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How to bring peace back to our condo association?

Posted on Mon, Nov 01, 2010 @ 02:38 PM
  
  
  
  
  
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What can be done in order to bring peace back to our condo association? In March 2010 I started a petition to get a long over due meeting with our association, of which I followed proper procedure. We got our meeting and at that time 3 of the board members stepped down as it was noted 3 other people were severely behind in their condo dues. $17,000.00 to be exact. So now we either need a new board and or go with property management service, as some refused to pay their dues to the association any longer. We voted management service and moved on. I volunteered to hold a position on the board at that time (April's meeting) Then we had a June meeting stating the management has now taken over and we will pay our money to them. Management asked the former board members to stay on through the transmission and only one said they would (the president). It is now November (tomorrow) and still no new board in place. The past president is still making decisions that is starting to make me and others wonder what is going on. The place needs repairs (minor), new fire extinguishers. and lighting of th exits are out, new locks, (as they have been going bad for 3 yrs now), falling ceilings in to entrances ways, and panels to the hallways are down, parking lot has unregistered vehicles parked from another state just sitting there, not to mention the parking lot itself is getting ruff. I have failed to not get return phone calls fom the management service, and the past president (still acting as such) keeps giving some of us who are interested in this place the run around every time we question him about why it takes so long to get this turned around into place. We know we need a lawyer and yet nobody has the money for one to get one. Is there something or someone else that can help us? How much longer must we put up with the lies and distrust when we thought management was a good idea to go with? I am in Pa. and have read my by-laws and rules, and the declaration, I find that things are not being followed properly and yet I also feel that only a few here want to do something about it. With 3 behind, 3 on the fence, and 5 owners renting out who just care about collecting their own money. You do the math! Help Please!

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Comments

Being in the middle of a worse mess than yours, from our experiences I would say never use any management company that wants to take over everthing and get rid or yours ASAP if they do. Find two others to be on the board with you and seek an honest management company who will do what the board wants not what they want. You can put a lien on the property of those who do no pay dues. Read all the condo laws for your state and try and do what you can before using a lawyer. Your money will go very quickly on lawyer fees. We currently have a manager who charges $250 an hour for his time to talk to "our" laywer who charges $360 an hour. Look very carefully at any management contracts you sign to make sure you are not agreeing to services you do not want.
Posted @ Monday, November 01, 2010 5:14 PM by Judy Gordon
Be diligent in interviewing property manager and state your case up front when interviewing. Make sure they are aware that they are working for the membership through the Board and limit who may give direction to them. This will help in possible conflicts. Setup priorities with them and if they do not follow through find someone else. Don't hire a property manager to do your book keeping. I've tried it and it doesn't work. Make sure you have a 30 day termination clause in their contract and also a 90 day probationary period. My favorite saying is "it's our way or the highway".There's too many property managers out their that are willing to work for you so don't keep a bad one. We've changed property manager's and attorney's 2 times this year and will again if they do not perform to our satisfaction.
Posted @ Monday, November 01, 2010 6:36 PM by Larry Beals
Our management company lost our keys for our buildings approximately 4-5 months ago and has made no action "to find them" or rekey each of our buildings -  
 
and pay for for the service.
Posted @ Thursday, November 04, 2010 4:31 PM by Lilia Potts
You need to download and read the Pennsylvania Condominium Axt. A management companyn does not take over the resposibilities of the Board of Directors. The company is an aid to eprmit the Board to concentrate on their primary responsibilities and leave the mudane day to day operations to the managemnt compay. Financial support, payroll. engineering support, building management are items for the management comnpany. A management compasny is not to replace the board. Make sure your management company is properly licensed and insured.
Posted @ Monday, December 27, 2010 9:25 AM by Scott Adler
Read your bylaws and then download a copy of your state's condominium act. Between the two you'll find your solution.
Posted @ Friday, March 11, 2011 12:20 PM by Scott
I concur with what others have posted. It is important that Board members realize that they are officers of a corporation and in that capacity they need to act and conduct Association business as corporate officers.  
 
Managing agents are employees of the Association who are to work at the direction of the Board, not the other way around. Your new manager had no right to ask that the old Board stay on, and the new Board would have been wise to stand up to the new manager. I encourage you to take charge of the situation before it gets as out of hand as the situation with my condo has gotten.  
 
It is important that Board members do not delegate their power to the Manager, its attorney, or anyone else, as the Board of our Association has done. The failure of our Board to take responsibility for collections has left us with over $145,000 in delinquencies (in an 84 unit complex), and this does not count the money lost to bad / uncollectable debt which is an amount that is now in the tens of thousands of dollars. Our Board delegated the responsibility to collect delinquent accounts first to our managing agent, who did not do collections, but did charge the Association $25 a month for each delinquent account plus $10 for each account statement it mailed out, delinquent or not. Then the Board delegated responsibility to a collection attorney, who charged us about $400 per delinquent account to write a demand letter to owners and if he needed to place a lien on the unit charged about $650. Owners could care less about letters or liens, so his actions brought in no money from delinquent units. Recently our Board replaced the attorney with a collection agency, which charges us a monthly fee for each delinquency, but has failed to let our Board know what it has done if anything. No money has come in through his collections either. There are currently some units who owe in excess of $15,000 per unit. To accrue that kind of debt a unit has to be delinquent for a very long time, but our Board will not learn. One out of every three owners lives here rent free. Our Board refuses to stand up and take responsibility for the Association’s finances. Every owner here who is paying their monthly fees is paying more than $100 a month to cover the dues of those who do not pay. The total cost to me personally for the delinquencies is in excess of $3,000 and rising steadily. But it must be said that the Board did one thing - it entered into foreclosure proceedings on a unit that owned $88 because one of the Board members (its president)did not like the unit owners children and at the same time did nothing to collect on other very delinquent accounts. The Board member was removed and the new Board president (who was best of friends of the owner in foreclosure) halted the foreclosure proceedings and canceled all collection charges to her friend, including attorney fees which were about $7,000.  
 
Out Board’s willingness to delegate responsibility to others does not stop with collections. Our decks (balconies) had building defects and needed to be repaired. When they were repaired (by three different contractors) our Board delegated to the contractor the authority to manage the project and the Board paid the contractors without ever inspecting the work or having the work that was done inspected. They took the word of each of the contractors that the decks were done properly, but none were, so they all needed to be redone, which required hiring and paying for a fourth and fifth contractor who we also paid and who self-managed as had the previous contractors. One of those contractors did a good job. The other did not, so the decks he did need to be redone a third time, which has not yet been done.  
 
Did our Board learn from the experience with the decks? No. It hired a siding contractor to replace our defective LP siding. Our Board did not manage that project or hire someone who had the expertise necessary to oversee the project. As with the decks, the Board delegated the authority to inspect the work done by the contractor himself to that contractor, and now our siding needs to be redone as well. I dread thinking what will happen when our roofs are replaced.  
 
Recently a common area pipe burst in the attic above my unit. The Association’s insurance paid the Association almost $10,000 to do the repairs to my unit, but the Board spent that money to pay for monthly expenses, which was necessitated by the fact that due to our failed collections we bring in several thousand dollars a month less than we need to pay monthly bills. Two years have elapsed since that pipe burst. In order to have a livable home I paid for the repairs out of pocket. Now I need to sue the Association to get reimbursed. While my unit was not repaired, three Board members remodeled their kitchens on Association funds, even though both our manager and the Association’s attorney advised the Board that the remodels were the unit owners’ responsibility. The manager fired our Association as a result of the Board’s misconduct in this matter and we now have a new attorney. 
 
While we have had good Board members, they were in the minority. When my husband was on the Board the Board president held secret meetings which he excluded my husband from because my husband challenged what that Board member, who happened to be a convicted felon, was doing. That particular Board member boasted that the Association bought him his new Porsche. We also paid his son to maintain the property even though the son was away at school and rarely came home.  
 
 
These things are but the tip of the iceberg in a saga too lengthy to tell. Don’t let your Association to get to this point of insanity. Lawsuits like the one I will be filing are quite costly, but for me the good news is that maybe this will turn our Association around - AND the Association will be responsible for my attorney fees. 
BOTTOM LINE: IF AN ASSOCIATION IS TO FUNCTION PROPERLY ALL BOARD MEMBERS NEED TO DO THEIR JOB. IF A TASK IS DELEGATED, THE BOARD NEEDS TO ASSUME A MANAGERIAL ROLE IN REGARD TO WHAT IT HAS DELEGATED. 
 
Posted @ Wednesday, March 16, 2011 10:32 AM by Lynn
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