Unreal: Condo management company
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- kinetic
So I get a letter in my mailbox the other day from the property manager of my condo. It talked about how the management of the other building we're attached to stopped paying for stuff relating to the shared facilities. So our management company got into a legal battle with them.
Anyways, between that and the fact that they apparently underbudgeted the concierge services by $34,000, they had a special assessment happen and as a result, the amount of the special assessment is $400,000 even.
It goes on to say "As the owner of this unit, your proportion is $1,369.65".
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before? This is crazy! How can they just demand that much money from all the residents because of this bs?
I've been talking with a couple friends in the building and we were thinking of getting everyone together and hiring a lawyer to look into it and seeing what we can do to fire the current management companies of both bulidings.
- fyoucher10
Heh. I have the same living living in a "community". You know...white picket fence "community". They're always budgeting something and somehow the rates go up exponentially every year. I have a thing signed agreeing to these things. We vote for a committee for people to take care of all of that stuff. If you don't have either of those, personally I wouldn't pay a damn thing.
- baseline_shift0
whats the lease say?
- ideaist0
I still rent; it's bliss!
- except your money is not going toward a purchase every month.bulletfactory
- I own currently, but my wife and i are thinking of moving, and may rent for a short time soon.bulletfactory
- you never "own" anything.morilla
- ...that's heavyideaist
- hahaha your rent goes towards those special assessment fees as well suckah! you live there, you pay!!zarkonite
- Do you know what tax benefits of owning are? Do you know that eventually the mortgage gets paid off?CyBrain
- property taxes, HOA(strata) and special assesments last forever.monNom
- hans_glib0
oh - i thought the makers of unreal tournament had released a wacky add-on
- vaxorcist0
Condo land.... sometimes not fun.... sometimes the worst of both worlds....
I'm trying to sell mine and rent again.. and yes, everyone says you're throwing money away, but with random special assessments and a declining real estate market, the equation isn't what it used to be...
- Gucci0
yep. I've heard of this happening.
Any major structural repairs that go above and beyond the reserve fund they can come and hit the residents up for.
My aunt was nailed for more money than that when the building's A/C unit blew up. Caveat emptor. Especially with an older building.
- Josev0
It's not uncommon to get billed a special assessment like that. I do think as a condo owner that that you should stand up and question how/why this happened. This isnt a problem like a roof failing, etc. It's the result of poor management. Luckily your assessment isnt that much. A friend of mine here in Boston had a $115,000 special assessment to rework the heating system (the total for teh building was like 4.75 million).
- kinetic0
I have 2 friends in the building. We're all trying to get on the condo board and see what we can do about getting a new management company. Part of the problem is the other building. They don't seem to work together that well.
- zarkonite0
I'm on the condo board of my building... you would have to show that they have mismanaged the situation and it led to extra fees that would not have normally occured.
It's really hard to do that, since everyone makes mistakes. There are usually very detailed procedures for everything in your state or province Condo Act bylaws... also you must have a condo board that represents the unit owners who is elected every yea, you should talk to them first to see what's going on.
- CyBrain0
Just to be sure, that $1,369.65 was a lump sum you have to pay once, right away?
I wonder why they didn't just spread it out over a year with a rate increase like they usually do.
- OSFA0
I think this is common. I received a letter and email from QBN two weeks ago telling me my monthly subscription increased to $55/mo. due to 'maintenance fees and stickers'
- boobs0
Send the stickers back, and you only have to pay $49.95. But then you have no stickers.
- dbloc0
They can't make you pay it in a lump sum though
- Josev0
Here's what confuses me about this, the special assessment is 400k. Minus the 34k for the concierge that comes to 356K. You said that the other building stopped paying for shared facilities? Why? Are they no longer using the facilities? Was part of the assessment for legal fees? You need more information. If the other building is using the shared facilities they should be paying for part of that $356k, no? As someone pointed out, mistakes happen, but come on -- $350k mistakes and it's just an "oops" and you all pay for it? I would do some fact finding and consider getting a quick consult from an attorney (split across a few owners, it shouldnt be too expensive).
- Josev0
In the end $1369 is not a lot of money, and its possible that there is nothing you can do about it. But I wouldn't quietly assume responsibility for someone elses fuck-up. What are they doing to prevent these kind of errors in the future?
- Etype0
if it doesn't say you have to pay maintenance fee's in the lease then they cant really ask for anything.
- funkgawz0
my uncle is our concierge, the guy lives in the garage. we let him come inside when it gets below freezing.