GraceH (Virginia)
Posts: 224
Posts: 224
Posted:
Last night our Association held its monthly Condo Board Meeting. During Home Owners Forum, a couple of instances were brought up in which we have not been abiding to our By-Laws.
The first was that the date has changed in which our monthly assessments are considered late. In our By-Laws, it clearly states a late charge may be imposed is the assessment is not received by the 15th day after it is due. Over the years, the PM (claiming that the "Board") made the decision to move the # of days to the 10th and last year, to the 5th of the month. While I do understand that this has been done because the bills were becoming late, due to people waiting until the last minute to pay their fees, but the By-Laws were never amended. Being brought to the Boards attention, the Board Pres. said that we will never get the 2/3 vote that is needed to amend the By-Law. The PM said that she will look into a way around it.
The second was my neighbor who had her water turned off. Our By-Laws state that before water service is suspended, the Home Owner is entitled to a hearing and such notice shall be given 14 days in advance. My neighbor who had gone in and paid the past due amount, was still turned off and was not given any notice of a hearing. I pointed out that she was not the only one that I have heard this from and the PM said that there are not that many that get turned off. I explained that they may not have been turned off, but they received notice of cut off without any notice of a hearing.
The reason my neighbor had not paid her water bill to the association, was because she had gotten a bill for 18 units of water which is extremely high. In the past several months, she has had several issues with her water meter and was waiting for the bills to be corrected. Her last 2 water bills have been 3 units of water which is what it should have been instead of 18.
What makes this worse, is the way the PM spoke to my neighbor. A comment about going toe to toe was made first. My neighbor did not attack the PM in any way however the PM felt the need to try to publicly humiliate my neighbor. To the extent that another of our neighbors said that he did not think that our neighbor wanted to air her dirty laundry and the PM said "I do" and proceeded to Tell our neighbor "THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE HAD YOUR WATER TURNED OFF". My neighbor did respond that she has never had her water turned off before, she had cut off notices but had never had the water turned off. Either way, In my opinion, that was not any of the other Home Owners business and the PM was in the wrong for putting that out there.
Unfortunately, other Home Owners are afraid to come forward as they feel that the PM will try to do the same to them.
What can be done? I want to file a complaint against the PM.
The first was that the date has changed in which our monthly assessments are considered late. In our By-Laws, it clearly states a late charge may be imposed is the assessment is not received by the 15th day after it is due. Over the years, the PM (claiming that the "Board") made the decision to move the # of days to the 10th and last year, to the 5th of the month. While I do understand that this has been done because the bills were becoming late, due to people waiting until the last minute to pay their fees, but the By-Laws were never amended. Being brought to the Boards attention, the Board Pres. said that we will never get the 2/3 vote that is needed to amend the By-Law. The PM said that she will look into a way around it.
The second was my neighbor who had her water turned off. Our By-Laws state that before water service is suspended, the Home Owner is entitled to a hearing and such notice shall be given 14 days in advance. My neighbor who had gone in and paid the past due amount, was still turned off and was not given any notice of a hearing. I pointed out that she was not the only one that I have heard this from and the PM said that there are not that many that get turned off. I explained that they may not have been turned off, but they received notice of cut off without any notice of a hearing.
The reason my neighbor had not paid her water bill to the association, was because she had gotten a bill for 18 units of water which is extremely high. In the past several months, she has had several issues with her water meter and was waiting for the bills to be corrected. Her last 2 water bills have been 3 units of water which is what it should have been instead of 18.
What makes this worse, is the way the PM spoke to my neighbor. A comment about going toe to toe was made first. My neighbor did not attack the PM in any way however the PM felt the need to try to publicly humiliate my neighbor. To the extent that another of our neighbors said that he did not think that our neighbor wanted to air her dirty laundry and the PM said "I do" and proceeded to Tell our neighbor "THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME YOU HAVE HAD YOUR WATER TURNED OFF". My neighbor did respond that she has never had her water turned off before, she had cut off notices but had never had the water turned off. Either way, In my opinion, that was not any of the other Home Owners business and the PM was in the wrong for putting that out there.
Unfortunately, other Home Owners are afraid to come forward as they feel that the PM will try to do the same to them.
What can be done? I want to file a complaint against the PM.