Better and Better...

You know, you go through life and develop a certain understanding or expectation of how some things work. Through media, through schooling, these processes are painted in your mind's eye. And then you see them happen for the first time, and your experience can be so radically different.

That's generalization. In specific, I reference this ongoing, painfully unfinished, going-to-stretch-into-next-year-at-least condo repair project.


Sometime in 2008, our property management company representative called the board together and said, "Hey, that was a lot of damage from last winter. That's bad. The insurer for the buildings is threatening to drop coverage if something isn't started soon." I wanted to involve the whole HOA, knowing this would be an expense for everyone. But there seemed a pressure to get something approved and proceeding ASAP. So we got bids. Well, she got bids. She really didn't present much in the way of details, save for one that seemed toward the low end, saying it was from someone who the management company had worked with before and always seemed reliable, and he'd even helped inspect the buildings for the process of petitioning the insurance company for funds.

I assumed there was more formal paperwork than there was. I assumed a more detailed contract. I assumed the property manager would keep track of individual material invoices as necessary and such. Of course, I also assumed this project, which was pitched more as repainted than repair, would cost in the ballpack of $500 per unit. I had some sticker shock when things came back at more like $4000 per unit. I lucked out and fumbled my way through paying. Some people didn't.

Then I assumed the property manager and contractor would track things as they progressed. And they did, but only to a limited extend. Looking at the exchanges now, it's hard to tell exactly what's what. There was a batch of early additional costs as teardown revealed rotted or inadequate material beneath (which I have little doubt of, having seen construction shortcuts in the buildings myself). Then there was a second batch of additional costs. And I've started to wonder if there's any guaranteed end to that. I almost expected some overruns from the initial bid, but... shouldn't there be some contractual limits somewhere? Since there's no real thorough contract in this case, I guess there isn't.

And then recently, our property manager relates to us how the contractor was doing work for a different HOA that she manages, and that HOA decided to drop him from the remainder of their project. And the constractor then threatened to not continue work on our stuff unless paid for what he did on that job. Even after that, he's asking for an additional $3,125 for work he has done for us that he was doing "pro bono" due to getting work through the property management company.

Basically, he sees the management company as his client, not the HOAs. He is getting checks from the company, and getting most of his communication from the company, but that's because the HOAs use the company to... well... manage their bookkeeping, finances, and what have you. As I see it, the HOA is the one actually footing the bill, so they are the actual client, and separate HOAs are separate clients that shouldn't be given any special benefits or penalties for using the same management company. The contractor seems dead-set on his alternative viewpoint.

Seriously, THIS is how things work in the real world? I expected some professionalism in such things, but apparently there just isn't any here. WTF?