BOARD PRESIDENT MAKES UNILATERAL DECISION TO CHANGE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

Newly elected president for the board of directors of Grand Vista Condominiums, Mr. Manuel Carrera, makes a unilateral decision within two weeks on the board to change the property management company.  At the organizational election meeting on September 9, 2002 Mr. Carrera informed all unit owners that he would be scheduling frequent and important board meeting whenever there would be a need to make a decision that affects all unit owners.  However, less than a month after making this public announcement to the large crowd of unit owners at the election, Mr. Carrera makes the "swift" decision to change property managers, without first consulting this with the unit owners and other board members as he had promised just days before.  Amidst the biggest scandal in Grand Vista history, Mr. Carrera sent a letter to a unit owner which indicates that he had selected a new company to manage the property.  This would then lead to a mysterious disappearance of important election documents and accounting records.  Coincidence?  It is usually common to perform an audit before transferring service from one management company to another, but in this case Mr. Carrera decided he'd be better off being "swift" and not informing the unit owners of his decision prior.  This transfer was done without first providing a financial report, as previously requested by the Department of Business and Professional Regulations ("DBPR").  Just two months earlier, the board sent unit owners a letter in Spanish where they allege that association funds of over $130,000 had disappeared during the time the association changed property management companies and selected J & M Condo Management.  Their letter maked unit owners believe that J & M  was responsible in taking the association's money.  Two board members on the current board were members of the board during the time those funds disappeared.  Despite this warning letter from the board, two months later, Mr. Carrera chooses J & M to manage the property again.  Grand Vista has changed property management companies five (5) times in the past seven (7) years.  All this while, only one audit has been performed, when control of the association was transferred over from the developer to the unit owners in 1995.

BOARD ALLEGES THAT J & M CONDO MANAGEMENT MISPLACED $130,000 OF THE ASSOCIATION'S FUNDS AND THEN THEY HIRE THEM AGAIN

In a letter mailed out to all unit owners on August 27, 2002, just days before the election for the new board of directors which had already been delayed over 120 days, the board issued the following letter in Spanish where they criticized all directors and property managers of the past.  Their letter goes on to allege that $130,000 had been mysteriously misplaced when the association was transferred over to J & M Condo Management.  Yet a few days after the election, the board appointed J & M again as their new property management company.  Outraged unit owners stopped making their regular monthly assessments.  Unit owners are first informed by the board of one thing, and they later contradict themselves.  All this time, unit owners have not had a say in all this decision making.  Unit owners have not received financial reports, they have not received a balance of their account, they have have been promised reports and financial information but the board has not provided any of this.  Board president, Manuel Carrera indicated in a meeting during October, that after he had made the personal decision to switch companies he had discovered that there were over $32,000 in assessments to be collected.  Apparently nearly half of the unit owners (136 out of 282 units) appeared on a delinquent list that Mr. Carrera demonstrated.  Included on that delinquent list were two board members.  Over 85% of those appearing on the list had never attended a community meeting where the Special Action Group had presented relative data about this board.  The board would later allege that the Special Action Group had something to do with the receivables situation.  However, there is proof that the association has had receivable problems since this board was elected in July 2001.  Apparently, the unit owners have never trusted this board, as they have never sent reminder notices, collection notices, balance sheets, financial information or tried any efficient means of collecting those funds.  The board never schedules meetings and does not count on unit owner participation or feedback to make any of its decisions, such as selection of a new property manager before conducting a full audit.  The property has also never looked worse.  The buildings have major repair problems, they have been spot painted in a variance of color tones, the entry ways, hallways, walls, and balconies appear to have been abandoned and not cleaned in months.  The entrance to the property has been more degrading than it has been in years, and the electronic security entry way has been malfunctioning for over 14 months.  So why exactly did the board change management companies and choose the very same company they alleged months before had mismanaged their funds?  Well, they now allege that important accounting and election information has been misplaced.  It is no coincidence that the association does this after it is currently under investigation by several agencies.

J & M IS INFORMED OF ALLEGATIONS MADE BY THIS BOARD AND STILL ACCEPTS