Where's the Money?

January 2007 a contract was signed and a check for $81,750 was issued to Benny's Pool and Spas for 50% payment on work to build a Community Pool. By January 26, 2007 the HOA Board was informed the City required platting and permits. By March of 2007 that board was replaced by a board willing to communicate more with the neighborhood generated surveys to decide again what should be done in our area designated for a community area. Even though there was great consternation over the multitude of choices to pick from and rather heated exchange at the Park Town Hall meeting, the board moved forward with the options most selected and began their negotation with Benny's Pool and Spas.
After being told the contract stipulated a 30% of the total bid buyout fee if the work was not done by the contractor (Benny's Pool and Spas), the board decided to evaluate the plans with the selected contractor doing something other than a pool for a Phase I implementation. The process of platting, and the engineering concerns was time consuming. By the June 23, 2008 meeting, the city had not granted the permits yet, and the contractor still intended to build the Phase I plan and gave his basic description at the June meeting.
The plan was lacking much specific or concrete detail and a vague understanding of what happened to the $81,750 that was given to the contractor was the sentiment. He clearly stated the money was in a bank account in escrow and was not earning interest, just waiting on the permits to begin working. Many people in the front row described their concerns with the significant amount not earning interest for the HOA because it was in not in our accounts anymore.

The 3 board member positions were up for election, because the existing members were not going to continue for various personal reasons. The 3 new Board Members were elected and final proxies were submitted post meeting pursuant to the bylaws for a quorum to exist.

The new board has done an audit of the financials with ProComm finance and accounting representatives. The new board has consulted legal advice from the legal firm hired by the Management company. They have not been consulted concerning any contracts for the Park/Pool project and were surprised previous boards had not consulted with them for such reasons. The contract was not valid anymore, because the contractor had a partner at the time and it specifically states they could not assign the contract to any other entity. Their partnership broke up in 2007. The contract also does not specify a 30% fee to get out of the contract, as the contractor had told the previous board when they tried to get out of it.

On July 21, 2008 the board met witht the contractor at the ProComm offices to discuss repayment of the entire $81,750. At the time the contractor brought his files to discuss what we would do next. He admitted the contract was no longer valid since he had incorporated after his partnership and was the only one able to get to the money. He expected that the board would amend or write up a new contract. After he continued to sidestep why he felt he should continue after what has now been 16 months with no real tangible work done he was given the termination letter and a demand for the entire $81,750 due payable within 7 days or we would sue him.
On July 28th, we were informed only to deal with them through the attorney and to enter into binding mediation. His attorney submitted 2 judges for the mediation and we rejected those two and submitted two of our own.

It's only been 30 days but what a ride......more soon.