Condo Association Management Blog

The first thing you should do is to contact the city inspector in your area. You are right, that is a health hazard. The next thing I would do is withhold my association dues till it's fixed. I would also get together with other owners & hire an attorney.

I live in NJ. We had an election and the Property Management Company, who we are trying to get out, ran the whole thing. He would not let us vote in person there were 40 people there and he said it was a secret ballot. He took a bunch and put them on the side. He recounted them and he had this paralegal there who did not know half the questions we asked. One was where are our minutes, she said because there was no quorum we don't need them. Needless to say I won by one vote it was more than that his ballot was so confusing that half the people voted wrong. I was on both sides of the ballot for secretary and treasure, he said that can't be. May I add that the board only consists of President, Secretary and Treasurer? He ran the whole show and he is the Property Management Company. The only reason why he was nervous is he wants the secretary to remain another 5 years. She is also working for him in another business he has. We do not get audited reports each year. He has his own contractors come in who are not bonded. The secretary gives him the checks to distribute. Then we see all the workers hanging around his condo (he lives here and runs his business here) I have a funny feeling since no one contacted me he is going to somehow get me the newly elected person off the board. There will be a revolution. Help

Calling your city inspector before even speaking with the Board about the issue normally only makes it worse for the association and drags the matter out further. If the Association is cash strapped, they probably don't have reserves or any extra money -- so witholding maintenance serves no purpose. In a condo you share all of the bills. It's not like the Association is making a profit from your maintenance. If you and the other owners have not put money away, it's no ones fault other than those who chose not to put the money aside for later repairs. Regardless of whether a pipe is broke and the property is habitable, condo owners have an absolute responsibility to pay their maintenance. If you can't afford to put money away for future repairs in case things like this happen, you need to at least need to be understanding and cooperating (not cause problems which further delay repair).

Contact your local water authority and advise them of your situation and see if they will assist you. I do not understand your complete situation so, if the broken water pipe is a city or county owned utility, then they should be responsible for repairs, workman and assistance to your community. If the broken pipe is some sort of sprinkler system, then it should have a separate shut-off valve and would not require the closing of your entire water supply, then your association can hire a contractor to get the job done. Finally, what is your explanation for "financially pressed association"? What is the financial condition of the association have to do with the broke pipe? I'll address the associations funds. If for some reason your association has the responsibility to repair the problem, then you should have monies in your reserves to work with. If you do not have sufficient funds, then a special assessment is in order. Which brings me as to why your association is poorly funded. Your Board of Directors should watch your money and plan a budget so that you have funds in reserve for such emergencies. They should also have a proper amount of funds for the day-to-day operation of the association in their operating budget. If they do not, then some hard decisions need to be made to correct the associations funding. If your financial situation is lacking and you need funds from your reserves, then you can act quickly to call a special meeting of the ownership to allow you to reallocate reserve funds to deal with your emergency. Once the problem is fixed, then again address your funding issues.

Any property without running water is not fit for human habitation. This is a health menace. Contact the board of health of the city or town immediately. It may be your only recourse.  
 

Providing reasonable direction requires more specific information: The comment that the condo is "financially pressed" indicates that the condo is responsible for the repairs and does not have the funds available. The issue of the severity of the water leak may not be visible. A significant underground flow may not be visible above ground.  
Having experienced water pipe leak breaks in our association - the individual water was shut off for up to 3 days and this was with repair in active mode.  
 
Providing additional information permits reasonable response and guidance.  
 
 
1.

Sorry about the problem you are having. It is dangerous to your health as well as the whole building to have no drinkable water. It is all about dollars. It must be a right for condo owners to have complete access to condo bank statements showing checks cashed, to whom in what amounts, along with cumulative reserves if any. Demand that your legislators enact a law that makes this a right of every condo owner period. in the mean time obviously 
 
You have a serious red flag, that will take the cooperation of all owners to ammend, befor it is too late. I agree with the advice given by others.

it seems that if this was an emergency and a pipe that burst or ? and water for all was turned off and no notice was given when or where this was going, either your property managerment does not care or the company who did the work and drove off with no notice to anyone is the big problem for you and others, most obvious - getting water turn back on = number 1, if you have a on site manager replace with new- off site management = replace, the have to have been invold if not they are not doing their job. #3 its your property, get on board and make sure it being run correctly  
 
jim

Read your State Law on Condos. Then give copy to your incompetent and unknowing board. 
 
Condominium Law - State of New Jersey 
Condominium Law. 46:8B-8 Creation, establishment of condominium. 8. A condominium may be created and established by recording in the o

The important and only item is to get the water turned on. Joyce Nord's comments about holding payment is important but at this point it is mute. Concentrate on the owners who live there. You do not have to have management permission to call the health department as posted.

Just remember, if your water is shut off and you call the health department they call other government agencies, they can condemn your building(s) and put everyone out on the street until all matters have been rectified. That includes, requiring you to perform the repairs and bring the building up to current codes as well, for instance with the National fire codes. 
 
With that said, and in order to clarify, if your association is cash strapped and the owners have not been paying into reserves because they are on a fixed income, special assessments will need to be done to make repairs (because repairs don't happen for free), and all of those who are on a fixed income will have to come up with at least majority of the money before the repairs can be made. If you are out of your condo, you will either have to stay with relatives or spend money to live elsewhere AND come up with a special assessment to make repairs. This was my initial point about cash strapped & funds. This is why you should speak to your board to find out why the repairs and turning the water back on are taking so long before calling local government agencies which may in the long run hurt you.

Joyce Nord is so wrong. The people have no water. That is a condemned building in and of itself. You can not live in a building without flush toilets and bathing facilities. That is asking for major trouble. If the building has standpipes and sprinklers that have no water, it is a fire menace as well. 
 
Peoples' health and lives are at risk. The government needs to know.

Condo Hater: 
 
At this juncture, since we have no heard from the original poster, the point may be moot. Perhaps they were really just upset the water was turned off and wanted to know how long it could be off without the Association having to get it turned back on.  
 
However, perhaps you can explain how informing the government about the condition of the building is going to help it's cash strapped residents since they will all be out on the street, having to pay for repairs, having to pay for somewhere else to live and possibly dragging the issue out with the government. IME, no governement entity likes to get involved in what they see as a civil issue, and the moment you force them to get involved, they make it hard on the entire community. 
 
That's just my experience in the last 10 or so years performing condo management. Not every condo has enough money for every situation, and unfortunately it is usually the manager and board that get blamed although EVERY year they put the issue to vote in the community and all the community wanted to do was keep maintenance low if not reduce it...which you cannot do when operational costs increase each year.

The point is that condos are not above the law. In this case health and sanitary codes control. If the association is too broke to fix a necessity of life, the place is not fit for human habitation and the association has breached a major fiduciary duty. The remedy needs to be beyond the control of a useless board. 
 
Hopefully, the town will step in and reestablish running water and even if they do not, no one should have to live under those conditions.  
 
A friend's sofa and use of their shower is better than living or possibly dying in a building that without water could be a fire trap. 
 
I have had over 25 years experience as a landlord and condo owner. I was forced to inform a fire department about a major fire hazard in one property in which I owned a unit. The association decided to stop paying for service of the alarm panel by an alarm company and pulled out the back up battery because the alarms kept going off. The chief saw to forcing the repairs that were mandated by law. I would not want nor would I want my tenants to live with htis danger. It is unsafe and a major liability. 
 
When there is a life threatening hazard, which a lack of water is, and the board fails to respond, the proper agencies need to be contacted to protect the life and safety of owners and occupants.

This was my question and I appreciate the input. We are in unincorporated area with a water district independent of the county government and yes the condo assoc has to pay for the repair. My beef is with the management company and board not notifying us in advance or giving us any kind of completion time on the repair. They just ignored the calls. 
 
If we knew in advance we could stock up on water, not have clothes half way through a wash cycle etc. It was off for 24 hours. The dues have gone up over 300% in 10 years, we have had several large assessments. In the first 20 years money was spent irresponsibly and now the reserves and dues just pay for roofs, water and insurance but there is not much of a repair budget.  
 
This is least cost housing--200k condos in the midst of multimillion dollar estates--and many of us can't afford any more assessments. You can say we should not have bought the property if we cant afford assessments but people's financial circumstances have changed--many are out of work etc. 
 

to be consumed Moncler Electric outlet.moncler aubert Exactly why, as the movie makers in fact get most of initial hand bags Moncler Online Shop straight down Vest for them to result in a greater topple this straight down. Concerning perfects! Shots specific travelling bag while in the area looks that will including the good quality huge, modest plus light. Many of us generally down the understanding that intend anyone is exceedingly fats,moncler bresle nervous might appear current body weight, in fact simply isn’t akin to this kind of, if you ever find the small mental, wraps upwards this nifty collocation immediately straight down, not simply will moncler cardereassist you to seem to be fats,