Condo update!

Just in time for Christmas, I’ve got some good news!

I’ve been pretty quiet about what’s been happening with regards to our condo situation, partly because the small group of us that have taken the lead on trying to fix our situation have been working with an attorney. Since no suit has been filed yet, and you never know who reads these things, I didn’t want to say anything. However, after a major happening yesterday that will hopefully make things better a little more quickly, I feel safe giving this much of an update.

Background – a refresher:
-Our property taxes have been double what they should be 2 years in a row. Since we’re in a condo, we can’t do anything to fix it ourselves – the Association has to do so for the development as a whole.
-Our developer is currently the Association. After several attempts at contacting him and the company managing our property, no one has been able to figure out whether or not he’s filed tax appeals. We haven’t gotten clear answers.
-Part of why our taxes are so high is that the developer filed a petition to have his lowered for 2008, claiming that the units he owned were vacant. They weren’t vacant – he’s been renting them out, but the county never checked. My tax bill for 2008 was almost $6,000. His, for the same size unit, was around $1,200.
-The county forgot to fix this for 2009, and denied all of our property tax appeals.
-A bunch of us are either close to foreclosure or bankruptcy because of this, or will be if any major emergency (like a major appliance needing to be replaced) happens.

Since September a ton has happened:
-We discovered that the developer should have turned over the Association to us no later than August 30, 2007. We sent a letter requesting a turnover in mid-September. He ignored us.
-We found out that the Association must furnish financial records within 30 days of a request to do so. We sent a request around September 21st. He ignored us. No furnishing such records within the 30 days is illegal.
-We learned that we could force a turnover meeting with 20% of owners petitioning, but after sorting through all kinds of tax records to determine who owned what, and factoring in the developer’s friends/associates, we figured that we had just under the 20% we needed to force a meeting.
-Through one of our resident’s fathers, we found a lawyer willing to help us for only a smaller retainer fee, and no hourly fee until we gained control of the Association – this was a Godsend.
-The small group of us (the unofficial board), despite the fact that everyone’s overpaying on their taxes, and that Christmas was less than a month away at the time, convinced most of the other individual owners & investors to contribute to the retainer fund, and we more than raised the money we needed to.

Yesterday’s fiasco:
So, a couple of weeks ago, on December 11 to be exact, we get a letter in the mail stating that the developer, as president of the Association, has called a meeting for December 21 at 10am – that’s 10am on a Tuesday, the week of Christmas. Calculated move so no one would be there?

Anyway, the purpose of the meeting was to amend the Condo Declaration, and once we sorted through the legalese, it turned out that the amendment would have been given the Association some pretty broad power. Though the developer claimed it wouldn’t be used to its full extent, the fact of the matter was that, if passed, it would have given the board power to make financial decisions that normally would require a vote by the entire ownership.

So, a few of us took off of work or otherwise made ourselves available in order to vote “no.” A bunch of other folks signed proxies so we could vote “no” for them – I had proxies for 10 units aside from my own. The proxies ended up not being necessary, because the developer ended up bombarded with questions about the financial status of the association, why the board hasn’t been turned over, why there’s been a gross lack of communication, etc. A meeting the developer thought would take 5 minutes and everyone would vote “yes” during, ended up taking an hour and 10 minutes and leaving him dumbfounded. We caused such a big stink that the vote was canceled!

The developer avoided answering questions, and kept claiming things like, "I don't know," "I don't open the mail," and "I don't read all of this stuff." I asked him point blank what his tax bills for 2008 & 2009 looked like, and he said he didn't know. I pressed, asking for an estimate of his highest tax bill, and he said, "Around $6,000." I said, "That's not what the Cook County Treasurer's website says." Squirming ensued. HA!

Oh, and did I mention he’s firing the current management company? A new one is taking over on January 1. The person in charge was at this meeting yesterday, and when our attorney, who was there incognito, questioned management co lady on some incorrect statements she was making with regards to condo laws, management co lady told our attorney that she was wrong and should go talk to a lawyer. A few of us almost peed in our pants trying not to laugh!

Where we go from here:
Our attorney has now officially sent a letter, stating that we want the association turned over, and if an amicable agreement cannot be reached, we’re going to file suit. It’s still going to be a long bumpy road, but I feel like we’ve just had a major victory!

Our situation:
After we were able to convince everyone to contribute to the legal fund, I decided to do what I said I wasn’t going to do and took a 401(k) loan. If this gets worked out within the next 8 months or so, I won’t need to do another one – keep your fingers crossed for us!

And that’s all for today – happy holidays everyone!