Dear Members of the Association at Ocean Manor,
My name is Suzanne Weiss, and I am one of the attorneys representing several owners who are involved in a dispute with your Board of Directors. It is not their intent to create trouble at Ocean Manor. In fact, my clients are trying to stop the current Board from engaging in unauthorized activities. There has not been an audited financial statement prepared for your property for the entire time period that millions of dollars in insurance money, loan money and special assessments have been collected by the Board of Directors. There have been no answers provided for several issues regarding bank statements that have been given in discovery for this case. Without intervention this Board will continue to assess and fail to account for any of the money belonging to the Association. All of this is a matter of public record. This case is far from over regardless of what any Board member has told you. My clients will continue to fight to get information regarding the enormous amount of unaccounted for funds that have gone through the hands of the current Board. I consider my clients efforts to be valiant as they are willing to risk their money to stop the Board from continuing the unaccounted for spending of money followed by more and more special assessments. The Board on the other hand continues to use the Association’s funds, your funds, to fight efforts to get answers.
A case in point, if you paid for your windows in full and that money was in fact given to General Bronze, then they would have no lien rights against your unit. However, General Bronze has filed a lien against the entire building. Lien rights only exist in properties (units) that were improved and those improvements remain unpaid. So there are no lien rights against any unit which has paid in full for windows as long as that payment made it to General Bronze. In addition, there was no improvement to my clients units as the windows were not put in. So there are no lien rights for those windows. The real question for the Board is what work does the lien cover and why wasn’t it paid for? Please remember that according to the Board there was an extra $1.5 million secured from the bank. Where is that money and why is not being used to satisfy the lien?
There are many questions that my clients will continue to seek the answers for and it is their hope that their neighbors will thank them at some point. It is not their intention to get free windows but to protect everyone's investments and homes at Ocean Manor.
Joseph D. Garrity & Suzanne Weiss
Attorneys for Plaintiffs against OM - Board of Directors
sweiss@weissfranchiselaw.com
jgarrity@qbc-law.com
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Correct me if I am wrong..... Why not advise your clients to pay the assessment and/or any monthly dues into an escrow account each month? This is what is supposed to be done if an owner feels the association is not acting within the law or performing their duties. This would at least show they have the money and would look much much better to the rest of us who in the mean time are picking up the slack!
ReplyDeleteAre you saying that the board will not let a member look at the books? If so that is against the law I agree. Has there not been a year end financial statement? I have been offered a chance to look at the books but I must admit I don't know if I could make much sense of it.....
I strongly feel that the owners that are upset (I am one of them) should be able to get the answers they are looking for, however, I do not agree with the way they went about it. Why not allow the windows to be installed and fight the fight at the same time? It was voted in by the majority. We as owners don't own the walls or the windows anyway! COMMON AREA! We all own them together! We only individually own air space in our individual units. By not permitting the windows to be installed they have cost everyone more money because General Bronze has to come back to the job, do the scaffolding, charge interest and late fees etc. As for the board not using the extra money, I wouldn't want them to use the extra money to pay YOUR BILL! After reading this letter I am more upset than ever!! Valiant?? Maybe. However, if you want my ear show some respect for the rest of us and at least put what your were originally owed in escrow..... then I would actually listen to your "case". By the way what exactly is your "case"? Is the only thing you want an audited financial statement? Can you tell me that an independent audit would end this? If I knew the answer was yes I might even vote for it to be done even though I know these are extremely expensive (possibly $15,000 or more). I feel you are stock piling many unrelated issues (and hurt feelings) into the window issue. If there are other issues please share them with the rest of us so we can be up to speed. Your above statement mentions nothing specific. I need specifics!
I will be contacting an attorney (at my own cost) to check into your statement that my unit should not have a lien since I paid in full. I will be sure to post my findings. As for those who didn't allow the windows to be put in and because of that don't have a lien - I think that is horrible as well. Next they will sue that they want new windows delivered because theirs have been left in the parking lot for a year!
Until then maybe we will just let "IKE" decide who is right..... looks like a biggie - I'm glad my windows and the units around me are done so the walls don't blow in like the last time! I hope they have good insurance to cover themselves and those around them.
Would it be possible to post the bullet points of the lawsuit? I am interested and feel many others may be as well. Other than the window issue, I think you may have many others that agree. If the owners can all get together are show a united front and finally put our foot down maybe we can put the commercial part of our building back in it's rightful spot. I have to agree I am tired of feeling like an outsider in our building! Bottom line we need an owner (not the commercial owner or a relative) as president or have the majority. He does make decisions while acting as the president of the association that are NOT in the best interest of the association. We can do this without tons of legal fees. I encourage each of you to try to bring a small cooler, your own drink, your own beach umbrella or chair down and set up camp on common area and see what happens....... I ended up being chased and whistled after (really) by Don and had to sit around back in the blazing sun on a 95 degree day with a view of the garbage cans and the back of the cabanas! All because my grandchild had a happy meal from McDonalds. It was awful! Did I mention that we the association write Don's paycheck? Unbelievable!
ReplyDeleteDavie man to spend 20 years in jail for embezzling nearly $1 million.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-0905embezzling,0,3502523.story
WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO SEE THE BOOKS OF WHAT IS GOING ON HERE AT OUR CONDOS. I THINK IT IS TIME TO GET A SUBPOENA TO DO SO. THEY ARE SPENDING OUR MONEY FOR THEIR OWN USE AND IT HAS TO COME TO AN END. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
ReplyDeleteTHATS NICE WE HAVE A LIEN ON OUR BUILDING! COME ON PEOPLE WE NEED EVERYBODY TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS LAWSUIT, DO YOU LIKE BEING LIENED? I DON'T IT IS BS!
ReplyDelete