Thursday, June 21, 2007

Condos burn in hell!

Well I guess you can see I need to do a small rant about my condo. So our retaining wall issue is still unresolved. One of the other owner's is trying to argue that the MONEY, DH and I collected through our ATTORNEY from the developer is 20% his! Though he didn't even own the condo when she gave us the money. Also she was trying to say it was for both Unit 1 and 2. We never agreed to that! In fact we sent a letter stating exactly opposite.

The reason we took the money is there were three different engineers, with HER engineer stating the retaining wall could be done for $5700. Two other engineers said $18k and $20k. We also have statements from the two engineers explaining why her engineering quote would not solve the problem.

The developer is a shady, horrible woman. If you don't believe me she's had multiple lawsuits from contractors. Including a neighbor who was a contractor who worked for her. He showed me his lawsuit against her for $40k of work she didn't want to pay for, but he sued her and she was forced to pay. By the way she's a millionaire who doesn't even need the money, a radiologist that lives in a million dollar home. Arrgh. And she tries to not pay ANYONE. Including her engineer that drew up her plans, he came to us and tried to get paid, we said "NO! We did not sign a contract with you, the association did not sign a contract with you. PERIOD." So he went after her in court for his fees. And again she had to pay.

Right now it's not worth suing her because the amount is not much. She owes about $1k more for us, which we are willing to let slide. HOWEVER, with the other unit owner wanting another $1k we're not willing to budge.

We went after the jugular and tore him a new one. This unit owner DOES NOT pay his monthly dues on time, only once every 6 months. HE tore down the gutter drain pipes, but refuses to pay to replace them. He SAYS he put them up, BUT he didn't. He couldn't have put it up properly because he didn't put up the house siding until this summer! 1 year later. So the gutters even when he put them up were improperly put up! That jerk refuses to acknowledge that he's the one who caused the damage and should pay for it. So my wonderful DH got tired of the arguing and said he he would agree to allow the condo to pay 50% of the damages this piece of work caused.

You wonder why I curse and degenerate CONDOS! Well come and live in my hell-hole and tell me it's easy to deal with neighbors. Tell me it's easy to get anything done when you constantly can't make a decision. Please tell me that living in a house is harder? Really? Try getting 3 different couples to agree to a ONE project. Try getting 3 different couples to agree that ONE couple caused damage and the others shouldn't pay. Try getting one couple to pay up Home Owner's fees?

Last time I wrote, someone said that homes were expensive. Well condos are more so when you have to constantly go to a lawyer. When you constantly have to pay for DAMAGES done by a jerk who won't admit it. And if the repair isn't done well the house will rot. And you need to sue him otherwise. Try to constantly be chasing someone for money for insurance. Or would you just fork over the money like living in a house? But wait, you can't even just fork over the money and pay a repair person because still EVERYONE has to agree before work can be done!

That's the kicker of living in a condo. Why it's pure hell, and why only idiots like myself do it. I wish I had never bought this condo. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I pray everyday that we quickly finish our degrees, get a relocation package and move away from this hell-hole. I'm renting next time if we can't afford a single family home. I do not care what it costs, I'm never going to buy another condo. I'm printing this article up and I'm going to paste it to my wall as a reminder "Single Family Home, Single Family Home".

6 comments:

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Wow. Am I ever glad I didn't buy a condo then. I was looking towards it with the insane price of houses around my area... Good thing I'm renting (and that I had my debt to keep me away from buying a condo)

Anonymous said...

You are very right.condos suck. i owned one once and when it came time for me to sell the condo president rang my doorbell and told me who i could sell my place to and what realtor to use. i didn't and they penalized me $75 a day. Yes, I had to sue them. Condos suck.
move out and go rent or buy. why waste your time. it's only going to get worse.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness we avoided the condo/HOA route. Sounds like a major PITA! You should get out of there.

Living Almost Large said...

Nope we're unable to afford to buy a home, and by buying a condo it's how you build equity instead of renting. Unfortunately in HCOLA you can't just buy a single family homes first try out. Unless you are planning on able to save $150k somehow and if it takes 10 years then it'll be $200k by then.

But condos are enforced savings plan instead of renting, plus during that time the "rent" doesn't go up, unless you get an adjustable.

Plus I'm hoping that by paying down the mortage, we'll move somewhere one day cheap enough to buy a home outright. We'll probably pocket the cash, but it would be awesome.

condo Philippines said...

Oh' sorry to hear that! I think you better move in a place where you can be more comfortable. Thanks for sharing.

-pia-

I Love real estate blogs said...

If that was the case you have to go for a much better condo.

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