Fleecing seniors


Whenever there is fraud and kickbacks in condos, it is the owners who pay. That is obvious. It is equally obvious that a large proportion of condo owners are seniors so condo fraud hits them particularly hard.

Many seniors are owners who do not understand what the board and the management company is up to nor can they read the AGM package they receive by mail, in particular the audited financial statements. They must reply on the board's good judgment and personal ethics.

At times, their trust has been misplaced as they have been victimized by their directors and/or the manager.

Seniors on the board
Many reports about seniors being victims of fraud say that the seniors get fleeced when they put their trust in either relatives or people in positions of respect or authority. The person of trust is often given signing authority for the senior's bank accounts and investments. It is obvious this can lead to abuses.

This situation can happen to a condo corporation when you have a board of directors consisting of seniors that have substituted care, diligence and skill in performing their duties with a blind faith in a friendly, smooth-talking, all-knowing property manager.

There is a condo, in a small town not far from Toronto, that consists of four-dozen units that are all owned by seniors. Naturally the board consists of five seniors. Instead of the board giving directions to the manager, the manager gives directions to the board. For example:

•	The directors can't read the monthly financial statements.
•	The directors sign contracts that they have not read.
•	The property manager can sign cheques for up to $2,500 and all cheques above that limit are co-signed by the district manager. The directors don't sign the corporation's cheques. Hell, they don't even know what bank branch the corporation's accounts are in.
•	$50,000 that belongs in the reserves is left in the operating account  so the corporation can pay its bills.
•	The corporation is running an operating deficit of about $1,500 a month.
•	The monthly financial statements show Retained Earnings of –$5,700. What the hell is this?
•	When a contractor stated that unforeseen contingency costs had to be paid due to a city work order, the board authorized payment. The lone director phoned the city. They did not issue any work orders for that worksite.
•	A major project has been spec'd by an engineering company who does the quality checks. A general contractor does the work and oversees the sub-trades. Yet the condo's property management company bills the condo for "project management."
•	When suspicious looking bids are received, the bids are not rejected and the job is not re-tendered. Four directors voted to award the contract. There was only one dissenting vote.

One of the five directors understands that this is not how their condo should be run but he is up against the manager and the four seniors who know that they can safely ignore him.

At the board meetings, when the manager asks for someone to move a motion and another to second it, (it doesn't matter what the motion is), it is guaranteed to pass by a vote of four to one.

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