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Was in NOLA for French Quarter Fest. Met up with the other owner that went to the AGM last year.
Went to the Notary archives and looked up the original charter for the resort and the amendments. Did not have much time than skim through the most relevant sections and figure out how to use the online access to the notary archives that I paid for.
Unfortunately they are digitizing the deeds gradually and only have information back to 2004 or thereabouts so hard to track down a lot of the owners.
The other owner was going to put in a letter we wrote together requesting to see budgets and AGM and other meeting minutes after the weekend but was given some documents so she did not put the letter in. When the information was faxed to me, it was only the AGM agenda, newsletter and exactly the same budget for 2013 that was mailed last summer which was the same as the 2011 budget except for the year ! This and last years attempt to get the non existant 2012 budget lead me to think we would not be very successful to get anything from the resort, let alone the owners list lol.
Did some searching and there are a lot of issues what have major red flag:
1. the non-profit HOA has not filed the corp papers for the last 18 months i.e. 6 months late so the HOA is not in good standing with the corporate registry. But note the for profit company with similar name to the HOA had file those papers by the same director(s).
2. Found some evidence / deeds that seem to support our guess that the deedback letters sent to owners that are behind in MF deeds back the week to the other company the management company controls that has the similar name to the HOA rather than the HOA. The few deeds I found with the right timing had short quit claims but one was a corporation and had a longer and more detailed quit claim/sale in which the developer as the agent of the for profit company with similar name to the HOA made the seller free from any obligation from itself and the nonprofit HOA.
3. We have 1 of the 4 BOD member secretary that is under the control of the developer and this BOD member came on the board after a previous BOD member had a run in with the developer and resigned after protesting about the developer's highhandedness. Not sure if an election was held and even if it is, the developer and the management company he controls circulated a ballot in 2011 for 2012 AGM that had only 5-6 names and at least half were likely controlled by the developer. This puppet BOD member has conflict of interests since he is also a subcontractor to the developer.
4. Still no explaination or details of the 650K lump item in the actuals for renovation
5. an owner that paid for a rental was charged by cc by the managment company and/or the company with the similar name to the HOA but there is no revenue item on the actuals for the rental incomes for these rentals which may including non-owned weeks and no indication that the developer pays MF on those weeks.
6. When owners rents via the resort, there are deduction of 25% -
15% for resort commission (likely for management company),
5% for credit card or bank fees and
5% for the HOA - no indication that is every remitted to the HOA
Some secondary issues are:
7. The other 3 BOD members are all older in their 60s, 70s and early 80s. That might be why the BOD has been very hands off by the BOD. The most business savvy one from the profile is the one in his 80s that did not come to the AGM where the president flew out within hours of the end of the AGM such that she was running for the airport right after the meeting.
8. The developer other resort only has the developer and someone related to him for both the management company and the HOA according to corporate registery and no independent member. A very bad sign.
9. The developer installed a new telephone system (likely same as at his other resort) and it gets switched to their answering service after hours at 5pm except for a couple of late days and 1 early day. After that you cannot call anyone at one of the unit via the resort. His other resort has 24 hrs reception.
10. The feedback I heard from a few owners I talked to are that they are happy with the renovations and improvements but they have not seem the actual budget nor any other information since all the communication to owners have been channeled via the management company and only proposed budget have been mailed and no actual has been provided to the general ownership and only in the AGM as far as I know.
I am getting more and more sure there are likely funny business by the developer or at a minimal lack of proper and supporting documents / details that is part of their fiduciary responsibility and likely contervening some of the articles of the TS (which I am trying to read online at 100+ pages).
A lot of the owners are oblivious to the issues and I am starting to think most of them are in the large pot of water that is being heated up gradually and if nothing is done soon, the developer would completely control the resort and hit the owenrs with a outrageous SA. Considering that the unexplained renovation item on the actuals is about the size of the annual budget there is no way it should have happened without board approval and it seemed that the BOD members were surprised when they got the actuals 1 hr before the AGM.
Went to the Notary archives and looked up the original charter for the resort and the amendments. Did not have much time than skim through the most relevant sections and figure out how to use the online access to the notary archives that I paid for.
Unfortunately they are digitizing the deeds gradually and only have information back to 2004 or thereabouts so hard to track down a lot of the owners.
The other owner was going to put in a letter we wrote together requesting to see budgets and AGM and other meeting minutes after the weekend but was given some documents so she did not put the letter in. When the information was faxed to me, it was only the AGM agenda, newsletter and exactly the same budget for 2013 that was mailed last summer which was the same as the 2011 budget except for the year ! This and last years attempt to get the non existant 2012 budget lead me to think we would not be very successful to get anything from the resort, let alone the owners list lol.
Did some searching and there are a lot of issues what have major red flag:
1. the non-profit HOA has not filed the corp papers for the last 18 months i.e. 6 months late so the HOA is not in good standing with the corporate registry. But note the for profit company with similar name to the HOA had file those papers by the same director(s).
2. Found some evidence / deeds that seem to support our guess that the deedback letters sent to owners that are behind in MF deeds back the week to the other company the management company controls that has the similar name to the HOA rather than the HOA. The few deeds I found with the right timing had short quit claims but one was a corporation and had a longer and more detailed quit claim/sale in which the developer as the agent of the for profit company with similar name to the HOA made the seller free from any obligation from itself and the nonprofit HOA.
3. We have 1 of the 4 BOD member secretary that is under the control of the developer and this BOD member came on the board after a previous BOD member had a run in with the developer and resigned after protesting about the developer's highhandedness. Not sure if an election was held and even if it is, the developer and the management company he controls circulated a ballot in 2011 for 2012 AGM that had only 5-6 names and at least half were likely controlled by the developer. This puppet BOD member has conflict of interests since he is also a subcontractor to the developer.
4. Still no explaination or details of the 650K lump item in the actuals for renovation
5. an owner that paid for a rental was charged by cc by the managment company and/or the company with the similar name to the HOA but there is no revenue item on the actuals for the rental incomes for these rentals which may including non-owned weeks and no indication that the developer pays MF on those weeks.
6. When owners rents via the resort, there are deduction of 25% -
15% for resort commission (likely for management company),
5% for credit card or bank fees and
5% for the HOA - no indication that is every remitted to the HOA
Some secondary issues are:
7. The other 3 BOD members are all older in their 60s, 70s and early 80s. That might be why the BOD has been very hands off by the BOD. The most business savvy one from the profile is the one in his 80s that did not come to the AGM where the president flew out within hours of the end of the AGM such that she was running for the airport right after the meeting.
8. The developer other resort only has the developer and someone related to him for both the management company and the HOA according to corporate registery and no independent member. A very bad sign.
9. The developer installed a new telephone system (likely same as at his other resort) and it gets switched to their answering service after hours at 5pm except for a couple of late days and 1 early day. After that you cannot call anyone at one of the unit via the resort. His other resort has 24 hrs reception.
10. The feedback I heard from a few owners I talked to are that they are happy with the renovations and improvements but they have not seem the actual budget nor any other information since all the communication to owners have been channeled via the management company and only proposed budget have been mailed and no actual has been provided to the general ownership and only in the AGM as far as I know.
I am getting more and more sure there are likely funny business by the developer or at a minimal lack of proper and supporting documents / details that is part of their fiduciary responsibility and likely contervening some of the articles of the TS (which I am trying to read online at 100+ pages).
A lot of the owners are oblivious to the issues and I am starting to think most of them are in the large pot of water that is being heated up gradually and if nothing is done soon, the developer would completely control the resort and hit the owenrs with a outrageous SA. Considering that the unexplained renovation item on the actuals is about the size of the annual budget there is no way it should have happened without board approval and it seemed that the BOD members were surprised when they got the actuals 1 hr before the AGM.
French Quarter Fest in New Orleans is my favourite festival
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