Dear Readers,
I am forwarding the below reply from Mrs. Eileen Garey,
owner and tenant of Unit #42, and I thank her for her well
worded reply.
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: nhsnola@gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: November 8, 2005 edition of "The Fountain of
Information" - TEN WEEKS LATER!!!!!
Lenny: You know that anyone has a year in which to file a
lawsuit. We need to hold the Dec. meeting, (it's only a few
weeks away) try to get some answers, get our condos repaired
and go from there. If the condos are not repaired the
complex will become derelict, and we will all lose our homes
and money.
The problems with the roof need to be addressed immediately.
As for the current board members being appointed - all the
home owners who were present at those meetings approved of
those appointments. We do need another President of the
Board. Do you think anyone on your e-mail list would agree
to run?
You talk about Sultan Mirza and Don Gauthreaux getting their
condos fixed so quickly. Well, the work on my condo is
going okay and you know that I'm using the same contractor
as the Gauthreauxs. We just lucked out that we found him
through a tiling/carpeting company in Metairie when he had
just returned from Arizona. He evacuated there with his
family to stay with a relative. He was immediately ready to
work. There was nothing sinister about it. I don't know
how Sultan got his condo done.
The condo fees have increased substantially since I moved to
the complex in Nov. 1998, BUT in that time we have incurred
major costs for huge plumbing repairs and I believe two of
the increases were made under the last two managers who
preceded Chet.
I am uneasy about lots of things that are going on in this
post-Katrina mayhem, and not just events at FCC. We need to
try hard to get FCC events sorted out without resorting to a
lawsuit otherwise, with the court backlogs growing bigger by
the day, many of us will not live long enough to see a
resolution and the attorneys will be the winners.
You can forward this to everyone on your e-mail list if they
own a condo at FCC.
Eileen Garey
Unit #42
EDITORIAL REPLY:
I am not sure if the "one year" prescriptive period (statute
of limitations) will apply to this settlement if the Board
and NON-Manager fully accept the settlement on behalf of the
owners. Once the Board signs off on the Settlement, they
may be waiving ALL of the rights of the individual unit
owners. This was brought up by me in my letter of October
19, 2005. In fact, I am not sure if the Board has the legal
authority to settle the claims of 40-50 people. Have they
ever told anybody if they have legal representation while
they are negotiating a multi-million dollar claim on behalf
of 40-50 people and the Association and nobody on the Board
is an attorney? The owners may have to sue the Association
for malfeasance and the illegal practice of law in order for
the Association's insurance to be liable for the Board's
actions.
While I agree with Eileen's premise that permanent legal
proceedings will be time consuming, the legal proceedings
that are being anticipated are merely to force the Board and
Management to give FULL DISCLOSURE AND HAVE TRANSPARENCY
about what they are doing with the insurance money, homes
and lives of 40-50 families. This will only delay things by
around a week or so since I believe that the Board and
Management will start doing the right thing once legal
proceedings begin and it will therefore moot the legal
proceedings. I don't think these owners are just going to
go forward and delay things once the Board starts doing the
right thing but it is certainly their right to do so since
the Board and Management have disobeyed the By-Laws and have
outright REFUSED to give certain owners information that
they are legally entitled to.
I'm glad there is nothing "sinister" about the way that Don
Gauthreaux is getting his unit repaired and I know that
there is nothing "sinister" about the way that Sultan Mirza
is getting his unit repaired but that still doesn't stop the
questions that they were willing and able to sign contracts
with contractors amounting to tens of thousands of dollars,
probably due to the fact that they were privy to inside
information that they are not releasing to the rest of the
owners, while the rest of the owners are having to wait for
some kind of official notice. Most of the owners in the
back courtyard got LOW-BALL estimates from Chet Hingle and
the Board and the Board STILL has not put anything in
writing about the "missing $80,000.00 or more" from the
Flood Settlement Offer. These owners are having to proceed
without knowing how much they will actually receive since
everyone knows that the original estimates put on the doors
of the flood victims were LOW-BALLED by the Board and
NON-Manager.
At least $4,000.00 to $5,000.00 was "missing" from each of
the 1BR and 2BR unit estimates. Even Sultan Mirza has
admitted that he could not get a contractor to repair his
unit for the $12,000.00 OR LESS that was offered by the
Board. As you all know, the "LOW-BALL" offer from Chet
Hingle and the Board, to the 22 Flood Victims in the back
courtyard, amounted to only $321,000.00 where the Flood
Insurance Settlement Offer was OVER $400,000.00. The Board
and NON-Manager have never explained the "MISSING
$80,000.00" OR MORE!!!!
It's a shame that the Board is not releasing this critical,
need-to-know information to ALL OF THE OWNERS... not just
the select few that are friends with Board Members. Mark my
words... when the final figures come out to the flood
victims in the back courtyard, the 1BR and 2BR owners will
receive around $5,000.00 or more above the initial LOW-BALL
figures. This has already been told to some of the select
few unit owners who are friends with certain Board Members
or the NON-Manager.
Personally, I am glad to see some of the owners getting
their units and lives back in order but there should be FULL
DISCLOSURE to ALL OWNERS so that the rest of the owners can
start getting their homes and lives back in order. Most
people do not have thousands of dollars laying around that
they can spend at leisure to hire expensive contractors
without having some idea of how much money will be allocated
by the CONTROL BOARD AND NON-MANAGER.
Further, the Board and NON-Manager are still asserting that
they will not pay out ALL of the insurance money to the
affected victims.
THEY ARE STILL ASSERTING THAT THEY WILL KEEP SOME OR MOST OF
THE MONEY FROM THE OWNERS THAT ARE DOING SOME OR ALL OF
THEIR REPAIRS THEMSELVES OR WITH THE HELP OF FRIENDS.
THIS JUST ISN'T RIGHT AND I HOPE AND PRAY THAT THE BOARD AND
NON-MANAGER WILL SEE THE LIGHT AND DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!
HOW CAN THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT KNOWING HOW THEY ARE ADVERSELY
AFFECTING SO MANY PEOPLE'S LIVES SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO
HAVE THEIR SECRET MEETINGS, CLIQUES AND FINANCIAL RECORDS.
Until next time, let "The Fountain of Information" flow!
Lenny Vasbinder, Editor
"The Fountain of Information"
Brought to you in part by:
http://www.NeighborhoodHomeServices.com
Hurricane Damage Cleanup, Sheetrock & Flooring Removal,
Homeowner's Contractors Agent (HCA), Handyman, etc.
http://lennyvasbinder.blogspot.com
504-621-1870 eFax - 413-318-0742
NHSNOLA@Gmail.com LNVTM1@Gmail.com
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