage (Dad quit claimed me the condo...[jeeeeez, thanks, Dad !] and here i sit with'ah free and clear condo deed and i'm payin' taxes and insurance while i watched tha lenders eat that mortgage note for lunch. 
 
 
 
as i always end with: WHAT is the payoff of being in business and staking YOUR personal property on tha line with people ya don't know from adam's housecat and they don't even have ta have'ah credit rating.  
 
 
 
all they gotta have is tha motivation ta thow on'ah wife-beater's shirt, get too drunk ta fish, support the economic stability of PBR (hic) and have tha good sense ta bathe b'fore he has a BIG NIGHT ON THA TOWN hollerin' "who luvs ya, baby... DITTY DOES" and to'ah chick without'ah black eye. (that's how we tell they ain't married 'round here) who thinks a day without'ah can'ah Redman, a dog named "DUKE" lickin' his... errrr... milkbones (hmmm) by his side and no hangover is'ah day without sunshine, and blastin' out lynyrd skynyrd under'ah chevy on blocks, grinnin' from ear ta ear with that tooth glarin' thru'ah pourin' rain, braggin' on his business accumen (well, i could'ah said entrepreneural skills... we'd still be scarin' up'ah dictionary), success via employing the most competent of financial candidates (the swift and efficent, of course)cuz'ah his enterprisin' crazy mad skills that turned that way low overhead investment (red phospherous, dran-o, cold medicine, that crap in batteries and a few more'ah them up-scale householders) in ta a FINE FINE meth lab specimen... and he's good enuff, smart enuff, and doggone it, PEOPLE LIKE HIM !... and he's gotta hankerin' ta expand'n kick it up'ah notch, but that takes a whole lotta sum'ah that gum glue (a huge dead prez'dent investm$1.39 for 8 ounces of water. (a tuffie? nah.) it's tha same choice, actually, we're just hagglin' over price. 
 
i getta hankerin' once in awhile to start my own association and i'm irish. so i'd call it "Ben Dover (he steers) and Phil McCrevis (he drives)Condoms" with signage on the main street: ~^~If you and Phil were reading this, you would both be home and 3 inches inside the back door in 22 seconds~^~ <<eyeroll>> 
 
i know i'm way outta line, i wonder if my rants even get posted cuz i'm one hot mess when it comes ta this crap.  
 
i mean we stare at two brands of coffee that are bear marketin' for 50+ years or so, we can still sing the slogans, NATCH !!!! for 45 minutes per week to get the better deal and give Bubbah. 
 
but i'm informed, i know validity, and can smell a rat in'ah room fullah possums and i can't help but wonder why you guys are SO INTIMIDATED BY THESE IDIOTS THAT DON'T HAVE SCHMARTZ TO KNOW THEY'RE IDIOTS. i mean... C'MON, PEOPLE !!!!

Just a question. 
The Association members are able to cancel the ERRORS AND OMISSION INSURANCE POLICY ? 
The Unit Owners pay for this coverage every month and the only reason of this is to offer impunity to those that kidnapped your rights. 

Me and my husbad own a condo unit in florida. We live in UK. In tbe begining we were given guaranteed rent for 2 years. That period is now over. We are now depending on revenue left after paying association charges, management fees and other expenses. 
 
What we found is, after guranteed rent period got over, each month statement shows that as much revenue received were used for all sorts of payments by Condo Management Company. 
 
We questioned them for each figure on the statement and we were given all excuses and reasons for such expenses. 
 
We looked for availability for booking on management company's website for few days. It showed it was fully booked on some days. When we received statement, we expected those days should show income figures. But no, it shows those days unit wasn't booked. This is evidence that Management company is fooling us. 
 
 
 
We need help about how to handle this situation and if we have to take legal action who is best person/company to contact. Please help.  
 
There may be many like me in UK must be facing this situation. As many of us happen to buy unit from UK based company which is now liquidated. 
 
Please help. No revenue means we can't pay mortgage which we took to buy this condo unit OR we pay from our pocket. We are working people and used our entire life's income for investment to pay deposit for this condo unit. 
 
 
 
Management company involved is seems to suck our blood by not showing exact financial details. 
 
 
 
Please help.

We are a forensic accounting firm that handles forensic audits effectively for HOA fraud. One of the big issue is by the time we come in to investigate all the evidence has been destroyed. Anyone have an idea how we can go about doing seminars at association to bring awareness to a common problem HOA financial abuse.