Casablanca Condos Homeowners Association Fraud

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Author: twola

Started: September 23, 2008, 2:48:20 pm

Target: Owners of Casablanca Condos

Category: Economy & Business

Supporters:

Goal:

100,000

Goal Progress:

Status

Closed

Dear fellow home owners at Casa Blanca condominiums,
We are concerned homeowners that have come together in an effort to address the current situation at Casa Blanca Condominiums. As you all already know, our home owners association is Equistar management company presided by Scott Streit with the board members comprising mostly of his immediate family and friends.

We the concerned home owners are starting a petition to remove Equistar Management as the current HOA due to the following immediate reasons:

1). Dramatic increases in monthly home owners dues. There is a proposed $75.00 increase in monthly assessments for the upcoming year. That would make it approximately a 54 % increase in monthly dues in just one year.

• This includes the late fees, which by Texas law can not exceed 10% however currently that amount has been exceeded by our HOA, an action set forth by its President. A $50.00 late fee and a 1.6% increase of late fees as well. The board has the right to delegate where those funds go. These fees are not legally with in the States guidelines.

• In the by-laws the Board is indemnified from actions. This means that all owners must cover the costs of any and all lawsuits against the board, its members and the President this includes all legal counsel fees, if there is a judgment won against Casa Blanca HOA, the owners will have to pay the judgment via another special assessment. Right now the HOA is being sued for 5 million dollars which is the worth of the property. Unless we impeach the board by proving the board has miss appropriated funds and is not representing Casa Blanca condo owners’ best interest, or has served his or her post for personal gain. Then the owners would vote for a new President and the HOA would have a new Board governing and we would not be liable. The current Board and President sent out a letter stating dues will be increased by $75 a month next year to fund the defense of the lawsuit. Currently a $500 deficiency assessment must be paid within 30 days.

• The suit started with an owner being foreclosed on for $1700.00 in back dues, the board trying to strong arm the owner into paying by adding approximately $26,000.00 in fines and fees to which in turn has back fired and now we Casa Blanc HOA have a 5 million dollar law suit pending against the Board and its members and President.
2). Multiple assessments imposed on the owners within a short period of time. Most owners just got done with paying approximately $2200.00 in assessments earlier this year and some in dire straits are still paying. Currently a $500.00 assessment is proposed again in an emergency session to defend Equistar from a lawsuit that involves a current homeowner.

3). Lack of financial statements showing where exactly our monthly dues go along with the assessments fees. How are we expected to pay assessments without knowing where that money would go to? On September 22, 2008 at 5:00 PM for the first time the financials will be released as a result of the pending lawsuit as discovery.

4). Use of scare tactics by the board president. Numerous owners feel that if they do not agree with Mr. Scott Streit that they will be threatened and harassed by him and foreclosed on for trumped up fines and fees. Such harassments include banging home owner doors at 9:00 AM on weekends along with the presence of off-duty resident police officers/constables as an intimidation tactic. (Which is abuse of power from these city employees, they stand to lose their jobs if reported.) This is usually followed by immediate sanctions, verbal threats, and warning letters from the board and President.

5). Proposed sale/lease of common areas. The board is sending letters to owners asking them for their consent for the sale/lease of common areas to “investors” that include storage areas. These storage areas would then be converted to additional units by such “investors” thus possibly lowering the value for the rest of the home owners along with putting additional drain on the resources here at Casa Blanca.

• Have you asked yourself who mandated the value of these common areas? Can these common areas be sold? Based on the original plans filed with the city not without lowering the value of each individual dwelling. Each condos value has already diminished based on the upgrades done to several units which have not been filed with the city. Will your insurance cover your property in case of fire due to electric enhancements built on from an adjoining unit that was not filed with the city?

• Where are the parking fee funds going? What happened to the reassessment owners were promised in the April meeting when we were told that many one bedrooms were given a higher fee and several 2 bedrooms were under charged for the special assessment? We were suppose to have the amounts lowered on several one bedrooms but never heard another word about it.

• Who voted on cutting all the trees down? Many units depended on that shade to lower their utility cost. Moving to fast on many of these decisions without properly contacting owners, email is not the legal way to notify owners for voting. Have you ever asked why these requests are not sent via the US Postal Service? Only your bills are sent via the mail.

If we do not act now, we will keep on staying in the dark and will have to pay the price ultimately.