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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