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Living in a Condominium

 
 
Brandon9000
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Dec, 2007 03:11 pm
Miller wrote:
Brandon9000 wrote:
Miller wrote:
Brandon9000 wrote:
Miller wrote:
Brandon9000 wrote:
...

Best thing to do is sue the Trustees. Condo owners often win these lawsuits.

I have no desire to pay a lawyer thousands of dollars, even if I can recover the money when I win the law suit. That's my point.


Then obviously, you have a different means of handling this situation. What is it?

In the end, by keeping up the pressure on everybody, I got them to agree to make the repair, although it hasn't been done yet. However, it seems as though one has no real recourse when being cheated if one isn't willing to endure the expense and trouble of suing.


Since the repair work will be paid for by condo fees, you'll end up paying for it, at least a fraction of it...

Yes, but if one has to pay the association fee each month, and then one day has a maintenance need, it's better to get reasonable cooperation than to have to endure the tortures of the damned to get the association and management company to do what the bylaws say they are responsible for.

Actually, though, my real question had been to find out what I could do if I were elected to the association board, and the management company simply refused to obey anyone except the two members they had a prior relationship with, or a couple of members dominated the board by disregarding the association rules, e.g. meeting privately without the other members, etc. It seems that if one isn't willing to sue them, they can do anything they please. I should make it clear that I am not presently on the association board, but have been wondering how effectively I could oppose policies I disagree with if I were.
0 Replies
 
joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Dec, 2007 04:39 pm
Brandon9000 wrote:
Actually, though, my real question had been to find out what I could do if I were elected to the association board, and the management company simply refused to obey anyone except the two members they had a prior relationship with, or a couple of members dominated the board by disregarding the association rules, e.g. meeting privately without the other members, etc. It seems that if one isn't willing to sue them, they can do anything they please. I should make it clear that I am not presently on the association board, but have been wondering how effectively I could oppose policies I disagree with if I were.

Ah, that's a much easier question to answer. If there are five people on the board, and the two numbskulls are outnumbered by three reasonable people, then, if the management company continues to follow the directives of the numbskulls, the board majority should simply fire the management company and hire another one. End of problem.
0 Replies
 
Brandon9000
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Dec, 2007 11:48 pm
joefromchicago wrote:
Brandon9000 wrote:
Actually, though, my real question had been to find out what I could do if I were elected to the association board, and the management company simply refused to obey anyone except the two members they had a prior relationship with, or a couple of members dominated the board by disregarding the association rules, e.g. meeting privately without the other members, etc. It seems that if one isn't willing to sue them, they can do anything they please. I should make it clear that I am not presently on the association board, but have been wondering how effectively I could oppose policies I disagree with if I were.

Ah, that's a much easier question to answer. If there are five people on the board, and the two numbskulls are outnumbered by three reasonable people, then, if the management company continues to follow the directives of the numbskulls, the board majority should simply fire the management company and hire another one. End of problem.

The two whom I disagree with are occasionally persuasive. They're not pure evil, they have just implemented policies evincing a disrespect for the unit owners. If I could get the other two to side with me, by no means a certainty, then you would be absolutely correct. However, it is more likely that my suggestion to fire the management company for ignoring me would be watered down until it was no more than a stern warning. You have given the correct answer, but often things don't work out quite that cleanly. What has in fact happened is that the deadline to run for the board has passed, and indeed, only 3 of the required 5 people even submitted their names.

Anyway, I now have assurances that the hole a plumber made in my ceiling will be fixed in a few days, so my discontent, while still there, is somewhat less intense.
0 Replies
 
Miller
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Dec, 2007 02:22 am
In some condos the management company is selected by the owners, not the trustees.
0 Replies
 
SULLYFISH66
 
  1  
Reply Sat 12 Jan, 2008 09:34 pm
You are in Florida? That's Condo Heaven - and there are oodles of state regulations governing management companies AND Condos and their Boards. Just Google Florida Condo Laws

But first - you must get ahold of YOUR CCR's and bylaws and any other governing documents and study them.

If the pipes running between the floors are under the jurisdiction of the Association, how was it that an Owner got billed for it? Something's not right.

You should be able to request a sit-down with the management and a board member and get all your questions answered.

And . . .don't be so confrontational. You are simply trying to figure out the Association's rules that YOU have to live with.

PS - at your next Annual Meeting, get yourself nominated for the Board or at least on a Committee. You need to get into the trenches of condo governing a while before you bash the Board.
0 Replies
 
Brandon9000
 
  1  
Reply Sun 13 Jan, 2008 02:01 am
SULLYFISH66 wrote:
You are in Florida? That's Condo Heaven - and there are oodles of state regulations governing management companies AND Condos and their Boards. Just Google Florida Condo Laws

But first - you must get ahold of YOUR CCR's and bylaws and any other governing documents and study them.

If the pipes running between the floors are under the jurisdiction of the Association, how was it that an Owner got billed for it? Something's not right.

You should be able to request a sit-down with the management and a board member and get all your questions answered.

And . . .don't be so confrontational. You are simply trying to figure out the Association's rules that YOU have to live with.

PS - at your next Annual Meeting, get yourself nominated for the Board or at least on a Committee. You need to get into the trenches of condo governing a while before you bash the Board.

You aren't very familiar with what my situation was. I have lived here for 12 years, and this is the very first time the board prevented the management company from sending a plumber to fix a leak. They kept ordering the upstairs tenant, who wasn't even in town, to fix it, with no proof whatever that it originated in her unit. I had the leak for a week with ceiling damage occurring before she could be forced to attend to it. To save money, she sent a friend instead of a real plumber. The leak turned out to originate between the units. And then, even after the board had absolute proof that the leak hadn't been her responsibilty to begin with, they tried to get her to pay to have someone come and repair the hole in the ceiling which had been made to locate and fix the leak. They consistently ignored e-mails. The rep at the management company who is responsible for our particular property was almost never available when I called. Please don't correct peoples' handling of their personal affairs until you have some idea of what their situation is.
0 Replies
 
Butrflynet
 
  1  
Reply Sun 13 Jan, 2008 03:12 am
Send Bumblebeeboogie a PM and ask her to peep into this thread to advise you. She's an expert at this stuff, served on several condo boards that had similar problems with contractors that were resolved with both lawsuits and mediation.
0 Replies
 
joefromchicago
 
  1  
Reply Sun 13 Jan, 2008 07:36 am
Brandon9000 wrote:
You aren't very familiar with what my situation was.... Please don't correct peoples' handling of their personal affairs until you have some idea of what their situation is.

Well, to be fair, no one is very familiar with your situation. But then that's always the case when you ask for advice on these types of boards. We can only base our advice on the information that you give us. If there's something that will help us give better advice, it's your responsibility to divulge it. It's rather churlish to criticize people for failing to understand the situation when you haven't done a good job of laying it out.
0 Replies
 
BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Sun 13 Jan, 2008 09:32 am
BBB
bm
0 Replies
 
Brandon9000
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jan, 2008 05:03 am
joefromchicago wrote:
Brandon9000 wrote:
You aren't very familiar with what my situation was.... Please don't correct peoples' handling of their personal affairs until you have some idea of what their situation is.

Well, to be fair, no one is very familiar with your situation. But then that's always the case when you ask for advice on these types of boards. We can only base our advice on the information that you give us. If there's something that will help us give better advice, it's your responsibility to divulge it. It's rather churlish to criticize people for failing to understand the situation when you haven't done a good job of laying it out.


I was criticizing only this statement:

"And . . .don't be so confrontational."

Advice of this kind shouldn't be given unless someone actually is familiar with the situation, and with what the provocation and my response was.
0 Replies
 
 

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