HOA New Name for Bullies

Hello,

Anyone want to buy a condo?  I live in Long Beach, and have been fighting a $50,000 assessment for over a year.   It seems that here in this lovely city by the sea, Condo Boards who have hidden agendas cannot be stopped.  None of the voted officials of Long Beach wanted to touch this case.

Imagine living in a small community where the Board members are old friends, and some of the homeowners are relatives of the Board.

Imagine the President of the Board deciding she wants to extend her decks, and change the whole look of the townhouses to her specification, and then award the job to her husband.  How the town of Long Beach Building department never came to check on this job, how a permit was never posted in plain view, how the contractor was able to charge the homeowners over $600K, yet, put in the permit application that the job was only $274K, is amazing.

In our community, the upper units, who have two decks, paid only $4000 more than the lower units ( who only have one deck), but got two decks done, privacy walls, and more square footage.

What the lower units got was a new front door that is 75% glass, so all of the new halogen lights stream into their living room, plus, they get flashed by the lights of incoming traffic.  And if you feel like running around in your skivvies, or hiding from your in-laws when they come a knocking, don’t stand by your new door, everyone can look in.

Then imagine, that anytime anything the President of the Board wants something done, an e-mail is sent out telling the homeowners how much they have to pay, and when it is due, because

Yes, hindsight is 20/20.  If anyone wants to buy a condo in Long Beach, Buyer Beware.   Living by the sea is not as relaxing as you would think when you have a self servicing Board.

Make sure your lawyer checks past minutes of annual meetings.  Make sure you have visibility to how much is in the reserve fund, and bank accounts.  See who built your place, in my case it was the brother of the President of the Board.  Talk to some of the people living there.  Make sure that relatives and friends do not make up over 50% of the homeowners.  And if you buy in my community, make sure you are not a minority.

The only thing I can do is pass on some of the things I have learned.   If I can prevent someone else from making this same mistake, then at least it is not in vain.