Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Legal Expense Soars

Member Dues and Assessments Collections Fall...

During the month of July 2019 the total legal expenses were 11,702.32
This brings this years total through July at 42,600.39
The total budget for 2019
legal is 75,000.00
This compares to a legal budget for 2018 of 50,000.00

Member Dues and Assessments:

With seven months of collecting dues and assessments, 94.5% has been collected
This compares to 2018 at this time of 95.6% collected.
91,277.25 remain to be collected.

Discussion:

When someone owes you money and they have not paid at the due date, you need to be concerned, especially if the budget is based on 100% payments. With only five months remaining in this fiscal year, there should be consideration of a reduction of spending. This certainly should be a consideration in preparing a budget for 2020.  The new budget should be based on actual amounts collected, not in what they want collected.

It is far to easy to pick up the phone and call the lawyer on issues that should not have happened in the first place. Many of the legal expenses are because of bad decisions by the Board and others. Lack of proper management requires more and more calls to the association attorney, even on small matters that should not require legal counsel.  Some legal fees are necessary in all corporations. This Board needs to address the legal expenses and make corrections that reduce the expense. This should include looking at a different firm to represent the association. Another would be avoiding stupid mistakes.

Professional management is badly needed. 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought that is what they hired a General Manager for to "manage" the association.

Anonymous said...

No silly. They hired an office manager and gave him the title of General Manager. Same old, just pay more. This Board would never accept a General Manager that had the authority to perform their job as expected.

Anonymous said...

The HOA has said they carry insurance that covers some legal expenses. Apparently Surfside's previous carrier dropped the HOA for excessive claims. It seems unlikely the members will ever know how much has been spent overall in the last 2 years. About $89,000 were paid in fines and Asbestos abatement, while other lawsuits were pursued in Superior Court and withdrawn at great expense.

There is no real control on Board legal spending, and that can be interpreted as being a greenlight to emboldened enforcement efforts. Get rid of the Tree Policy and reduce legal spending significantly now, and for the future.

Avoid useless constructs such as the Tree Policy and "Eaves restrictions" on sheds, as such pointless restrictions are adversarial toward members without a clear objective. Eaves on one family's shed do not have a profound effect on the lives of other Surfside members.

Anonymous said...

As members, we have the right to know where every dime goes. This mismanagement of funds is simply another example of how badly we are served by the current Board, and how blatant they are in violating the rules of a non-profit corporation.

Anonymous said...

What is wrong with that Clancy guy? All he wants to do is spend money. Wasn't he the one who got us in all that trouble about wet land?