I remember Ocean Manor sent a letter, or maybe it was a copy from one of the meetings. They stated that they installed MARBLE in the hallways by the elevators. That is not true. All they installed was cheap tile. If you recall it was the same time they installed marble in the penthouse (remember it is when they broke the elevator and paid to repair the elevator with condo money). Remember no MARBLE WAS EVER INSTALLED IN THE HALLWAYS.
Are they mistaken and just calling it marble when they meant cheap tile? Well let's see how much we paid for the tile. They never told us how much it cost, so let us do the math. I am guessing, but I will go to the high side. Let's say the hallway that they tiled is 7 feet by 17 feet by 9 floors. That is 1071 square feet. A fair price for a QUALITY JOB would be $2 dollars a square foot for the tile and $3.50 a square foot to install the tile. That means the tile should of cost around $5890 to do all the floors.
I HAVE A QUESTION FOR THE BOARD: HOW MUCH DID WE PAY??
It would be nice if you had that price in an audited report filed in time, as required by law .
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The problem we face is easy to define. The board of directors, as a whole, has a goal different from the owners' goal. They are attempting to maximize the cash flows they earn from their businesses. The means they have chosen is to put their external costs on all of us but keeping the revenues for themselves.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, beautifying the lobby is a shared cost but the increased rental revenues belong to them.
Increasing the size of the Tiki Bar provides them with more revenue but takes away from the owners space and adds increased employee and security costs paid by us.
Clearly, the board is acting in their own best interest.
What remains to be seen is if they are actually stealing from the monies they have taken in (including assessments, insurance proceeds and loans from related parties and financial institutions.)
Only a fair audit will provide this answer. There is strong circumstantial evidence they are stealing:
1. They have remodelled their penthouse and issued checks to themselves and suppliers of equipment, architects, and designers drawn from the Ocean manor accounts. They have not justified these payments.
2. They are among the only benficiaries of insurance cliams made years ago from the hurricane damage. Has any other owner received a check related to the insurance money paid to Ocean Manor?
3. They did not follow the condo by-laws regarding disbursements of insurance proceeds.
4. There are claims by informed, intelligent owners that the window charges are far above what is considered fair market value. They claim they have a good relationship with General Bronze. They insisted strongly that we purchase our windows from General Bronze. Since we have seen them act in their own best interest in the past, isn't it likely they did so in this situatiion? (Read kick back). Why would Donnie say he had a much lower estimate for windows if it weren't true? He wants to replace the windows, so if they were fairly priced, I suspect he would have gone ahead with it.
5. Large loans taken out by our Board and NOT VERIFIED BY AN AUDIT are particularly troublesome. We simply don't know how much money has been written to the BoD and/or related parties because no audit has been done. They acknowledge (see John George's post) that they have written"refund" checks to themselves, so we know they have written themselves checks. It's just a question of how much money.
Shoudn't we know before writing them any more checks? Especially for those among us who are facing hard financial positions regarding our investment it is necessary that we get a full accounting done.
In the event that NO THEFT/FRAUD has taken place, we will feel that our investment is safer. The reduction in risk will increase the value of our condos as buyers will feel safer buying here.
In the event of THEFT OR FRAUD, the sooner we find out the better.
HOW ABOUT WE ALL AGREE NOT TO PAY OUR ASSESSMENTS UNTIL AN AUDIT IS COMPLETED. OR ALTERNATIVELY WE PAY THEM INTO AN ESCROW ACCOUNT UNTIL THE AUDIT IS COMPLETED?
Perhaps a new lawyer can be retained to advise us on the repurcussions of such an action.
We are not asking for more than we are entitled to by law. And much circumstantial evidence shows us these audited financial statements are necessary to see if THE BOARD has gone beyong using their powers to make their business revenues higher (already a breach of responsibility)and actually misappropriated funds and committed fraud.
Excellent comments. I agree that retaining an attorney and putting our money in escrow is the smart thing to do until this mess is cleared up.
ReplyDeleteI live here at the OM and I feel that all of us that do reside here at the OM should demand an audit report. If we have to make it a court order for the audit report then lets do it, I think Frank and Charlie have gotten away with enough, lets get them, everyone please get on board.
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