The $50 million mistake
“I don't have
regrets, there are only lessons. You learn from them, and you become a
better person.”
—Nicole Polizzi
“The only thing that I can do with my
regrets is understand them.”
—Kevin Costner
By the early 1990s, YCC #42 was in trouble as a slow but constant
number of owner-residents moved out, either selling their units or
rented them out. Property values were dropping and the cultural and
social tensions remained.
Let’s save a few bucks
Then in 1996, YCC #42 elected a new board of directors who promised the
owners a 5% cut in their maintenance fees.
The manager resisted his
instructions to cut back on the maintenance budget and the
increased meddling with the day-to-day management of the corporation,
so he terminated the relationship effective the end of July 1997.
Vince continued to manage YCC #60. (Others say that Vince
hired his relatives to work in the condo office and that created
resentments.)
The owners got their 5% drop in fees but what followed was ten years of
mismanagement, waste, theft, corruption, quarreling and continuous
power struggles
between individuals and factions fighting to gain and maintain control
of the
board and the money and jobs that the board controls. These power
struggles are documented in various affidavits that are included in
superior court applications.
15
years later
Today, units in YCC #60 are listed on the MLS for at least 70% more
than similar units in YCC #42. (autumn 2013) There is at least a
$50,000,000 difference in the total property values between the two
identical condominiums.
However, the $50 million is actually too low. If one includes all the
extra money spent on special assessments and the present difference in
assets and debts and add in the personal costs of all the power of
sales;
collectively the owner-residents of YCC #42 have taken a terrible
financial
beating.
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