Engineering Inspections

Door knob flyer 2017_08_23.

All For One, and One For All - Almost!

Personally, I support the across-the-board $7,200.00 ($300 x 24 months) special assessment of all 340 unit owners for the purpose of funding construction of those unimproved buildings that need renovating. It is time we got the neighborhood built up to code and looking good.

Some worry that their money will get lost because their building has already been renovated and so their $7,200.00 will not be spent on their own building but on another building. Be assured that everyone's money must and will be accounted for separately (at TAJ, each building is a separate condominium and money from one cannot be used to pay for another). In the books, your money will be applied to your own building, as per state law.

At least, that's what I think. There are pretty clear laws that govern this kind of thing.

Follow this link to read the 1994 Declaratory Statement made by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. It's a big document so you might have to refresh the page once or twice before it fully loads.

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A letter was mailed out to unit owners. The explanation is appreciated, but there are some questions left unanswered.  The letter does not indicate the final disposition of the collected funds. Apparently the money is to be used to make construction loans to buildings that need renovating. Presumably those buildings will repay those loans and unit owners in un-effected buildings will be made whole again. So, at some point can unit owners get their money back if it is not spent on their building, their condominium? If so, what will be the procedure and when will that be available? If not, what becomes of that money?

If I get the answers to those questions, I will let you know.

TAJ Construction Projects in 2012 Collage

I stopped by the clubhouse for the first time in a long time and noticed this great collage on the wall.

Happy to Spend The Money

The unit owners in buildings 42, 17, 11, and 8 expressed gratitude, in recent special assessment meetings, that their buildings are scheduled to be worked on, reported property manager Wendi Hill.

Many of us that have sat through Special Assessment meetings, either as recipients of the Assessment or as BOD members passing the assessment. Many or most of us have seen how very upsetting and contentious those proceedings can be. If the property manager's report is accurate, then I am happy that the parties involved were able to make the best of what is very often a difficult situation.

It is worth noting that there are some very unhappy unit owners currently at TAJ. There has been a movement to initiate a recall election and to replace the members of the BOD. Several emails from that group have been sent out to residents/owners at TAJ. I would share the content of the emails but they are anonymous and I make it a practice to not publish material from sources that I cannot verify, especially if it is controversial. So while I cannot in good conscience publish their letters, I will point out that not everyone is happy with special assessments and the construction work here at TAJ.

Notice of Inspection From City

Roofing Repair, Building 40

Whole Building Refurbishment Is Best, But Only Piecemeal Is Possible

Pictures and information provided by the property manager

The BOD has been unable to collect the Special Assessment payments from all unit-owners in any building except for Building 19. Consequently, whole-building refurbishments (the most cost-effective strategy) have been stalled because of the lack of payments.

An alternative strategy to fund a building's refurbishment is for the BOD to borrow money from a bank on behalf of unit owners, and then pay back the bank with the money that unit owners pay in their Special Assessment. The current BOD attempted to secure that type of loan but were denied because the bank judged our community to be a bad risk because of too many unit owners with unpaid monthly and Special Assessments. 

At the same time, the whole community is in danger of losing insurance coverage, falling property values, and possible actions from the City code enforcement. Unable to fund the projects the way they would like to do it, the BOD has settled for a strategy that is at least possible, if not desirable. They have commissioned repairs to be done on buildings in a piecemeal fashion.  That is to say that various buildings may have only one or more sections of the building worked on, as a reflection of the amount of Special Assessment funding that has been collected for that building.

Coordinating such a dispersed construction effort is a challenging task.  The pictures reveal a color-coding system developed by the Property Manager to stay organized. Materials (purchased by the BOD directly so as to avoid Contractor's mark-up)  are stored in the clubhouse (for security reasons, as it has a security alarm). Equipment stored in the maintenance building are guarded by sensors and alarms, and each night the cherry pickers are used to block the maintenance building garage door. 

Building 19 Refurbishment, Thanks to Special Assessment Paid in Full

Pictures and information provided by Property Management, July 29th

These pictures show the effects that water intrusion can have on the sub-structures of our buildings. Quite simply, studs in the exterior walls were rotted underneath moldy and rotted plywood sheathing.  

Although the wall was in terrible shape, the building is in pretty good shape, financially.  It is a four unit building with only one occupant.  That occupant paid their share of the estimated $27,000/unit repair bill. The property manager was able to get the non-occupant owners of the other three units (the bank) to pay their share. That is $81,000 collected from the banks. Because the full amount was collected, the building refurbishment could commence.  

The property manager reports that no other building has fully paid their special assessment. That is to say, even though some unit owners in a building may have paid their portion of a special assessment, others have not, making a full-building refurbishment economically unrealistic.

Construction Happens in Stages, Includes Changes Along the Way

Simon and Irv discussing a change-order for building 42/5. (photo from property manager)

An Unhappy Resident Urges a Recall Vote With Mass-Email

I recently received the email message that I have copied, below.  It had apparently been mass-emailed to about 70 others, presumably all TAJ unit owners.  I do not know what the issue is, but it is clear that there are some difficult feelings. From my own time on the BOD I know that re-construction and special assessments bring out the worst suspicions and worst behavior in everybody involved. 

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Hi everyone,

Please read and consider these individuals to replace the entire current board. We need to move forward and get things done. We need to get our community under control and with efficient management. Things are not getting done and will not get done unless we all do something about it. We all want a better community because we do care, I care. 

Please find the recall election ballot enclosed. Please place an x in  the recall boxes for the current board and  and x in the  "in favor of " boxes in the 2nd half of the ballot.

Very important to please only have the registered voter sign the ballot 

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TAJ Equipment

In order to accommodate all the construction and maintenance needs associated with the multiple construction projects around the property, TAJ has acquired some great pieces of equipment.  Golf carts are cool, but I really love the John-Deere-green utility carts.  The cherry-pickers must be incredibly useful (until they get a flat tire, I suppose).

Steel Beams Instead of Rotted Wood

Many of the buildings were built with a beam of laminated wood for a major structural support of the second floor walls.  Because of water intrusion, that wood rots and becomes very expensive to replace.  Today I noticed that the current construction is replacing rotted beams with steel girders.  What a great idea. I was also told that the steel was less expensive than the wood. Double good!

Under Construction

There are a whole lot of projects going on around the TAJ property, and thank goodness.  

Recent Repairs, Still Incomplete (Building 33)

Recently, the southwest corner of building 33's upper story was rebuilt. It looks to me like the job was done quite well.  However, they neglected to do anything to repair the rain gutter that was broken in the process. It is the very same issue the caused the problems in the first place. 

Construction Projects Around the Property

Building maintenance and renovation has been a difficult issue for many years here at TAJ. Any effort to make things better is met with suspicion, resentment, resistance, and even anger from the parties involved. It would probably be easier to do nothing than to face the difficult issues that arise with such an endeavor. That's why I appreciate that something is being done right now. They may not be doing the job to perfection, but at least it is getting done. The construction probably involves uncomfortable financial costs to unit owners, but at least the property will have more value because of the work that is being done.

I'm glad that work is being done on the buildings, whatever problems that might arise because of it. The only thing worse than those problems are the problems that arise from doing nothing.

Nova Building Construction license