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Thread: Dealing with condo trustees

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    Default Dealing with condo trustees

    So we pay a mothly condo fee but it seems like nothing gets done. The hallways are FILTHY and they just rented out an apartment to Section 8 without consulting us. The family already got into a huge fight and the police had to come. So there are all these problems and I have no clue what to do? Stop paying the fees? I clean that hallway every week myself I can't stand it. Should I contact a lawyer? Help!

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    You cant or I should say DONT stop paying your fees. They arent mgmt fees they are fees that pay for common area expenses. If you lapse on your condo fees you can and will be in jeopardy of losing the ownership of your home. They
    can lien or caveat you for those fees! Forcing your mortgage company to either pay on your behalf or they can actually pull your ownership sell your home to recoup the loss. Rarely done but the point is IT CAN BE DONE.
    SO! WHAT YOU CAN DO? Contact your condo board or association IN WRITING dont waste your time with phonecalls - document everything. About your displeasure in maintenence, your evaluation of the management of the property and request that they respond BACK TO YOU - in writing.
    Got a digital camara? Take pix of all the points you are taking them to task on.
    Send a copy to the management company AS WELL as the condo board president and all the directors.
    One will either hold the other responsable - either way it should kick start the solution.

    Good luck - and check in your ownership documents - about bylaws and such - be informed on your legal recourse.
    Last edited by LEIGH_LANDON; 08-14-2008 at 09:38 PM. Reason: typo's
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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    By Section 8 I assume you're referring to gov't subsidized rent recipients ?

    One very important question if I may. Are you and some other residents actually 'owners' of your condo apartments, or are you actually lease renters with a landlord being the actual building owner ? The reason for the question of course is to determine if your 'condo association' has any fiduciary responsibilities or not.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    We are owners of this condo. There actually isn't even a managment company that takes care of things, we send out our condo fees directly to the trustee. I talked to her last night and she A. lied and B. nothing came of it, she was just so rude. I'll write a letter today. I just feel so helpless that nothing is done and nothing will be done. I'm coming home to our front door being wide open at night, with a piece of rotting wood to stop the door and kids running around trashing the place. And when I ask why is the door open, why is there trash everywhere I get the ghetto response and attitude. So frustrating.

    Thank you guys for the advice, I appreciate it!

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    By Section 8 I assume you're referring to gov't subsidized rent recipients ?

    One very important question if I may. Are you and some other residents actually 'owners' of your condo apartments, or are you actually lease renters with a landlord being the actual building owner ? The reason for the question of course is to determine if your 'condo association' has any fiduciary responsibilities or not.
    Yes. Are they even supposed to rent out the place to people and not even tell us about it? it was a pretty big shock to have a family of 8 move in and start chaos as soon as they got here.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Have you written a letter/complained to the management company (or whoever collects the fees)? You pretty much don't have a leg to stand on until you do, on either matter.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Grab your condo by laws and start reading through it. If you need to, take it to a lawyer (some have so much legal mumbo jumbo in it, it's unreadable for most). At my old condo, no landlord could rent to any tenant without getting the approval from the other owners (we had a board and a montly meeting and those things would be brought up and voted on). You also have to see what your fees go towards...and you should also be given an accounting of how much your condo has been spending, where, etc. You should be getting a full accounting every month, quarter and year.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    ^^^ this was the reason for my question about actually owning your condo. As such, the trustee does have a fiduciary responsibility toward the individual condo owners. Among those fiduciary responsibilities is protecting the 'value' of the individual condos. Arguably, a unilateral decision by the trustee to A. rent vacant condo space to undesireable tenants, and B. neglect responsibilities in regard to building maintenance / security, are causing condo owners financial damage. As such, they are opening themselves up for a lawsuit on the part of condo owners.

    Obviously, attempting to go 'toe to toe' with the trustee / building owner is a risky situation. Depending on specifics of your condo agreement, you may be opening yourself up to being forced out of your condo. On the other hand, you are currently being forced to live under conditions which were not part of the deal you were presented when you bought your condo.

    Because of the potential nastiness which could develop, and your potential loss of down payment equity, I would definitely involve an attorney in any further contact with the trustee and/or building owner.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    How is the association set up? You said trustees, did the condo owners vote for the board. Maybe it's time to vote them out. Organize a resistance.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Thank you guys so much.

    We did not vote, they set up a date about two days before and that did not work for us. We told them and they said if we don't show up, they will automatically get voted the trustees?? I'm so overwhelemd at the moment. I will contact a lawyer first thing Monday morning, I just hope it will not cost us an arm and a leg. We're not in the greatest financial situation at the moment, but we do pay our morgage on time evry single month and have been. And also, she claims we don't have enough money because one person has vacated their amaprtment, it's been reposessed by the bank, but his fee was about $170. That can't be that much of a difference. There is a guy that wants to buy that condo and has been calling her to get the expense sheets and she WILL NOT give it to him , saying "she doesn't get paid to do that". Like she doesn't want that condo sold? And this is a 5 until place, she gets $700 total a month. And claims that's not enough. Nothing ever has been fixed, painted or cleaned. Ever. Oh bebsides the fact that she had to fix the two front steps because Section 8 do check ups or something. Is it legal for her to use our money?

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Well, the association dues you pay towards the condo is supposed to be used to maintain the common areas (so landscaping, parking lot clearing--ie for snow, etc--painting the common areas, if needed, keeping up with repairs, etc). So, yes, it is legal for her to use your money...but she cannot use that money for her own personal gain. Meaning, she cannot use that money to pay her bills, etc. She can only use the money to improve or maintain the common areas of the building in which you reside.

    Now, if she has never given you an accounting of money in/money out, then I would venture to say that she is probably improperly spending/managing the money...especially if she says that there is not enough in the coffers and all. Now, I don't know what the delinquency rate on the fees are...but, still.

    You actually can force her to give an accounting (in fact, she has to if anyone buys/sells the units because a bank will not lend on a condo under any means if the condo trustee/association does not offer up a full accounting of the annual budget, expenses, and all). But, it will involve a lawyer...but if you want to see what is going on there...you're probably going to have to force her hand and hire a lawyer. The easiest way to do that is to do it as a group (class action) and get other owners who want to find out what is going on and split the cost of the lawyer.

    Good luck.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Reasons such as this is why I would NEVER buy a condo.

    You have all the dis-advantadges of renting and none of the advantadges of owning.

    I may not be able to control who buys the house across or down the road from me but those houses are hundreds of feet away.

    I don't pay "maintenance fees" to anyone and no one can come and tell me what color I can paint my house or any of that other "normal" condo assoc. crap

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    ^Agreed. This is why we moved out of our condo. The money was being mismanaged and there were all sorts of other crap that was happening and we wanted no part in it.

    We now live in a beautiful house and although it's more work (general maintenance/upkeep) it's so worth it.

    I personally think that if someone is wanting to purchase a condo they should either keep renting, or do a full investigation on the trustee/mgmt company. If we would have asked a few questions about our mgmt company, we would have found out how shitty they were and probably have passed on them. The mgmt company actually can bring down the value of the condos by being unorganized. Why? Because if they cannot get their act together and get the paperwork needed to complete a sale, then the units will not sell (a bank will not finance on "bad" paperwork). That will force unit owners to drop the price of the condos to try to sell them and it's all a vicious cycle. In fact, we dropped the price of our unit by $15,000 just to get away from the mgmt company. We still came out slightly ahead, but I know it impacted the rest of the units. At that point, I could have cared less...I just wanted away from mgmt companies, boards, associations, etc, etc, etc.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    I just spoke to one of the trustees about his tenents and he was just like "It's my unit I can rent it to whoever I want." And then I asked him to please give us the expense reports and he just refuses and talks in circles. And he kept saying "If you don't pay your fee I won't either. The water will be shut off and I don't care, I'll put my tenents up in a hotel." JUST BECAUSE I ASKED FOR THE EXPENSE REPORT! We are putting our fee money in a seperate bank account from now on until we get the report, is that a good idea? And Monday morning, first thing, I'm seeing a lawyer.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    Quote Originally Posted by HoolaTwist View Post
    I just spoke to one of the trustees about his tenents and he was just like "It's my unit I can rent it to whoever I want." And then I asked him to please give us the expense reports and he just refuses and talks in circles. And he kept saying "If you don't pay your fee I won't either. The water will be shut off and I don't care, I'll put my tenents up in a hotel." JUST BECAUSE I ASKED FOR THE EXPENSE REPORT! We are putting our fee money in a seperate bank account from now on until we get the report, is that a good idea? And Monday morning, first thing, I'm seeing a lawyer.
    Don't make any rash actions until you have spoken to a lawyer.

    It really sounds like it is time to do so.

    The best you can do is maybe call the Section 8 agency to do more inspections and such.

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    Default Re: Dealing with condo trustees

    ^^^ actually, you have already gone one step beyond the point where an attorney should have been involved on your behalf. The trustee is also probably correct about non-payment of your fee. If you unilaterally set up a quasi-escrow account in your name only based on undocumented phone conversations, it is no different legally to the management company or a judge than simply not making your payments on time. The trustee would like nothing better than to be able to hold YOU in breach of contract as a defense against their own breach(es) of contract.

    I know you are angry, but if you don't stop crawling out on this 'limb' without the benefit of legal counsel and a legally served complaint, followed by another legally served 'breach of contract' action against the trustees, accompanied by an officially documented establishment of an escrow account complete with bipartisan bank involvement, you will regret it later !!!!! Obviously, this outfit isn't the type to 'voluntarily' cut you any slack or render any co-operation. Right now you would appear to have very good grounds to sue the building owner and the trustees, and possibly get out of this condo deal with most or all of your money returned. However, if you keep crawling out on that 'limb' by taking unilateral and unofficial actions, and in the process hand the building owners and trustees a 'counterclaim' defense, you could wind up losing a shitload of money or being stuck in this building forever.

    Please don't do or say anything else to the trustees or building owner until after you retain an Attorney on monday. In the meantime, try to write up a 'time line' of events which have taken place so far i.e. the renting to the section 8 tenant, the police call(s), the attempted phone calls to the trustees, the conversation you just described here with one of the trustees etc. so that you can give it to the attorney on monday. Also be sure to dig out your condo agreement and take that to the attorney as well.

    Please keep in mind the 'curse of death' which the building owner and/or trustees could choose to hold over your head. If you piss them off, and if you hand them a 'breach of contract' allegation against YOU, it IS possible for them to evict you and sell your condo at an 'auction' price, and worry about the consequences later. If that 'auction' price is less than the amount that you still owe on your condo's mortgage, the bank will expect you to come up with the difference in cash ... immediately ... since your mortgage would no longer have any collateral backing it.

    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 08-16-2008 at 01:34 PM.

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