Fire Department Removes Electric Meter - why?

The BOD of our condominium association released a very rare draft version of the minutes of a single recent meeting which contained a mysterious paragraph about the Town Fire Department removing an electrical meter, the removal of which caused there to be no electricity in either a unit or the building so that when there were uncharacteristic freezing temperatures overnight, the pipes froze and burst. The BOD wants the Town to reimburse for the cost of repair.

Why would the Fire Department be removing an electrical meter and not the utility company?

Ask the board, they almost certainly know. This level of detail won't necessarily appear in minutes, which are usually a summary of votes and other actions agreed to.

Speculation:

* the electrical meter was malfunctioning and was an immediate fire risk

* the meter controlled a fire suppression system and was generating false alarms

Fire departments are often first responders, and they won't wait until people go through normal channels to address whatever the problem is. They take care of the immediate danger - if that means removing a problematic piece of equipment, then that's what they'll do. You can assume they had a good reason.

I called the Town Fire Department and ended up talking to the Fire Chief. This event happened on Christmas Day when exterior sprinklers above the patio doors froze and burst flooding 3 stories of condo units. He said water was pouring out of electrical sockets. They turned off the water and the fire suppression system. It is not their department policy to remove electrical meters so the electrical company was called and they removed it. CHief called the MC 8 times only to receive a repeated answering machine that threatened an $80 penalty fee if the situation was not "life or death" (we owners know this well). After assessing the situation as under control, the meter was put back by the electrical company. There is a public record of this fire department call.

The BOD's meeting minutes blamed the burst pipes on the Fire Department removing the electrical meter leaving no electricity to the unit (no heat) so the pipes froze. Meeting minutes further state that they will be contacting the Town Manager to seek reimbursement for the cost of repairs due to the actions of the Fire Department. Fire Chief stated the pipes/sprinklers were frozen and burst well before the electrical meter was removed.

"Ask the board"....yeah, well, our board is secretive and does not respond to any questions from anyone.

Now that sounds more like what would happen in this situation. I think whomever handled the situation had communicated it wrongly. Was this a board person or your MC? If it was your MC then they are an idiot and really would be concerned about them. If it was a board member then they are taking everyone down a dangerous rabbit hole.

Having been in similar situations the Fire chief story rings very true. That is exactly what would happen. Plus the HOA would not typically have access to the property as they do not own them.

We had a home that froze and pipes broke. The house was empty. A neighbor got into the house luckily and was able to get water shut off. It was flooded. Technically we were breaking in and entering. Illegal. The owner could have pressed charges. Instead they left house abandoned and we ended up foreclosing on it.

I will tell you the electric company will not return electricity till it is fixed. My wire fell away from my house. Was low across the road. I had to spend 6K in tree removal and electrical system expenses before they hooked up my house again. A week without electricity in 100 degrees weather...

You HOA most likely had to fix it before electric could be hooked up. The insurance premium may been higher than the expense. They want to blame it on someone to pick up the claim. It should be the homeowners insurance. It will be a mess if they do not recognize the right process.

Jeanne wrote: "...I cannot 'attend the next meeting' because the board keeps the date, time and location a secret and they are intentionally not complying with state law to have open meetings at regular intervals. The board does not respond to emails and phone calls thus created a need for concerned owners to form into a committee, create a blog, send out mailings to owners to get them up to speed on how serious the situation is and begin the foundations of reforming the board."

This coalition that you've created will work to change out some board members at the next election. Joint, methodical, purposeful, educated action IS effective. Keep at it. Your main obstacle, based on what you've written, is how to get the current board to run a legally correct election.

When will it be? Or will you try for a recall, which is much trickier?

I have no problem with what the fire department did when called about burst pipes. It's the Board that has the problem blaming the FD for pulling the electrical meter that they claim burst the pipes. A previous incidence about 5 years ago, the same pipes in the same buildings froze and burst water damaging 11 units to the tune of $200K. The FD was not called for that incident. As far as I can tell, the FD saved the HOA tens of thousands of dollars responding quickly to the recent incident by shutting off the water and made sure there was no electricity+water that could cause a fire.

Yes, that is my concern as well. The BOD's minutes almost sounded like code for "preamble to a lawsuit".