Here’s a letter sent by a home owner today, calling for the illegitimate “president“, Urban Grass, to step down. This is a sentiment echoed by many owners, as we see the gross misconduct and incompetence destroying the community and living space.
Mr. Grass,
Please resign and step away from the management of Berkley Court Owners Association. I don’t ask this lightly, but after observing your actions with owners for over 2 years, and concluding that you are not fit to lead or to serve this community.
I have been associated with Berkley Court since its inception, selling units to the first owners back in 1981, and owning multiple units for decades. In my time here, I have come to speak out for the elderly and the disabled at Berkley Court, as many reach out to me as they are scared at what to do with all the things that are going on here since you’ve inserted yourself into association business.
First, when I requested Tara Hirsch, the owner of Houston HOA Management (former property management company for Berkley Court) to pay the $96.00 she stole out of my Berkley Court assessment fees, you agreed that Berkley Court would:
- Represent her as a private individual, when there was no legal obligation to do so at a cost of THOUSANDS of dollars to Berkley Court owners
- Pay FIVE lawyers for said small claims court case instead of paying the amount in question (less than $250), as the judge advised
- Side with a former vendor you called untrustworthy and a disappointment earlier this year instead of facilitating the return of the misappropriated funds
This is in addition to you using Berkley Court money to sue another home owner without any legal basis, costing the Berkley Court owners over $20,000 for a few weeks’ work up until July 2023. You chose to pursue the cases, even after the presiding judge asked you to withdraw the law suits against this owner since all of it was baseless. Since the cases are ongoing, who knows what the cost for you pursuing your personal vendetta against individual home owners is to date – meanwhile, owners who are trying to sell are finding out that Berkley Court doesn’t seem to be making the payment to insure the property for 2024, preventing sales from going through and putting all owners at risk.
I am sure this is why we can’t get a financial report from you, or any detailed information as to how you are spending association funds, as you seem to be using home owner funds as your personal bank account to go after people you don’t like and to pay vendors with whom you have a personal connection.
Second, please explain why you have disregarded the Berkley Court Declaration in 2023 and nearly tripled the assessment fees with a 26.6%. increase when only 10% is allowed per year. You are charged with knowing and upholding the Declaration, and you have provided no evidence of any legal change to the Declaration as to why the 10% limit has not been enforced. You stated that you were increasing the fees in order to complete a plumbing project and:
- Ignored my recommendation of initiating a special assessment to get improvements, as the Berkley Court Declaration mandates for capital improvements. That’s when you told me in front of witnesses that Tara Hirsch had found a way to increase the dues and you ran with it, because you knew there was no way the owners would have voted for the special assessment.
- After one year, less than half of the community has been completed but the buildings in which you own units have been prioritized, and you have no timeline or feasible plan outlined to complete the remaining buildings because Berkley Court can’t pay what it has already commissioned.
- The cost of the project has been exorbitant, with the smallest building costing over $70,000 for doing work in 7 units. That is without fixtures being replaced, and using very low-grade materials (e.g., using sheetrock instead of cement backer board for shower areas, using smaller PEX pipe tubing commonly used for RVs and trailers to replace the current pipes in place). Instead of negotiating a discounted price per unit with a licensed plumber, you went with a vendor whose work has been fraught with issues and home owners have complained about repeatedly. We are being price gouged by people using unqualified, unpermitted labor, and you state that it is the cheapest option although there are several plumbers who have provided quotes that would have made the total cost of the work far less.
- The vendor utilized has not completed work, and invoiced items that were never done, and the work is already failing. Residents seeing brown water coming out of replaced pipes, low water pressure, ceilings collapsing due to leaks, and the like. When these issues emerge, there is no response from the so-called board members who authorized the work, and home owners are left now holding the bag for the company.
- You have decided to pay the vendor the balance it states that is owed to them, but performing an audit to see what charges are valid – trying to reduce a debt of $60,000 to 45,000-55,000. Why would you pay a vendor that has fraudulently charged Berkley Court for items to the tune of thousands of dollars, instead of taking legal action against them (vs. home owners who you don’t like)?!?
- You have told any owner with serious plumbing issues, where emergency repairs are required to the shared pipes behind the sheetrock, that it is home owner responsibility to fix them (in conflict with the Declaration once again). Several units in the 700 building have had a plumbing issue since August, and it was first reported September 8. One owner hired a licensed plumber very familiar with Berkley Court (as this was the same plumbing company hired by Berkley Court to do work in the past) and was told by said plumber that the issue is within the HOA’s pipes. Nothing has been done for over 3 months, despite escalation to Edward Soliz, who you say is a board member. This is a common issue as multiple units in other buildings have reported the same thing and yet there is no resolution.
- A third of the owners are seniors, and the city has a grant program that would have potentially paid for the improvement. Instead, you and your alleged board members paid over average market cost for shoddy work, blew through the funds for the year before the year was up, and are now trying to increase the fees again in 2024, although we have overpaid in 2023 already. When home owners complain about the fees and say they would need to sell, you offer to purchase their property and then make it difficult for anyone to sell the property to anyone else as:
- Those owners who have found buyers cannot sell their property because the financials are not provided, insurance is not being renewed, full disclosures and resale certificates are not being made and so lenders and title companies refuse to go forward with next steps
- Every owner who does sell at risk for law suits down the line by those who buy because complete and accurate information has not been provided of the HOA’s condition
I now understand why over one third of owners are not paying their fees as it is not being utilized for maintenance, as it is intended. It’s a waste of money to pay any assessment fees as the money is being used to fund baseless lawsuits, pay your personal acquaintances for work with no contract or accountability, and residents are left to pay for the repairs that are urgent, or left without services as they are unable to fix items that require HOA involvement. We have residents doing their own exterior stucco repair, landscaping, plumbing, with no oversight or understanding of the overall impact it will have on other units because the people who call themselves the board have wasted money, have put the owners in debt, and now are missing in action when it comes to getting emergencies handled or providing information to owners trying to get answers.
Speaking of getting answers, you have not provided accurate financial information in over 6 months. Third, I want the district attorney to examine the financial dues paid by homeowner from November 2021 to November 2023, plus all the money paid to contractors per unit with unit listed and an accurate description of the expense. Multiple owners have sent certified letters requesting association records over the last year, in accordance to state law, and not one has received the full documentation requested.
Please be aware, it has not escaped anyone’s notice than in 3 years, we have had 3 different property management companies, each one worse than the rest.
- In 2021, you had blamed RISE as the reason for all the issues at Berkley Court and not the so-called board members, but in reality, RISE refused to renew the contract with Berkley Court, likely due to the irrational and illegitimate decisions that was opening them up to liability.
- Then Houston HOA was selected and Houston HOA chose to end its contract with Berkley Court 9 months early. You stated that this was because Houston HOA chose to fire itself due to you finding inconsistencies, which is not what the owner of the company has said and is in conflict of the 5-star rating you and other so-called board members have given them publicly.
- Now you are calling the latest management company, Sterling, not what you expected, even though they don’t seem to do anything but call you for your decision on every single item, thus serving as an overpaid answering machine. Since you’ve abruptly announced the change to management companies, it’s been months of chaos as no one’s accounts are accurate, false violations are being sent out to owners, proper meeting notice is never given, etc. You are pointing the finger at Sterling for the current issues at Berkley Court in conversations with owners, yet you have not get rid of them – why is that since you hired them and could get rid of them as well, and they’ve made it clear they only follow your direction?
Blaming the management company once may fly once, but if every single management company is quitting, the root cause is not the management company, it is the people hiring and working with them. The common denominator in all of these property management companies is you. Not even the property management companies who you have selected want to work with you.
In my 50+ years as a realtor, I have come across many kinds of people and situations. I have seen you drive selection of vendors that are not performing the required repairs, are disregarding the governing documents to serve your whims, and indulging your personal vendettas by going after owners with association funds earmarked for a capital project with no awareness or authorization by owners is outrageous. You claim to have managed a hundreds of people in a large corporation but based on all the evidence of the last 2 years, it is my view that you can’t even manage a chicken house, much less Berkley Court association affairs and owners’ hard-earned money. I know you don’t expect the home owners to pay the debt you created without discussion or authorization of any of the owners.
There was one other condo community that I’ve seen doing something similar – Charleston Manor in Houston. It used to be a beautiful community, where people used to aspire to attain. It now stands condemned, with the owners having lost all their investment and homes due to poor management. I fear Berkley Court owners will follow the same fate with the way you are running things.
No matter what may come my way, I will always step up and do the right thing when I see such terrible wrongs. I strongly urge you to do the same, and respect the majority of the people’s wishes who have told you repeatedly over the last two years that they do not want you as a leader of this community. Stop spending our money like it is your personal slush fund, stop trying to run this association like a dictatorship in which no one lasts working with you, whether it is a fellow owner or management company. Stop the madness and resign immediately!
Sincerely,
Patricia LeDet
Berkley Court Home Owner
CC: Sterling Associations Services, 6842 North San Houston Parkway W, Houston, Texas 77064