If you’ve ever lived in a condo or worked at a condo you’ve had to deal with the condo’s management company. I’m sure there are some good ones out there. However, I’ve only heard complaints from people I know who live in condos.
Personally, I don’t want to live in a condo. The idea that I’m at the mercy of the management company and the board isn’t something I think I could happily endure. Not from what I’ve heard from friends.
One friend wanted to withhold fees to the management group over repairs that had never been made on her unit. She couldn’t, though, without fear of losing her home. Why? The management group has the right to evict people over non-payment of fees. So even if you’re paying your mortgage you could still lose your home.
In south Florida, one particular management company has been making life difficult for their workers and for the people who live in their condos. That company is Continental Group.
For the workers, Continental Group pays very poorly. Not even a livable wage. Their pay is even worse when you consider that they do not give their workers health benefits.
When workers try to unionize, Continental Group fires them or moves them to other locations.
A group called CleanCondos has been created by SEIU Local 11 to
…give a voice to both condo residents and workers seeking to make Miami Beach condominium communities a better place to live and a better place to work through legislation.
I was sent this “flash” cartoon and asked to share this with my readers. If you read my post consistently you know that I was surprised that someone sent me something to share with my readers. I won’t say it had never happened before, but all the other occasions were from people who left comments in response to something I wrote. This was sent to me without being connected to something I wrote. I threw me for a bit.
Now, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you should know that I check things out. I don’t willy nilly believe anything someone sends me. I’ll admit it, I’m a suspicious person.
So I watched the “flash” cartoon and did some searching to see if I could find news stories that would back the information up. I did find them, mostly in the Miami Herald. I also found some that mentioned problems with condo residents and their management companies in other papers. Posting the links to all of them would be redundant.
The flash cartoon is funny. It also gives you a quick education on the situation with Continental Group.
You can see the cartoon at Screwthiscondo.org. To learn more about CleanCondos go to CleanCondos.org.
I recommend that everyone check both sites out.
GIL DEZER says:
PLEASE FORWARD ME AN ADDRESS WHERE I CAN SEE THAT “SCREWTHISCONDO” CARTOON. I HAVE GON TO THE WESITE AND I CANNOT FIND IT.
10/30/2006, 1:31 pmHoward Palardy says:
First, you have no concept of what a Condominium or HOA is or is defined to be. It is not for all people. I own a management company and I would never live in a condo or an HOA. If you don’t like it, don’t live in it, but don’t complain because other people want to….CleanCondos.org. are a bunch of janitors….not professional managers, when you compare something, make sure you are comaping apples to apples. I tell you one thing, you are the kind of people that makes it bad for all condominium people. If you have not yet moved out of your condo, please do it now before you ruin a good thing for a lot of people.
11/10/2006, 9:46 pmLaura says:
I think the fact that you would “never live in a condo or an HOA” says a lot about how much of a “good thing” this situation could be.
Jay says:
I agree with Laura. You mention that you own a property management company and point out that the writer has no concept of the meaning of an HOA or management company, (implying that you do). With that knowledge you yourself admit that you “would never live in a condo or an HOA” which speaks volumes.
If you really owned a property management company, now would have been a prime opportunity for you to defend the great job property managers do (as maybe your company does? doubtful). But no…instead you do what most of you property management companies do…ignore the issue and blame someone else for the job you are paid to do, but never do well.
It is managers like you that make bad names for yourself!
12/5/2006, 3:17 pmwhiners says:
Be careful what you wish for. Condominiums fees go up when the union comes in.
by bashing professional management you may someday get what you asked for, another excuse to raise condo fees, imaging paying 55$ a hour for cleaning staff. your management company will raise its fees for licensing requirements.
dont live in a condo if you dont like condos.
2/5/2008, 6:08 pmLance S. Diamond says:
The problem with most people who purchase condos is that they fail to read or do not read or do not understand the condo offering book – a key document for condo living. My wife and I recently purchased (a year ago) a newly built condo – one in a group of six. It was obvious to me at the first meeting of the owners that the other five owners failed to read the condo offering book. Non of the other owners even had the book.
3/24/2008, 12:41 pmSome of the owners should not have bought condos – they should have bought their own homes in which they can do whatever they please. These are the owners who do not care for the "semi-restrictive" life style of condo living.
Other owners should have "rented" apartments where there is a super to take care of whatever comes along needing repair inside their unit. These are the owners who do not want to do their own maintenance of their condo and who do not wish to pay for an outside maintenance firm to come in to maintain.
I am the Manager of the condo and I have made it clear that if they do not adapt themselves to the semi-restrictive lifestyle and maintain the inside of their units as well as to maintain the common elements including the building, roof, plumbing, heating and electrical, that their investments will deteriorate and the market values of their units will fall.
Maintaining of the conod should not be an expensive item when it is the unit owners who have the say on what to do with the working capital and how it should be spent. The owners should still be in charge even if they hire an outside managing company.
I have been so successful as the manager of our condo association that outsiders have asked me to manage their condos. I am considering starting my own business as a condo manager.
A good conod manager will not simply take the money and manage. A good manager will recommend alternatives to the owners and let them decide which is best for the owners as a group and then vote on the measure. The manager will simply carry forward with the wishes of the owners.
I recently made a motion to the other owners to invest the excess working fund money to earn more for the owners thereby keeping the monthly maintenance down to a minimum but will still have the necessary funds to place a new roof on the condo in 25 years.
A good manager will keep the future in mind when offering recommendations to the owners.