Sunday, March 3, 2013

"Newly" NOT Elected

UPDATE (02/23/13): The residential committee under the Board of Directors made a threat to institute legal proceedings if the elevators were not repaired by January 31, 2013. That date has now come and gone. Is this like a previous legal threat with no action by the Steering Committee?

Oh, since the Board hired legal reps who are tied to Meridien and Meridien sits on the Board with the other developer Greenfield, what law firm will be used? Will that law firm with a conflict of interest given this bizzare relationship be used? Those reading this and the geniuses on the Board can only guess as to my true feelings on this matter and what I think of their threat and legal construction. Actually, if anyone would like to know my feelings, please ask and we can have a coffee/tea and discuss the matter.

I do not know how law suits in the Philippines are written but elsewhere ALL PARTIES responsible for a problem are named. Soho Central had more than one developer and let us all not forget the builder and the company the elevators were purchased from, too.

"Newly" NOT Elected

(original web post 02/11/13):  I had been sent the following but not everyone was sent this notice. This may be a "newly" formed group, but Unit Owners did not elect these individuals for the Board or their newly appointed positions.

This is generally how the message looked in my email message inbox. An odd way to send a message to me with one email address exposed and mine put in a bcc:. I was sent a message from another Unit Owner and the same odd way to send a message seems to have been done with them, too. They were the bcc: and an email address they do not know was the To: address.

"2012 year-end Soho Central RAC report

Sat, Dec 29, 2012 at 8:30 PM

From nenie garcia
To derekandluz@ (I have removed the rest since this was sent to me as a bcc:.)
BCC geodecarlo@ (This is my personal email. For those wanting to send email to me regarding the growing disaster of Soho Central use sohocentralresident@gmail.com .)

‎.pdf
‎RAC-message 1a.pdf

Hello, this is the first report of the newly constituted Residential Areas Committee of your condominium.

nenie garcia"

It was just pointed out to me that the memo did NOT mention the 26.5 pesos per square meter the commerical area pays and 65 pesos per square meter the residential area pays. Seems the unelected committee has forgotten something. But, I will post other comments following each page.



I was sent a text with the comments that "they were NOT VOTED..NOT ACCEPTABLE NOR BE RECOGNIZE(D) BY ANYONE SINCE THEY ARE ACTING ON THEIR OWN...their common sense is a BIG QUESTION." We all must recognize and remind ourselves that they were appointed by the developer controlled Board. Armando Ang writer of Guide to Homeownership has pointed out that developer controlled condos go down in value and Unit Owner controlled condos go up in value. Please, all Unit Owners get involved and demand change.



We have and will try to remind all those we can about the past and how history is be rewritten or claimed. Yes, we realize that the developer controlled Board has appointed Unit Owners. Now some and certainly not all concerns of Unit Owners may get addressed with credit taken by the Board and appointed members.

We and others had addressed the mailbox situation in the past.

Copies of all contracts and policies have still not be given to us as we requested. We had posted the letter in a previous message.

We and others have addressed the security problems. We also asked that a fully operational camera system be installed. There were proposals in the past and NOTHING happened. If we had a full system installed, half if not more of the security personnel will be eliminated. The savings would start after the start-up cost matches the time of salaries no longer paid meet. But, mismanagement and the developer controlled Board have prevented savings and better security.



We and other have, of course, addressed the elevator floors. Once again, it would be nice if the Board would recognize the concerns of the Unit Owners and what has been voiced and written of by other Unit Owners. It would be nice to have a better floor as other elevators in Metro Manila. Perhaps they should read my list on what needs to be done first regarding the elevators in a separate message.

Where is the bulletin board for Unit Owners?

There were 17 and not 10 letters we had written in Novemeber and December of 2012 that have still not been answered. Why? We are also spouses and not just partners. I know there is homophobia and xenophobia on the Board but the hatred for purposes of the business of the building must end. Yes, that is an order from us.

DeCarlo is spelled with an upper case D. Is this is anti-Italian gesture? I thought the anti-American xenophobia was as far as certain Board members would go.

Our demands were made in the past over time and never answered when verbally expressed or placed in writing. We have decided to write once again and name the entities clearly so no games of who was sent what would not be played by the Board.

Where are the monthly and quarterly financial reports? It is our money as Unit Owners and we need to see how our money is being spent and what is reported.



The documents they tell everyone to become familiar with such as the SCCC documents were not freely given to all Unit Owners or presented to them at turnover/closing as would have been appropriate. We had to make written requests and then posted them. We have also had to make written requests and many prior and follow-up verbal requests for some of these and Minutes & Resolutions. We have still not received all the Minutes & Resolutions. We have also not been supplied with the Minutes & Resolutions of this newly formed committee.

There are three planted (appointed by developer controlled Board) Directors who are Unit Owners. There was never a vote by the Unit Owners and no consultation on the issues has taken place since meetings are conducted in secret and private.
I only found out about many documents after being told later about their existence and reading about how developers keep them as secret as possible by Armando Ang in an article and his book, Guide to Homeownership. No one should buy condos or real estate in general in the Philippines until they read his book and do much more research.

As for the government documents, we openly discussed these and have posted links to them for all Unit Owners. Oh, I had also heard that someone now gone from the admin office was not happy I posted documents such as the Minutes.

"We?" They seemed to have only sought themselves.

It may not be the job of the board to educate on all laws of the Philippines but I would disagree as to their relating their understanding of the laws since may deem themselves qualified. I would expect that they follow the laws as far as they are aware of them.

I have been told of actions being taken in court by another building's Unit Owners and from what I was told the coporation code and how things may be done here have some conflicts. In the end and however long it may take, the Unit Owners will be the final jury as to the facts and law applied.

Click here for a .pdf of the memo. Memo converted to Word .doc.

***

In response to the message immediately following this one, these individuals accepted and participate on a Board that is anything but fair. They have also not addressed all the issues in the list. We are also annoyed that topics are taken and written about now and in the past as if no one else was doing the work. Not only many verbal requests but now written requests have not been answered. This is disgusting. We must now go to the next level.

Also, the xenophobia I have been subjected to and the homophobia Ryan & I have been subjected to must end from members of the board. You will here some in the following: http://youtu.be/UCPGudoU2MY or here http://soundcloud.com/sohocentral/soho-central-agm-2012

at

No comments:

Post a Comment