Residents recently received in the month of March, a copy of the minutes from the Board of Directors meeting held on January 10th, 2014. As has been expressed in the past, there is no valid reason for a two month delay in distribution of the minutes. It is very common in well managed condominium corporations to see monthly reports provided within seven days following the meeting.
We continue to see approved Reserve Fund expenditures recorded in the minutes, however, they are not reflected within a Reserve Fund report or balance sheet which are required in legitimate monthly financial reports. At the Annual General Meeting held last fall, the treasurer was asked why there was no reserve fund budget provided to the meeting for review and approval. His response was simply; there will be no reserve fund expenditures!
For those of us who know better, such conduct on the part of those involved in the financial administration of our Corporation, is of grave concern and deserves appropriate response.
Once again, the Board is reminded that there are requirements and obligations on the part of the Board to comply with both our Bylaws and the Condominium Property Act regarding the Reserve Fund and financial statements. Yet, this Board feels that this is unnecessary. This neglect of responsible financial reporting is unacceptable and residents demand the immediate attention and appropriate response of the Board.
Unfortunately, our board members apparently, have not taken the time to review our energy costs and continue to provide inaccurate and misleading information to our residents. It seems that the Board refuses to recognize actual energy costs since the installation of the new hot water heating system.
Net energy costs have IN FACT risen dramatically over this period and yet the Board chooses to misinform residents with contrary information. Why does the Board refuse to provide residents with the facts?
Cleaning services in the building have continued to deteriorate and yet the Board has failed to respond to the concerns of residents. As has been mentioned previously, all caretakers in the past have washed the parkade floor during the winter months on a monthly basis and even more often when required. This is a common maintenance procedure in any well managed condominium parkade. The floor in our parkade may very well be the worst maintained in the city of Saskatoon. It has been left neglected for so long that a great deal of time is now required to scrape and remove the build up of dirt before the floor can even be washed. This is not acceptable to our residents and certainly well below the required standards of most residents. This is primarily a residential building and residents deserve better. To suggest anything less than regular monthly washing of the floor in the winter months, is very disrespectful of residents.
The neglect of parkade cleaning of course leads directly to the wear and tear of the hallway carpets and increased costs of their maintenance. Since the current caretaker has been here, the hallway carpets have never been shampooed. Is carpet cleaning as required, not included in the caretakers contract? For many years prior, the hallway carpets were shampooed, by the caretaker, at least once in both the spring and the fall. Finally after receiving repeated complaints from residents, the carpets were recently shampooed although not by the caretaker as is one of his duties, but by a service company at of course a much greater cost to the building. The unfortunate selection of the recent carpet, will now require much more maintenance at much greater cost.
The new carpets are simply not compatible with multi resident traffic and residents must now pay the price for this clearly unjust decision. Concerns of residents were clearly voiced at a residents meeting held for the purpose of receivng their input. All concerns and recommendations expressed by residents at this meeting were totally rejected.
The domestic hot water system problem requires no further review of “our consultants and building manager”. Residents have become very annoyed with these continuing “reviews” of consultants and engineers. Why were emergency service and warranty issues not addressed in the original contract of purchase. Who on the part of the Board entered into the contract and what effort was made to address these basic requirements at that time?
There are questions relating to the need for a pressure reducing valve on the commercial floors. We have had no such problem since the inception of the building. All pressured water lines and fittings in the building are rated well beyond incoming water pressure from the city water main. Further explanation as to the need for such an expenditure is required. Going forward, it would be in the best interest of residents if a cap of $5000 was placed on expenditures approved by the Board.
This is why a Reserve Fund budget is necessary and required by the Condominium Act where proposed expenditures are included in the budget and that budget approved by unit owners at a general meeting. Serious questions certainly come to mind when considering the refusal of our Board to present a legally required Reserve Fund budget at all. Therefore, it is suggested that this expenditure wait for such approval at the next general meeting of unit owners.