This is what I've had to mail to each unit of our building.
Dear Member of the Riviera Apartments Association,
I'm writing to you as one of the owners in the Riviera Apartments Association and this is not an official Riviera Apartments Association communication and I will not be asking for reimbursement for the costs of this communication and petition.
I have lived here for 15 years and I know what is exactly needed to be done to improve it's safeworthiness, appearance, and property value without asking the owners to shell out huge sums of money. This is one of the things I promised when I was elected as the super of this building on October 2006.
As you already know;
1) Your quarterly dues have gone up.
2) Youre being asked to vote on a special assesment thats nearly twice the amount of your new quarterly dues.
In my perspetive; this is the result of runaway spending by Northwood Association Management Corporation, LLC. (NAMCO). By the previous board, NAMCO was hired to manage our association and we currently pay them about $300 a month to manage it for us.
So far NAMCO has not been as communicative with our board, especially me, with regards to property upkeep. We've nearly had our water turned off, no communication from NAMCO with regards to emergency plumbing issues, and the adoption of runaway expenditures that have not gone through proper proccess as defined in our bylaws. This is one reason we're facing dues increases and special asessments.
Such huge expenses can be AVOIDED by using brand new materials offered through craigslist and so far I got roofing patch material, roofing paste, paint for free. Theyre all in the shed by the parking lot and I'll show it to you if you want. I also found brand new replacement fencing materials for the entire dumpster area for less than $350 from the craigslist and add $200 for the tustin blacksmith to do the work. The work already done has stabilized the wall making it easier for people to climb over it to scavange our dumpster. On sunday afternoon, I had to kick such a scavenger out of the dumpster and hed climb over the brand new gate out of the dumpster area.
Were being asked to pay about $40,000 for the roof. And weve already spent over $650 just to to only replace the gate in the dumpster area. They say they approved the gate replacement at the May 25 meeting and I dont see any bids, nor was there anything on the agenda for this, and we didnt vote on this. I'll show you the meeting book from that meeting.
Even spokier, after I announced at the January 27 meeting we should audit the association books pertaining to Gerhardt's management of our association, the books have disappeared. And even interesting on the May 25th meeting in Zaf's posession, I saw an old letter from Bud Walworth a, previous owner, communicating with the association back then. And letters like the one I saw in Zaf's posession were part of the books that have disappeared.
This is runaway spending and its against what I promised to deliver when I asked to be elected as the building super. Also we are also being stalled by NAMCO from getting $3,000 rebates for the 2 water heaters. NAMCO has proven to frustrate my attempts to bring costs down and thats why youre seeing your dues go up and the assesment fees. And YOU the OWNER will be the ones to PAY for this.
I have prepared myself to be able to handle the association management. I have been trained to use a web based computer program called by Association Management by Buildium, LLC. This works as my brother in law uses it to manage is successful commercial property management business. This is completely a web based system that costs about $400 in the first year and $250 each year thereafer. And for my time I would be asking for $100 a month stipend to manage the association. That would means a savings of $2000 in the first year and $2150 in subsequent years in association management expenses.
Buildium Property Management Software, Condo Association Management, Online Property Management
Buildium Online HOA Association Software, Condo Association Management
This system will enable to maintain the banking, revenue, expense ledgers, and assist with filing the legal reports needed.
I even created a website account for our Riviera Apartment Association.
https://rivieraapartments.managebuilding.com you need to log in with an email address.
Benefits from this new system;
1) Pay your association dues payments online from your checking or savings accounts via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network and credit cards.
2) Check on your payment status and current balance.
3) Communicate with other owners of the Riviera Apartments Association.
4) Our own forum where we can share ideas.
Each owner will have it's own login account access and for those who are computer challenged this system will communicate using letter reports, billings, and mailed via US Postal system.Therefore this system will be used by both people who are computer literate and those who are not.
The botton line is were facing a runaway association managment that needs to be curtailed asap and that you have been presented with a safer and cheaper alternative. And the new association management will be on premises 24/7 than 9-to-5 mondays-fridays we already get from NANCO. With this being web based. I can manage the association at home, office, and even in the great wilderness of the San Gabriel Mountains, my childhood playground, using my sidekick communicator.
I ask for your support to terminate the association's relationship with NAMCO immediately.
Please sign and return the enclosed petition to me in the enclosed pre-paid envelope. The sooner you get this to me, the sooner we can make changes and the sooner we can start working on getting the costs lowered so we can get the monthly dues reduced.
Thank you very much for your time to read this important letter and I hope we can work together to effect changes to make our property more managemable and save money in the process.
Richard Roehm
Homeowner Unit #4
If we were using a convential loan, we will have to pay mortgage insurance.
