Concord Management - Problems with them continue

Regular readers of this blog might be aware of my opinion that both the Board of Directors, which really means the complex developers, and Concord Management are uninterested and unresponsive to the Owners here at Nautilus Cove.  The below outgoing email to the 'office' here at NCC summarizes the latest issue that both the BOD and Concord have chosen to ignore.

My initial phone conversations with the Concord Secretary Melissa Melvin on 7/15 raised issues she was uninformed on and I was told that the inquirys would  be forwarded to someone else and I would be contacted.  No one has contacted me.

Hopefully, when we finally have the 2nd owner member on the BOD we will quickly replace Concord with some other management firm.  Here is a copy of my email of today: 
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Sent to:  NautilusCove@ConcordRents.com


2nd Follow up to unanswered July 19th inquiry about Nautilus Cove Condo

On July 19th I wrote to you: "You were going to have 'someone get back to me' regarding several issues I raised with you last Thursday. So far I have not gotten any contact from Concord."


My inquiry of July 15th remains unanswered. I want to know as follows:

1) Were quarterly dues payments incorrectly deposited into the Developers account rather than into a Nautilus Cove Condo account. You will recall that I had sent you a copy of the endorsement on the back of my own check showing what I believed to be the incorrect deposit.

2) Why is there no Community Assn. Manager (CAM) at Nautilus Cove since approx July 7th.

I now further inquire as to whether Concord Management is going to reduce their monthly billing to reflect that your firm is NOT providing the required level of representation as required by the Management Agreement. I am concerned that we are being billed top dollar for a CAM and are only getting a secretary. So is Concord going to adjust their billing to reflect this lower level of service.

Please now keep in mind that unless I receive a timely and on point reply to the questions raised over two weeks ago that I will make a formal complaint to DBPR in Tallahassee and ask them to investigate the matter.

Bill Harris
Owner #708

Only foreclosures are selling and at greatly reduced prices-

#716, one of the 4 Waterstone foreclosed units is available for $89,900 'as is' or best offer. MLS #535022. This has been unoccupied since 12/09 and has minimal furniture. Having been up there I know it needs a paint job and new carpeting.  2 of the 4 Waterstone/Compass Bank units have already sold, 714 for $89,000 and 712 at $94,000.  Original price on this upstairs 3/2 courtyard side was $165k.

How is Nautilus Cove Being Marketed?

Short answer is:  As an Apartment Complex

The 'Management Company' that in effect runs Nautilus Cove is Concord Management.  This is their 2nd tour here, first we had Seagrove on the Beach, then Concord then Seagrove and then Concord for the 2nd time.  Seagrove was a dud, I would rate them about D and Concord is at best a C-.  Here is a quote from their site:  "Nautilus Cove:  As one of Concord Management’s showcase communities, Nautilus Cove is located near essential shopping with unparalleled dining. The finest appointments have been chosen to define distinction and enhance the vitality of your living experience. Our futuristic vision of affordable living is at Nautilus Cove Apartment Homes. Our progressive design will set the trend for contemporary living." 

Here is a direct link to their site:  http://www.nautiluscove.com/  

There are 168 condos here, 57 are unsold developer units that Concord rents out on their behalf.  The office manager for Concord spends 50% of their effort on the Developers business and 50% presumably on NCC business.  This info is from the old CAM here who gave the 50% info at one of the Annual General Meetings.  We budget $70,000 a year for Concord but we only get 50% effort by them.

Clearly the tail is wagging the dog here.  We have 111 privately owned units and 57 Developer units but we have only a part time office manager for our own business.  When we get control of the condo with the election of the 2nd Board of Director member we will have a good opportunity to toss out Concord and put in a management firm that will handle the Nautilus Cove business.

If Concord wants to rent office space for a leasing agent then we can provide them with one at a monthly rental to be determined.  Our new management firm will NOT be shilling for Concord or the Developer, they will work only on Nautilus Cove business. 

We need 2 new BOD members that will take charge of the complex and not put up with any Concord or Developer BS.  This complex is ours and should and will be run by the owners.  You might have noted that although Concord initially set the date of the election of the 2nd BOD member at July 25th, when Norman Knight (Norman.Knight@ced-concord.com), of Concord and both a BOD member and the President of the Association found out about the date, within 2 hours he emailed me that the date was incorrect and not authorized and there would be no election on 7/25 despite what Concord had said to the DBPR in Tallahassee 8 months previously.  They will delay this election until the last possible day as they know that the Concord/Developer rule here at Nautilus Cove is coming to an end. 

Here is the contact infor for our 3 BOD members.  Keep in mind that in 3 years I have only gotten one incoming from any BOD member, so don't hold your breath waiting to hear from any of them:

Norman Knight Norman.Knight@ced-concord.com

Paul Missigman P.Missigman@atlantichousing.com 

 see also  http://www.atlantichousing.com/profiles.html

Leonard DiGiacomo ljdpcb@gmail.com (Owner of #616)

Now and then there is a problem -

Something came to my attention with my quarterly dues payment ($675) it had been deposited to the Regions account of  'Nautilus Development Partners', this is the old Gulf Boulevard Partners that most of us purchased our condos from.

This seemed a bit odd. We should have our own bank account for 'Nautilus Cove Condomnium Assn, Inc' a Non Profit Corporation and logically our funds should go into that account. I believe the office has the first account for depositing rent checks for the developers units and we should have an account for our funds. Now I am making some assumptions here, I don't actually know for sure. I did inquire to the Melissa Melvin in the office if quarterly dues checks had inadvertently been put into the wrong account. (Hey, maybe it is in the right account? I'm just asking.)

Ms. Melvin, who is NOT a Community Assn Manager could not provide the answer to this and other questions (3 actually) and she was to have someone 'get back to me'. This was last Thursday. Haven't heard a peep out of anyone. I also emailed our Owner/Director to make sure he was in the loop and asked for him to phone or email me. Haven't heard anything.

My complaint here is not so much that the funds ended up in the wrong account, I really don't know if they did or did not, and even if they did make an error it can easily be fixed. The complaint is that both Concord Management and the Board of Directors still will NOT communicate with owners here who have legitimate concerns on how the complex is being operated.

We need a good house cleaning, getting rid of Concord Management and electing 2 new Owner BOD members will be a good start.

Some interesting sections of the Fla Condo Act

put at the end of the blog, click on direct link to go there:
http://nautiluscondosrules.blogspot.com/2007/05/florida-condo-provisions.html

see the entire Act at: http://www.megalaw.com/fl/flstatutes.php?Mode=Display_Statute&codelink=@URL=Ch0718/titl0718.htm
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NCC is now a rental property

For those owners looking in from 'out of town' you can see that the complex is now being promoted as a rental community. My estimate is that 50% of the units are now either rentals or available for rentals.

The developer has their 57 units and many individual owners are also renting out (or trying to rent out). Sales are virtually nil and except for sales of units at knock down prices by banks or mortgage companies, they will probably remain flat for the next few years. Rentals are the only realistic way for owners to get any money out of their unwanted units.

So you like to look things up!

These sites will provide you with the Florida laws regarding condominiums, just click on the links:
http://www.ccfjedu.net/condo718statutes.html
http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/lsc/documents/718Rule22507.pdf
http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/lsc/documents/HB995_analysis.pdf

Bay County Fla Elected Officals:
(click on for direct links)
Clerk of Court
Sheriff's Office
Supervisor of Elections
Property Appraiser

Govt. Websites:
The White House
House of Representatives
Senate
IRS Forms
Library of Congress
NASA
United States Post Office
Zip Codes
Social Security Administration
GOVBOT Database of US Government and Military Web Sites

Business Links
Florida Dept of State at:
http://www.dos.state.fl.us/
Florida Small Business Development Center Network
US Patents & Trademark Office
US Small Business Administration

The Official Web site of the State of Florida:
http://www.myflorida.com/

Fla Driver License Forms:
Florida DMV - Driver's license at:
http://www.flhsmv.gov/html/dlnew.html
Florida Highway Patrol at:
http://www.flhsmv.gov/fhp/index.html Address Change Form for Driver's License

Fla Motor Vehicle Forms:
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
http://www.flhsmv.gov/
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Cleaning up the rentntion pond is proceeding with more work to be done. Fountains and overhead pool lights are shut down for the winter.

2010 1st Quarter Newsletter FYI:

The first quarter newsletter is reproduced here FYI. Some have read it already but there are those who are not owners who look in here and would like to be kept informed of what is going on at the complex. So here it is for your reading pleasure.

Double click for larger image or print out.

One item worth note is information on the often broken gates. At least they are again opening and closing, so we should be grateful for this small miracle. The gates are an important part of the complex for several reasons, one is that we bought here (& many rent here) on the basis that this is a secure complex with limited access. All to often this is not the case and there is currently in the Bay County court a civil suit due to these gates being inoperable for a considerable time and not fixed in a timely manner.

Two expensive motorcycles were stolen here one night and when the owners complained they got no satisfaction from the management firm or the BOD. They were just told it wasn't 'their problem' (ie: the management firm and BODs). So a civil action was started by these 2 owners and it is ongoing. (for details see:
http://nautiluscondosrules.blogspot.com/2009/07/there-has-been-little-activity-in-civil.html) A bit of cooperation at the outset would probably have averted this suit. The gates must be kept in working condition and when broken they must be fixed a.s.a.p.
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No Rebates to owners for water/sewer bills:

You might recall that up until Dec 2008 American Utility Management (AUM) handled the billings for water and sewer at NCC. They did a very poor job and were fired. NCC then rolled the water and sewer costs into the quarterly dues payments.
 

Since consumption of water could not be accurately computed in advance, the water charge was set to a consumption level that would probably exceeded what was likely to be used. This with the expectation that the actual costs would be lower than what was being paid with the result that there would be an overage requiring a rebate at the end of the year.

 Unfortunately this is no longer an option and the office advises: "Credits/refunds for overages are based on the total overall budget not on individual line items. The overall budget did not have an overage so there are not any credits or refunds to be distributed."

So nothing is coming back from the artificially high water bills. Considering how bad AUM was we are probably better off without them, even at the higher cost for the water/sewer billings.


Something else for your consideration is that when units stopped being billed for their actual consumption and the entire water/sewer bill was divided by 168 (and a bit more added on to ensure water/sewer wasn't under billed) that we ended up with EVERYONE paying exactly the same. 2/2's pay the same as 4/3's. People like myself who spent only 49 days on property in 2009 pay exactly the same as a family of 8 who are here and using water every day.


With the current crop of BOD/Officers it is unrealistic to think that this issue could be addressed by this useless, do nothing group, but when the BOD comes under the control of owners later this year (July)*, the problem should be adjusted so that the larger units pay a higher fee and the smaller units pay a bit less.

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* This turned out to be Dec. 2010, not July

NCC Budget 2012 and 2010 and Balance Sheet of 10/25/10

Nautilus Cove Condo Budget for 2012

Click on for larger image or print out:

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Nautilus Cove Budget for 2010
Misc FYI:  The document title should read '2010 Proposed Budget'.  It was put together in 2009 and approved by the BOD on Dec. 20, 2009 as the 2010 budget.

Click on for larger image:

Click on for larger image or print out:

Nautilus Developer Settles Case for $11,700

The Nautilus Cove developers has a habit of running afoul of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation earlier this year for not being in compliance with State requirements under Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes.

They failed to provide Declaration of Condominium recording information to the Division within the required 120 working days, taking instead approx. 723 days, also entered into one sales contract on unit 1114 (Phase 10) prior to having filed the required Phase filing with the State, also they “. . . closed on 100 sales contracts for units within a phase prior to receiving the Division’s acceptance and approval for content of phase documents.”
The consent decree resulted in Nautilus Development Partners paying a civil penalty of $11,700 and agreeing to ‘. . . cease and desist from any and all violations of chapter 718.”

The 11 pages were obtained by a 10/09 FOIA request to the DBPR in Tallahassee.

Double click for larger image or print out

2012 and 2010 Budget

Although tagged as the 2009 Proposed Budget it is of course the Proposed Budget for 2010.

Worth noting are: D-14 where $4,100 is budgeted for Pool Furniture & Umbrellas. The prior 2 years $0 was spent and the pool area looks like it, so perhaps now we will get some decent CHAIRS and not more plastic Kmart recliners.

Also item A-1 for $10,000 in Legal & Accounting, 2009 was also 10K up over the 2008 amount of $823.


Double click for larger image or print out.

NCC Balance Sheet 9/25/09

Double click for a larger sharp image or print out.

Misc FYI:

I see that there is now a 3rd eviction pending on the units rented out for the developer, the latest cites MONILLI, LLC as the party that Nautilus Development Partners LLP wants to evict. Details at: http://records2.baycoclerk.com/courtcaseweb/CaseDetail.aspx?txt=nautilus+d&ps=50&m=name&s=4&caseid=2339744 2 prior evictions have been closed out earlier this year and of course there was the 'meth lab' duo who were evicted last year, both of them are still in prison.

A big 'Hello' is due to some of our regular readers. I noticed today that 'Northbridge Apartments - Concord Management' has been spending some quality time on the blogs, both this one and the Target Sucks blog. Always good to have them looking in, maybe they will even learn something?

When you look in at this blog and most other blog and internet sites you will probably be recorded by a 'site meter' (I use 2 different ones) which, depending on the type, will log in who is looking in, their city/state/country, what they looked at, how long they stayed, where they came from, where they went and the set up of their computer.

In the case of those looking in from static ISP's you get the name of the company as their ISP number never changes, those from individual computers, whose ISPs change everytime they log off/on, do not provide the name of the registered user, just the info listed above. So I may know that someone from Northport, Al has looked in X # of times but not know who it is by name, and of course when Northbridge or Target are on site I do know their company name as they are using their own firms computers to drop by.

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Owners Complaint to the Florida Dept of Business & Professional Regulation

Regular readers of this blog know that the Board of Directors and Officers of the Assn. (they are the same 3 people for the 7 positions) are worthless and have no interest in the running of the condo. Here is another example of how disinterested they are. Further down in the blog you will find a copy of my inquiry to the BOD asking when the 2nd owner would be elected to the BOD.

I never expected a reply and of course none was forthcoming. Having complied with the requirement to send it via 'certified mail' and having the required 30 days pass, I then filed with the Florida DBPR Bureau of Compliance, a formal complaint, about the BOD's failure to address the matter as they are required to do.

As you can see from the attached letter from the DBPR Investigator the matter has now been taken up by the State and a failure to reply to them may result in serious problems for the BOD.

Double click for larger image or print out.

Lower down on the blog, at the two September 2, 2009 posts, you will find information about how to file such a complaint. The State will only investigate violations of law, not violations of condo regulations, many times they are the same thing but if your complaint involves only the condo documents they can not assist you.

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Problems in Getting Condo Documents?

Here is what you need to do if your requests for documents are unproductive:

Pursuant to Section 718.111(12)(c), F.S.
-- The official records of the association are open to inspection by any association member or the authorized representative of such member at all reasonable times. The right to inspect the records includes the right to make or obtain copies, at the reasonable expense, if any, of the association member. The association may adopt reasonable rules regarding the frequency, time, location, notice, and manner of record inspections and copying.

Pursuant to Section 718.111(12)(c)1., F.S.
-- Any record protected by the lawyer-client privilege as described in s. 90.502; and any record protected by the work-product privilege, including any record prepared by an association attorney or prepared at the attorney's express direction; which reflects a mental impression, conclusion, litigation strategy, or legal theory of the attorney or the association, and which was prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings, or which was prepared in anticipation of imminent civil or criminal litigation or imminent adversarial administrative proceedings until the conclusion of the litigation or adversarial administrative proceedings.

Pursuant to Section 718.501(d)7, F.S.
--If a unit owner presents the division with proof that the unit owner has requested access to official records in writing by certified mail, and that after 10 days the unit owner again made the same request for access to official records in writing by certified mail, and that more than 10 days has elapsed since the second request and the association has still failed or refused to provide access to official records as required by this chapter, the division shall issue a subpoena requiring production of the requested records where the records are kept pursuant to s. 718.112.

If you have questions: Phone Customer Contact Center at 800-226-9101 The hours of operation are 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday or write/fax to:

Michael Cochran, Director

1940 N. Monroe Street

Northwood Centre, Suite #16

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1030

Phone: 850.488.1631

Fax: 850.921.5446

Update on Grills - Violations Continue

The below post originally appeared on the blog on May 14th when there were at least 12 grills outside units. Then warning letters went out and perhaps half complied and removed their grills.

On 8/12/09 a brief look at about half the complex revealed at least six grills still on the stoops and clearly being used. Most of the larger grills are gone but the smaller Hibachi types remain, for instance in front of units 701 and 711. So the 'crackdown' didn't accomplish what it should have.

We are suppose to have a 'fining committee' so why isn't that being used?

Photos 8/13 701 & 711
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Illegal Grills Crackdown - a few already gone, others will be:

In the summer and fall of 2007 the management firm was 'Seagrove on the beach'', probably one of only 3 things they actually did was to clean up certain aspects of the complex. The major item was to entirely eliminate private outdoor grills. It wasn't easy and took a lot of huffing and puffing, but they did entirely disappear.

The primary reason for NOT allowing personal grills is simple, it is a major fire hazard and is totally banned by the condo documents. It also has a negative effect on how the complex looks, making NCC look like 1960's trailer park. The complex has a number of grills at authorized grill sites which are available on a first come first served basis.

As of May we now have at least 12 grills stored outside various units. Probably 3 are outside 'owned' units and 9 outside 'rented' units. I think that most owners got the message that there is a fire hazard to having individual grills and have complied with the requirements, the renters obviously have no stake in the complex and are quite pleased to use and store their grills outside their units. At least 3 have propane canisters attached.




Some residents have been spoken to about the grill matter and a few have been removed. 'Final Notices' are going out.

See additional grill photos at: http://nccgrills.blogspot.com


NCC Provides several areas for residents to safely use the provided grills and picnic tables:

Schedule "RR" - Rules and Regulations for Nautilus Cove, a Condominium, in Section A at #13 - "Use of barbecue grills will be allowed only in areas designated as safe and appropirate by the Board of Directors of the Association. No flammable, combustible or explosive fluids, chemicals or other substances shall be kept in any Unit or on the Common Elements."