The Judas Kiss

Why in God’s name would you ever give someone a stick to beat you with?

That’s the question I’m going to ask one of our board members when he attempts to explain why he would give detailed financial information to our developer.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Our developer’s daughter owns a unit in our association which she rents out. From the time I bought in until now, our developer pays the assessments and I would assume handles the rest of the day to day property management issues associated with the unit.

As most of you already know, we as a board had to get tough on late assessment payers as well as people who let large balances build. If you’re late with your monthly assessments you will be assessed a $25.00 late charge. If you’re more than 60 days late with your assessments, we refer you to our lawyer to place a lien on your unit.

No ifs ands or buts. Case closed. Done deal.

We’ve already filed liens against two people and when our developer’s daughter was over 60 days late with her assessments, we filed a lien against her as well.

Our developer was not happy.

He sputtered about suing and how we’re unfairly targeting his daughter because of personal animosities towards him. Now while I’m not a fan of our developer (It’s obvious by the title, huh?), we try to do things fair and square---by the book. Everyone gets treated the same. Because if we don’t treat everyone the same, a case can be made that two levels of ownership exist.

That would smell like a lawsuit.

Anyhoo, Mr. Developer eventually has his lawyer fire off a letter proclaiming the innocence of her client, how the unit’s assessments were never more than 45 days in arrears and that his repeated requests to find out the total assessments owed went unanswered.

What a steaming load of shit.

While I expected the usual smoke and mirror from this guy, what I didn’t expect was for one of our board members to e-mail him the detailed figures that I sent to the board and two other unit owners who wanted to know the totals.

We are not the CIA---we’re not in the secret business. Our developer could have gotten the assessment totals at any time if he had simply asked the treasurer. You know---the person whose duty it is to keep tally of the money.

That would have been too simple, right?

Instead he tries to do an end run around the board and everyone who sees through his shit by communicating with his chosen one who also happens to sit on the board. While I have a ton of opinions to express about that relationship, it’s best I stick with the issue at hand.

Bottom Line: It was wrong to communicate anything to our developer without running it by the board first.

When I wear my condo board hat, I run everything---and I mean EVERYTHING---by the board prior to proceeding. Trust me, I have a folder full of e-mails and communications on everything from changing our registered agent to finding a porch contractor tucked away in a couple of e-mail accounts.

I believe in the sanctity of paper trails.

Despite the fact that this person made a serious error in judgment, my e-mail proves nothing. In fact our developer’s lawyer misunderstood the notation of having a balance to mean the account had extra money---an overage if you will. When in fact this unit owed us $54.00 from July and was then assessed a $25.00 late fee on top of that. Both August and September’s regular and special assessments were late and that unit went out to collections.

Just like everyone else.

Additionally, we need to stand together when dealing with our developer. If he had or has any questions regarding finances he should have been referred to the treasurer. We are fighting for our financial lives and trying to bring light to the fact that this man is beyond unethical. He has literally put our lives at risk. I shouldn’t have to sit down and explain that to this person. Our contact with his should be civil, matter of fact and to the point.

The fact that this board member passed this information into his hands simply adds fuel to suspicions that I’ve had for a long time.

Me’ thinks we have a rat in the woodpile.