Why owners should care
Charles Hanes has wrote about the Minto Plaza at 38 Elm Street for
years now. When this development first opened, Mr Hanes sold a lot of
the units and he had nothing but praise for this condo. That is until
fairly recently.
The first issue was with a property manager, the
case of missing toilets and funds that went from the condo's assets
to the manager's assets.
A messy lawsuit and a settlement later, and all seemed well.
Then more accusations of a property manager getting caught with his
hands in the cookie jar arose. (This is a different manager working for
a different management company.)
Charles Hanes wrote about these new issues too, not that long ago. One
of the owners hired a forensic auditor to examine the
corporation's accounts. Not surprisingly, the manager refused to
cooperate. More surprisingly, the board also would not cooperate.
Then Charles Hanes wrote that the Toronto Police Services were
investigating the alleged wrong-doings as a criminal matter but it is
alleged that the board is refusing to cooperate with the police.
Then Charles Hanes wrote more alarming news about Minto Plaza.
This condo
could/should be the “Poster Child” of effectively run
condos. It recently had a Five Million ($5,000,000) Dollar
reserve
fund and a $400,000 operating surplus (2011/2012).
I am told that those reserve funds today are less that $1 Million and
the condo corporation, this year has a $138,000+ operating DEFICIT
(year to date)!
I am told that property manager “has hired a number of direct family
members“! And that “a $2.4 million corridor renovation project
was
contracted without even going out for competitively priced bids“! I
was told that they actually did solicit several contractors, but only
as “a beauty contest” (sales presentations) and “then they handed over
to the chosen contractor the entire $2.4 Million which was allocated in
the reserve fund and never actually tested that “budget” against the
specification that the contractor proposed“.
In my experience, I found that many condos, too many owners don't
know what is going on as far as management goes and if they do find
out, they do not care. If the
majority of the owners don't care; then almost anything goes.
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