Association v. Management Company - Who Controls the Complex?

Cyber Citizens for Justice at http://www.ccfj.net/ bills itself as 'Florida's Largest State-Wide Property Owners' Advocacy Organization' and has been mentioned on the blog before (12/23/11). It deals with condos and related articles and it worth book marking for future reference.

It is particularly relevant with multiple articles that are cited below from the Orlando Sentinel which deal with CAM's and management firms.

As I pointed out in literature distributed at the 1/14/12 AGM, Concord Management is part of a larger group of companies that build and manage developments such as ours. The developer builds them and drops Concord in to manage them.

Take a look at: http://www.atlantichousing.com/ourteam.html  whose introduction says:

"Atlantic Housing is the commonly used brand name for our family of companies working in a cooperative effort to develop quality multi-family communities and maintain them in a sustainable environment that enhances the quality of life for the privileged residents. The members of our team include Atlantic Housing Partners, Global Realty, CPG Construction, and Concord Management."

When our Association was under the control of the Developer, and even after turnover that control lasted until 1/14/12, Concord was working for the Developer and the Developers interests and NOT the interests of the Owners at Nautilus Cove.

Now that we have a true Owner controlled BOD we have the opportunity to move away from Developer control by virtue of having 2 of the 3 Board votes held by Owners that are not in the hip pocket of the Developer.

It is no longer necessary or desirable to have Concord Management as our management firm for our Association. Their contract can be terminated for cause or allowed to expire 20 months from now, either way, we need to bring in another management firm and get rid of Concord.

One thing that can be done immediately is to make sure that here at NCC the 'tail doesn't wag the dog'. The various articles cited below point out how many management firms and I include Concord in this category, think that they actually run the condo and here at Nautilus Cove that has actually been the case due to the relationship of the Developer and Concord.

Now that we have effective control of the Condo we will be moving away from doing what the management company wants and into areas where we will now be telling the management company what we want to accomplish and if they are not effective in moving in these directions then they will provide us with 'cause' to terminate their contract.

Here are 3 Orlando Sentinel articles bearing on the condo association/management firm relationships:
Community Association Manager - Right-Hand of the Board - Or Dictator?
http://tinyurl.com/77ry5xt
Just Who is Managing Who? http://tinyurl.com/6ua3b4k
Board Members Beware! http://tinyurl.com/85elbqf  

Click on for larger image or go to:  http://www.atlantichousing.com/ourteam.html

Bid A Wee Owner Acquitted of 3 Felony Charges

You might recall the problems across the street at the 599 home Bid-A-Wee subdivision.  They installed 6 locking gates to keep everyone but the homeowners in BAW from getting to the beach.  The gates were vandalized, repaired and then the BAW President Jimmy Smith claimed to have been assulted by BAW Owner Martin.

This resulted in 3 Felony charges against Martin and a day long court case on 1/27/12 in which Martin was acquitted after the jury was out for only 45 minutes.  Next comes the civil suit against Smith, the BAW BOD, the PCB PD and various others.  Should be an interesting summer.

Full details at:  http://bidaweeeasement.blogspot.com/

Some Links for NCC Sites

Below are 10 blogs which may be of interest to residents of Nautilus Cove, 8 have information regarding the complex, 2 are provided FYI:

185 photos of Nautilus Cove
  http://nautiluscondo.blogspot.com/
Nautilus Cove Owners List
  http://nccownerslist.blogspot.com/
Proposed new Management Company (Continental Mgmt)
  http://nccmanagementcompany.blogspot.com/
Proposed changes to NCC Rules and Regulations
  http://nautilusrules.blogspot.com/
Our former utility billinig firm American Utility Mgmt
  http://aumsucks.blogspot.com/
A long running problem with individual grills  at NCC
  http://nccgrills.blogspot.com/ 
A bit of NCC history, our very own ‘Meth Lab’
  http://nautiluscovearrests.blogspot.com/
Bid-A-Wee, the HOA across the street
  http://bidaweeeasement.blogspot.com/  
Medical Tourism, a trip to India
  http://overseasmedicalcare.blogspot.com/
A 3 year suit against NCC BOD cost Owners $11,000
  http://nautiluscovesuit2008.blogspot.com/

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NCC Condo Sales in 2011
(Due to the downturn in the economy the developer does not anticipate any further sales for their 56 unsold units, they will contunue to be rental units.  The 'average' paid for a foreclosed/short sale is 42.7% of the units original sales price)

#308 WILLIAM MALCOMSON - 10-28-2011, 4/3
Sold for:  $80,000  Originally sold for:  $194,900 on 2/26/07
  Current Owner paid 41.0% of original sale price

#1608 CLIFFORD MYERS - 10-7-2011, 3/2
Sold for:  $67,500  Originally sold for:  $169,900 on 3/30/07
  Current Owner paid 39.7% of original sale price

#203 WILLIAM MALCOMSON, - 06-03-2011, 3/2
Sold for:  $70,000  Originally:  $159,900 on 10-20-06
  Current Owner paid 43.7% of original sale price

#210 GEORGE GEORGEKOPOULOS, - 05-06-2011, 3/2
Sold for:  $73,000  Originally:  $179,900 on 5-25-07
  Current Owner paid 40.5% of original sale price

#502 TED GEORGEKOPOULOS , - 05-06-2011, 2/2
Sold for:  $65,000  Originally:  $160,000 on 7/23/07
  Current Owner paid 40.6% of original sale price

#102 EDITH A TRONCALE, - 03-28-2011, 4/3
Sold for: $90,000  Originally:  $184,900 on 12-18-06
  Current Owner paid 48.6% of original sale price

#1404 THEODORE SEXTON, - 03-28-2011, 4/3
Sold for:  $110,000  purchased directly from developer

#1606 THUAN NGOC NGUYEN, - 03-24-2011, 3/2
Sold for:  $75,000  Originally sold for:  $164,900 on 4/27/07
  Current Owner paid 45.4% of original sale price
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NCC Condo Sales in 2010:

Unit - New Owners  -  Pur. Date  -  $ Amt. Paid
#604  MICHAEL COVINGTON,  12-30-2010 - $70,000  3/2
#716  JERRY R. CLAYTON,  09-09-2010 - $84,000  3/2
#512  MARK F. STITT,  07-08-2010 - $69,900  2/2
#710  WILLIAM R. COVINGTON,  06-17-2010 - $89,000  3/2
#714  RANDALL G. WRIGHT, 05-17-2010 - $89,000  3/2
#606  JOHN R. GUOTH,  05-06-2010 - $77,000  3/2
#305  KEVIN G. RILEY,  04-07-2010 - $110,500  4/3
#712  N. HOOKS,  03-08-2010 - $94,000  3/2

Unofficial Minutes of the 1/14/12 AGM/BOD meetings now available:

Click on this direct link to see the unofficial minutes for the 1/14/12 meetings: http://tinyurl.com/66zdaor
At the same link you can view condo documents as far back as 2006.
  
Meeting Summary:
The voting totals for BOD candidates were:
Simmons, Barbara - 22
Troncale, Edee - 17
DiGiacomo, Len - 12
Sexton, Theo - 9
Clayton, Pamela - 2
Webber, Jaime - 1

19 units attended:
104 R Jones, 107 Holloway, 202 Hallaway, 207 Stoll, 503 Davis, 514 Vanderwerff, 604 Covington, 608 Morgan, 616 DiGiacomo, 703 White, 704 Perry, 708 Harris, 709 P Jones, 710 Covington, 712 Hooks, 801 Webber, 802 Simmons, 1401 Rowland, 1404 Sexton.


The dates for future BOD meetings were set at:
April 7, July 14, Oct. 13 and Jan. 12, 2013 - for the Annual General meeting with BOD meeting to follow.

The major areas covered at the meetings were: 
Gate repairs, Individual Water Billing, Pool complaints, Knowlogy TV and Delinquency Foreclosures.

For those looking in from out of town additional 20 photos have been added to:  http://nautiluscondo.blogspot.com/

New BOD Email addresses FYI:

Barbara Simmons (Owner #802) is BOD President
  bbsr@knology.net
Edee Troncale (Owner #102) is BOD VP
  edeetroncale@yahoo.com
Norman Knight, Developer Appointed, Secty/Treasurer
  nknight@ndkconstsvcs.com

My Comments:  You will note that the 2 candidates who put out information about themselves in a Candidate Information Sheet got the most votes and won, those 3 who chose not to this did not do so well.  As a historical note the most votes cast for anyone seeking office was tied by Mrs. Simmons at 22, and 63 votes were cast in total for the 2 openings, Jennifer Jones (#206) in the Dec 8, 2007 election also had 22 votes of 39 cast for only 1 opening.

Some Minor Changes at NCC

For those living 'off campus' there are some changes from my last visit. 

We have some new signage directions to buildings, and a sign identifying the red box on the clubhouse wall as an emergency phone and a small bulletin board. 

Some new garbage cans and benches around the complex and finally after years of people requesting it a basketball backboard in the area of the maintanence garage.

The pool chairs and tables are piled up due to the pool area being closed for the winter.

 

So you wanna buy a condo -

In addition to those units being put on the market by owners and the short sales, we have 3 units already finished with the foreclosure procedures and being offered by various firms:

#205 by Fannie Mae a 3/2 at $74,900
#213 by EMC Mortgage, a 3/2 at $74,900 and
#405 by Flagstar Capital, a 4/3 at $94,900

These are the prices being 'asked' you can probably get a few thousand more off those prices, particularly #405 which seems a bit too high.

Here are what four of our 3/2's have gone for lately:
#604  - $70,000 on 12/30/10
#1606 - $75,000 on 3/24/11
#210  - $73,000 on 5/6/11
#1608 - $67,500 on 10/7/11

For the absolutely lowest sale price in NCC history we have:
#502 at $65,000 BUT this was only a 2/2 so it hardly counts.