Category Archives: HOA

Trustworthy and Tamper-Proof HOA/Condo Board Elections?

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guest blog by Bob Frank (Air Force Col. Retired)

 

It is a fact that CID board elections are the ONLY way that members can actually influence the management of their common properties and finances.  And, since candidates for boards and members of community management companies are not routinely cleared as trustworthy according to government standards, the election processes themselves MUST be provable as being “trustworthy/tamper-proof” by the association members.

Therefore, I submit it should be mandatory that secret ballot board elections implement (1) audit-trails, (2) use “tamper-proof” devices, (3) be certified as end-to-end trustworthy, and (4) be capable of independent auditing by licensed, trained professionals.

And, I claim that any board election that can not be auditable as trustworthy should be invalid.  Why would government officials and trade association professionals be allowed to tolerate potentially corrupt board elections?

Should the trade association adopt the following or similar terms and require that all HOA/Condo board elections follow such definitions and implement “trustworthy board elections” capable of being audited by 3rd party professionals?

Or, should board elections be taken away from CID boards and management companies and that there be a new licensed and bonded, “Independent Trusted Elections Professional” be required on a part time basis by state statutes as auditors and attorney are?

Am I on the right track for this topic?  Do you agree it is likely possible to conduct such improvements in CID elections at reasonable costs?  If you wish, I can explain how I would design such a system using hard-copy and/or electronic processes.

Bob Frank

Cohen The Bully Has Arrived At Two Midtown Miami

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guest blog by Nila Ridings
 
Seth Cohen arrived from New York with $1.5M to spend on a condo in South Florida.  He impressed his neighbors with his swagger which won him enough votes to sit on the board as their president.  
 
Looking around he decided Two Midtown Miami needed more of his “touch” in its decor.  Even though the building was only five years old the elevators got a facelift and the pool furniture was pitched for something more expensive. 
 
Next, on his list was the lobby renovation with some “Munsters” chairs and bookshelves that sent his neighbors out to the curb in protest.  In typical COA dictatorship style, he called the police only to learn his neighbors were smarter than he thought because they had obtained a protesters permit.  
 
Supporters started dropping like rocks and the “Fresh Prince of Two Midtown Miami” quickly earned the title of bully! His neighbors wanted to feed him lunch with their assessment letters. He was demanding $6,844.27 from each owner to cover the cost of his grandiose decorating plans until the uprising raised awareness to the point they were demanding he be removed from the board. I applaud them!!! based on my HOA experience, I’m wondering if seth Cohen is in the “decorating business?” Wash he slick enough to try and recoup his condo investment with some high-priced re-decorating?
This should be an eye-opener for all owners in HOAs or condos. Redecorating projects can quickly turn into an ATM for board members. If you don’t keep a close watch they will declare re-decorating as a “necessity” and use their power as president to funnel the money right into THEIR bank accounts. It’s called self-dealing and in most states it’s illegal. Take if from me, it’s also a “red flag” warning. Once accomplished they will try it again on something else. like selling advertising in the community newsletter and claiming to be in the publishing business!

Near Tragedy At Palms West Condominiums

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guest blog by Nila Ridings

This story sends chills down my spine. Shoddy electrical work that was done at this Hialeah, Florida condo complex swimming pool nearly cost some children and the adult rescuers their lives. City records indicate NO PERMITS WERE PULLED before this “electrical” work (should be called electrocution work) was done on the pool.

Once again, as we’ve heard thousands, probably tens of thousands of times, the HOA or condo board hired some “jack of all trades” (who actually knows little to nothing at all) to do a job that only a licensed contractor should have been performing. The risks are too high not to hire professionals! The consequences can be catastrophic and deadly.

Was the board trying to save a few bucks? There is no “savings” worth risking injury or death as these condo owners are about to find out. Who knows if these children will suffer life-long effects from this one event? It could take years to learn the extent of their injuries. Just wait until the personal injury attorneys start circling and offering their services for a contingency fee! I can see it now. The finger pointing and lies and cover-ups will be countless. The attorneys already know every resident of the condo or homeowners association can be forced to pay damages. It’s that minor detail that buyers are never told about when they are looking to buy a home or condo.

I must say, if I was in charge of electrical work on a community swimming pool not only would I hire a licensed electrician, but I would hire a second one to double check the work of the first one. And I would ask to see their license and proof of insurance. I would add their names and contact information on the work order.

Whoever hired the person that did the work on this swimming pool should be charged with negligence and be sentenced to jail right along with the person who made a mess of the wiring. And if that person is part of a CAI property management company they should be paying all of the lawsuit settlements.

I’ve personally observed this in my own HOA. Shoddy work by “carpenters” who don’t know which end of the hammer to use and a CAI property manager who instructed them to do things that should never be done. Risking the safety of everyone living in these units due to rotten frames which was caused by failed maintenance on the exterior siding.

It’s long past time to stop this dangerous and risky stupidity!

The only good thing that will come from this will be the exposure to the fallacies and massive risks that one takes when they buy in an HOA or Condo Association!!!

(link to Local10 news story on this tragedy)

 

How to Build a Trustworthy Organization

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guest blog by Robert E. Frank, Colonel, USAF (Ret.)
           (Founder, HomeOwnersCoalition.Org & Veterans Advocate)

My business experience has taught me over the past 50 years that if a process is designed to be as trustworthy as reasonably possible, EVERYONE benefits from being able to accept it as such.

But, if systems, such as board elections or controls of something like association credit/debit cards and checks, are allowed to be designed and implemented with very obvious loop holes in the audit trail, then no one can trust the system.

It is common for an organizational manager and/or board members to raise their voices and get belligerent when someone points out that an election or financial system component can be easily corrupted. They typically change the subject to “how dare you accuse my group of election fraud!”

Of course, that is not the point. The point is why would an honest, ethical person or organization (either board of directors, election committee, CAM or community management company) want to ALLOW an election process to exist where allegations of misconduct could be fairly suspected and/or made part of a criminal complaint?

Money is NOT the issue on implementing “trustworthy” board elections and trusted financial management processes. Nothing is more important for a board or CAM than to ensure that the member’s money and property is cared for according to statutes and common sense.

Much flexibility is allowed to developers, boards and CAMs when it comes to business system components of the association. Failing to ensure the key components are designed and managed to be reasonably trustworthy is, in my opinion, a sign of gross negligence and possible corruption.

The necessary tools and techniques are relatively easy and inexpensive to use to assure trustworthy systems for HOAs and Condos. In my opinion, blustering objections to implementing trustworthy systems within HOAs and Condos should be summarily rejected by all professionals. Such mismanagement puts a blight on all our business reputations.

You Can’t Go Home Again

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Often, when I’m writing or researching material to post on this column, I find myself feeling a little down, knowing how many people have lost their homes or their peace-of-mind while trying to do battle with the scandalously corrupt Homeowners Association movement. I get hundreds of emails each day from people who’ve lost their homes or their net worth while trying to battle a movement that operates completely outside the guarantees of the First, Second and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Yes, as many of you know it can be a little depressing. Still, I’m not a negative personality. I always look for hope and pray for change.

On these long evenings that I set aside for research, I often have music playing in the background to keep my mind on an even keel. Right now, one of my favorites, James Taylor, is playing his song, Copperline.

It’s a song about his youth in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He sings about the row of moonshine stills along Morgan Creek which ran about a half mile from his boyhood home, and the magnificent night he lost his virginity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSqnBfgBsQ

“Took a fall from a windy height, I only knew how to hold on tight.

pray for love enough to last all night, down on Copperline,

Day breaks and the boy wakes up and the dog barks and the birds sing and the sap rises and the angels sigh,

“Tried to go back as if I could, all spec-house and plywood,

Tore up, and tore up good, down on Copperline.”

Chapel Hill, these days, is infested with the ‘new housing model’ which takes all the old neighborhoods and embeds them in the kind of concentrated, regulated housing that makes it impossible for our young to experience the complete innocence of youth. “All spec-house and plywood, tore up and tore up good….” It makes one want to weep for the destruction of the innocence we all wish we could have passed on to our children.

Thomas Wolfe, also a North Carolinian, wrote the 1940 novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, five words which are probably as true as any spoken. We can’t go home. Yes, we can return to the geographic spot where, in our youthful exuberance, we created memories and romance that can never be experienced again. But those moments of youthful innocence are gone forever.