Khan arrives
“The minute you
think you've got it made, disaster is just around the corner.”
—Joe Paterno
At the fiscal 2007 AGM, held in at a condo tower on Albion Road, in July 2008, all five positions on the
board were open for election. Three directors were up for re-election,
one director had resigned and one director was removed from office when
the board decided that she was ineligible to be a director as she was
not a registered owner.
A reform group of owners, calling themselves “The Steering Committee”,
won all five positions and decided that they needed a fresh start. They
replaced the existing corporation’s law firm with the law firm that
gave them legal advice prior to and during the AGM.
They also decided to replace Orion Management. In hindsight, that may
have been an unwise decision but it is common for new boards to believe
they need to clean house. The manager often gets the blame for
everything that has gone wrong while they were on contract. (Job
security is the main reason that condominium employees join unions as
that protects them from purges.)
Finding a new management company
In September, the president and the vice-president looked through the
Yellow Pages and an Internet search engine to find condo property
management companies.
They telephoned 15 companies to see if they were interested in managing
the property. The companies asked for the address, how many units they
had, who was the present management company and how old was the
building.
Some of the companies declined to submit a bid. They would not say why
but the directors believed that it was because the building had a
reputation for having a dysfunctional board, being a needy property and
the corporation often did not pay its suppliers on time.
Some other companies quoted a price that was twice what the corporation
had been paying Orion Management.
The proposals
Four property management companies submitted proposals. They were given
a tour the property and they then made the initial presentation to the
president and the vice-president. A second presentation was made to the
full board.
The property manager would ask general questions and give a quote. No
one asked about the budget or how much money was in the reserve funds.
When Channel was called and was asked when they could come and view the
property, Manzoor Khan replied that he would be there within an hour.
And so he was.
The criteria
The directors asked the property managers how many employees their
company had, what were their qualifications and how many condominiums
did they manage. The directors asked if the property manager assigned
to their building would be RCM registered and how many hours would the
person spend working for the condo per week.
All four companies gave a written proposal stating that an
administrator would work on site for twenty hours a week and they
stated their expected fees.
Manzoor Khan &
Channel
Manzoor was very impressive. He presented himself as a confident and
successful professional manager. He wore an expensive suit, silk tie
and had four expensive rings on his fingers. He wore an expensive
bracelet and a heavy watch and he drove an expensive car.
Honesty,
Integrity, Dedication? See how honesty & integrity come first.
His presentation materials were also very professional looking. They
were well designed and were printed on very good quality paper.
Khan stated that his company had between thirty and forty employees and
had contracts with just under 50 properties. His stated that his
company was ACMO 2000 certified and that he was a professional engineer
who had 15 years of successful management experience.
Khan offered the 238 Albion Road directors extra incentives. He would
assign Mr. Pawan Gupta, a property manager, to their condo for 20 hours
a week; a man who had a masters degree, was a RCM and who was presently
working next door at 236 Albion Road. This was on top of the 20 hours
an administrator would spend working for the condo.
Khan bragged about the improvements he was making next door at 236
Albion Road.
At the time Channel had a contract with that condo for the previous
year and a half and he was busy spending the $5,500,000 that was raised
from two loans that was taken out to improve that property.
The directors at 238 Albion were impressed with the new high-speed
elevators that were installed next door. Their elevators were old and
slow. They could also see the work crews working on 236 Albion’s brick
walls and the balconies.
Channel’s bid was $5,000 a year cheaper than the next lowest one. So
they were promised first-class service at bargain basement rates.
No hidden costs! Of course not; that would not be ethical.
By promising to do more for less and having 236 Albion Road as a
positive benchmark, Channel seemed to be the obvious choice so in
October 2008 the board signed a contract with Manzoor Khan.
On 01 November 2008, Channel became the new property management company.
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