NancyD5 (Wisconsin)
Posts: 71
Posts: 71
Posted:
Our single family condo development and association is a mess! Let me give the background as I know it. The declarant (owner of the land) is being sued by the developer because they were fired and the declarant is suing the developer for not living up to the contract which was to build 20 single family condos and then sell them but they were doing the opposite, selling then building. The developer is also being sued for making changes to already agreed upon restrictions for the type of homes and for quick deeding 3 of the units into their own name without the declarants knowledge and then using those units to obtain a loan to build single family condos on those units but homes were either already built or being built as models at that time. The declarant lives here in the condo development. Per our Register of Deeds, the developer shows as the recorded owner of the 3 units but his ex-wife and her girlfriend live in 2 of those units. Of course no progress has been made in the selling of units because of this lawsuit.
Condo bylaws state that developer/intial board members to hand over the association when "the date which is 3 years from the date on which the Declaration was recorded (2003) or such time as 75% of units have been sold by declarant". In fall 2006 the developer called a meeting for, us, 8 unknowlegable unit owners to discuss the development. They also stated that they could hand this association over to us but many, not knowing what to do, didn't want to take anything over until the development was finished. So the developer left things as is. Then a couple weeks later the lawsuits were filed. We began paying association dues last December and continued to send it to the developer because we weren't sure what to do. Our snow was taken care and the grass was cut but not to our satisfaction. Many of us decided we need to take control of the association to get things done properly. We let the developer know that we wanted to get all the association documents so we could set up our own meeting and hold our own election. The developer said we had to have our meeting and election there at their offices. Many were not agreeable to that since our neighbors, the declarants, were advised by their attorney to not have any interaction with the developers and their lawyers or to acknowledge in anyway that the fired developer has any rights to be in control over anything pretaining to this development. The declarant owns the 8 unsold units besides their own and have 9 votes. Some thought it was only fair they be allowed to vote too. In the end what happened was that most at this meeting agreed not to vote that night so the developer stated they would just hand over all association materials to the remaining board member which was the declarant via FedEx.
Also at that meeting the developer made it clear who was in arrears of their dues and we found out that the declarant had not paid any dues because their attorney told them not to because the association was in the developers control even though they had been fired. Then the fighting began. As we were putting together a meeting for our first election it became evident many didn't like the fact that the declarant had 9 votes and they wanted to stop them from running for and voting for the Board. Others understood that this situation is completely unusual and that the declarants are not trying to get out of paying what they owe but are waiting for the go ahead from their attorney before they pay it and so they feel they should not lose any privileges until this trial is over. Despite secret meetings being held by some for the purpose of election strategy against the declarant, the election was held and the declarant won the position of President and 2 from this other group won Vice Pres. and Secretary/Treasurer.
We thought everything would now die down but to our dismay, the 2 Board members have gone to the President asking for her resignation because of the unpaid dues and stated they are charging them with late fees for each month since last December. But they have not charged anyone else who was delinquent during those same months as well. We understand the President stated she would not resign. When we asked one Board member if this issue is now over they stated that they are not giving up on it. What can we do help bring this to a end so we can all peacefully as neighbors? Thank you.
Condo bylaws state that developer/intial board members to hand over the association when "the date which is 3 years from the date on which the Declaration was recorded (2003) or such time as 75% of units have been sold by declarant". In fall 2006 the developer called a meeting for, us, 8 unknowlegable unit owners to discuss the development. They also stated that they could hand this association over to us but many, not knowing what to do, didn't want to take anything over until the development was finished. So the developer left things as is. Then a couple weeks later the lawsuits were filed. We began paying association dues last December and continued to send it to the developer because we weren't sure what to do. Our snow was taken care and the grass was cut but not to our satisfaction. Many of us decided we need to take control of the association to get things done properly. We let the developer know that we wanted to get all the association documents so we could set up our own meeting and hold our own election. The developer said we had to have our meeting and election there at their offices. Many were not agreeable to that since our neighbors, the declarants, were advised by their attorney to not have any interaction with the developers and their lawyers or to acknowledge in anyway that the fired developer has any rights to be in control over anything pretaining to this development. The declarant owns the 8 unsold units besides their own and have 9 votes. Some thought it was only fair they be allowed to vote too. In the end what happened was that most at this meeting agreed not to vote that night so the developer stated they would just hand over all association materials to the remaining board member which was the declarant via FedEx.
Also at that meeting the developer made it clear who was in arrears of their dues and we found out that the declarant had not paid any dues because their attorney told them not to because the association was in the developers control even though they had been fired. Then the fighting began. As we were putting together a meeting for our first election it became evident many didn't like the fact that the declarant had 9 votes and they wanted to stop them from running for and voting for the Board. Others understood that this situation is completely unusual and that the declarants are not trying to get out of paying what they owe but are waiting for the go ahead from their attorney before they pay it and so they feel they should not lose any privileges until this trial is over. Despite secret meetings being held by some for the purpose of election strategy against the declarant, the election was held and the declarant won the position of President and 2 from this other group won Vice Pres. and Secretary/Treasurer.
We thought everything would now die down but to our dismay, the 2 Board members have gone to the President asking for her resignation because of the unpaid dues and stated they are charging them with late fees for each month since last December. But they have not charged anyone else who was delinquent during those same months as well. We understand the President stated she would not resign. When we asked one Board member if this issue is now over they stated that they are not giving up on it. What can we do help bring this to a end so we can all peacefully as neighbors? Thank you.