HOA severe neglect, VERY bad situation. Could really use some advice

Hello.
I am a new vice president of my buildings board. My building is very small, and no one wants to be on the board, so getting a seat was easy. I took a seat on the board almost 2 years ago, and had no experience or knowledge about it at all. I still know very little about what I am doing.

Things are not good in our building. We have a very archaic air conditioning system that uses water to cool each unit, which has been in place since it was built in the 1950s.. therefore, pipes run throughout the building carrying water to all units from a chiller on the roof.
We've had very bad problems with condensation on the pipes which has led to water leaking through ceilings and in walls. So much so that the cement ceilings are dripping and we need to set pans out to catch the water.
This problem has never been addressed seriously by the HOA. Within the last 2 years, the board has only wrapped a couple of pipes in some of the units, which did not help at all. We have been going round and round about it but no real solution has ever been pursued. It's a huge problem that will cost a major amount of money to fix, so I think that's why the board has been so lazy in dealing with it. They think about it for a bit, then forget about it until the next summer when it's impossible to ignore. They have let it go this way for nearly 20 years.
Recently I had my bedroom wall completely opened up to look at the damage, in an area where the majority of the water has been. Needless to say, it's mold city in there. It's very scary that we've been living with this as long as we have. The HVAC company advised that we shut down the AC permanently RIGHT NOW and begin to get the mold out of my wall. But that means the whole building will be without ANY AC for the rest of this horrible summer and we still have no new system decided upon.
We know that there is no other solution to this problem than getting the water out of the walls for good - meaning a complete changeover in AC system. We're looking at an 8-10K assessment for each unit here.
Not only that, but our association dues are 2X what all other buildings around here are. We pay over $400 per month in dues for this place, and there are NO amenities. Now we're supposed to pay a big assessment on top of that?
My husband and I and our daughter moved into this place a few years ago, after the initial collapse of the market, but before it truly tanked to where it is now. We were first time home buyers and thought we got a "good deal" because we bought it for $50k less than what it listed for. We had NO idea about this AC problem at all until the following summer after we bought it. We also recently found out that it is right next to a petroleum brownfield.
Of course since then we've seen a huge drop in the value because the market has continued to bottom out. Almost 1/3 of the value of what we paid for it is gone, and that's from the city's valuation. I'm fairly certain that at 109K it was overvalued by the city , since a similar unit down the hall sold last year for 60K (we paid 147K for ours)
We have no equity, and I think it's safe to say that we are underwater. We're only in for escalating association dues down the road, and with the dues already being so high, it's going to make our unit just that much more undesirable for a buyer. I can't imagine we'd be able to sell anytime within the next few years, even if the market recovered somewhat and we could fix the place up a little, because there is planned construction of a 3 story retail/condo building next door starting either next year or in 2014, and we're looking at 1-2 years of living next door to a construction site when that happens. Also, the construction site is the petroleum brownfield so we'll have to live next to toxic waste removal for a little while.
All in all, this place is NOT good for our health. Mental as well as physical.
I am seriously considering calling the board of health to see if they can come out and assess the place for mold. Maybe they would end up condemning it.

This is so not what we had in mind when we bought this place. We planned to hang on to this place in hopes that someday we could rent it out, but we don't know if we should ever spend the money that it would take to fix it up enough to attract a renter. As it is now, someone could buy an actual home for less than they would have to pay in rent here to cover our mortgage payment and assc. dues. I used to think that holding on to it would be the best thing in the long run, but I'm not so sure anymore.

I guess I am wondering if anyone here could give an idea of what course we should try and take in this very bad situation. Basically, WWYD?

Any thoughts would be very greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

This is a really bad situation, one of the worst I have ever heard of.

My advice:

Find another home you can buy and secure a mortgage on it while your cedit is still good. Move into the new place, then mail the keys for your condo unit to the lender. Kiss the condo goodbye forever and kiss your credit goodbye for a few years.

Hi Lori: How many units are in the building? I would suggest to the Board to call in an expert to inspect the building and make suggestions on how to correct this problem and the cost. There may be other ways to get rid of the mold without replacing the A/C. Then call in A/C companies for their opinions. It was suggested from someone else contact the electric company and check to see if they will help. What you need to know is exactly what it will cost. (No guess work.) You could suggest to the Board that you would take on the job of getting all the estimates, etc. From what you say it appears the Board does not want to get involved and keep pushing it back. You may want to find out exactly what the Assn is liable for. When I owned a Condo the Assn was only responsible for the building. From the walls in I was responsible. Difference was my A/C was in my unit. This is going to involve a lot of leg work and involvement to secure all information to solve this buildings problem. Once all information gotten it needs to be taken to all the owners and discussed. Is there any money in a reserve?

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I found out a couple of years ago that the reason the fees are so high is because for years before we moved in, there was very little money in the reserve. From what I understand, at some point not too long before we bought in, the board started aggressively funding the reserve by jacking up the dues. It went up $100 per month within the first year we lived here.

It's an old 1950s apartment building turned condo in the 80s. It's nothing special. When I say no amenities, I mean it is completely bare bones. Not even a common room. Not even a place to store a bicycle in the winter. I have to keep my bike and our jogging stroller at my mother's house when not in use.

The laundry machines are leased and are coin op - $3 per load to wash and dry.
We pay our own electric bills (aside from the AC because that's all from the one chiller on the roof which is hooked up to the common area electric)
We pay our own property taxes

So for $400 we get;

heat
cooking gas
trash
water
snow removal from our parking lot
vacuuming of the halls and basic common area maintenance like light bulb changes or emptying the trash in the laundry room (once every month or every other month I believe)

We are going to replace our old chiller system and have mold remediation done. It's going to be extremely expensive and there will be an assesment of several thousand dollars for each unit very likely.
On top of that, I've got a pretty strong hunch that there will be the suggestion to raise dues again after this all takes place. At that point I just can't see holding on to this place. No one is going to pay a huge monthly due like that when there are a huge number of condos in this area already in foreclosure, dirt cheap, MUCH NICER, and with lower dues and better amenities.

I have definitely learned my lesson the hard way with this place.

So for $400 we get;

heat
cooking gas
trash
water
snow removal from our parking lot
vacuuming of the halls and basic common area maintenance like light bulb changes or emptying the trash in the laundry room (once every month or every other month I believe)

You believe? Being on the Board you should know. The one glaring item you left out of your list is reserves, where do they stand? The replacement of the chiller should be a reserve item and funded from reserves.

You could follow Larry's advice or depending on the properties location, have you thought about getting everyone together and selling the building? Call a meeting and lay out the economics, it will cost everyone X to replace the chiller and do mold remediation or we can all sell the property. Hopefully everyone could break even and you all move on with your lives. Or depending on the actual condition of the building, maybe you could get the city to condemn it.

Yes, I am certain that it's affecting the whole building and that there is mold in units other than my own.
3 years ago, the unit below us had wet concrete where the ceiling meets the wall, and they had to use pans to catch the streams of water coming off the walls.
Last year, the same thing started to happen in one of our rooms.
The board at that time literally did nothing about it. That's one of the main reasons I wanted to be on the board. They were going around and around talking about what could be done, but no action was taken. Then, last year, we tried re-wrapping a few pipes to see if that would work. It did not, and when my wall was opened up, I could see where all of the wrapping of that pipe had basically all crumbled off within one year. The management company brought in a vendor that didn't use the right materials, apparently. Plus, only ONE pipe in each unit was wrapped - when I saw inside the wall there were several other pipes that should have been wrapped if the work was going to be considered worthwhile at all. All of the pipes were wet with condensation. I don't know what they were thinking.