I spent the weekend in N. Michigan at our condo hotel, in between skiing, I caught up on a flurry of nasty-gram letters between the hotel management company and the new HOA board President, and assorted angry, emotionally charged condo consumer owners.
I’m reminded of the saying: “in tough times you should pull together instead of pulling apart”. Yet, pulling apart is exactly what too many Home Owner’s Associations are doing today.
Instead of finding common ground, boards are picking fights and finding scapegoats for the budget red ink. Broken promises from the condo sales team years ago are being rehashed. Lawyers are being hired, and HOA’s limited funds are being deployed in battles which cannot fix the real problems instead of investing in solutions.
I guess it’s human nature, that when something goes wrong, someone be to blame. Blaming the down economy gives little comfort. Often it’s the most minute budget line items that become the rallying cry.
In the case of this particular HOA, it’s alleged that the homeowners have been overpaying for cable TV. Surely, nickles add up, but in the face of one of the largest hotel industry downturns in a lifetime, it’s not the cable bill that is sinking the budget. And if it were, why focus on that now?
But, is the cable bill the tip of an iceberg of waste and gross mismanagement? That is what my fellow homeowners seem to insist. I’ve had the great pleasure, or should I say the occupational hazard of reading a couple hundred condo budgets, and it is never just one item that blows a budget. My teenager calls me a number-nerd-geek (a title I don with pride here). I couldn’t find malfeasance in our HOA budget. I have reviewed other HOA budgets recently where the double-counting and renaming of charges were blatant - “Management Salaries” and “Mgmt Payroll” smell similar to a nerd-geek. Charging for mini-soaps should be the hotel’s expense. F&B losses have nothing to do with the HOA’s liabilities, etc. Utilities can be under managed and create waste. Room rotation can be bias and unfair. FF&E replacements may be distributed unfairly. There are allot of ways a consumer can lose money in a condo hotel investment. From these points, our HOA board appears to be overreaching in their attacks of lax management.
The HOA nefarious budget items that should jump off the page to you. The ugly ones often have to do with salary expenses, especially outside ‘advisors’ and ‘counsel’. These are code names for a war chest, that often has a way of growing with time. Wars cause destruction and expense to civilians. Warriors pridefully get shiny metals, fair negotiators gain results. The HOA world needs more negotiators.
Once you pick a fight with your partner (a.k.a. manager), egos will get involved, new problems will get bigger than life. And the real problems will only get worse as all parties focus inward.
It is easy to be generous or courageous with other people’s money, ask our Government. The same is true for HOA boards, they find a cause ‘worth fighting for’ and suddenly a small increase in condo dues can pad allot of ego bruises. “If every condo owner kicks in just another $50 a month, we can win!” Dues creep is no different that a tax increase.
When was the last time your tax bill shrank?
Leave your swords (and ego) at the door, now is the time for HOA and Management to work together.
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