The Berkley Court Brief

Thank you to everyone who came to the meeting yesterday, or who provided a proxy for the meeting yesterday. We appreciate the engagement and involvement in caring for the Berkley Court community. 

For those of who you weren’t able to attend, the former directors (i.e., Urban Grass, Rita Flores, Ceceilia Carrizales, and Lisa Hernandez) who called for the special election last night, did not come to the meeting.

No quorum was reached and nothing was gained, except for another example of more wasteful expenses that these individuals have incurred for the association. 

One would think that if they were confident in their legal position and of their leadership in the community, these individuals would appear to state their case in court, but it seems that being leaders who demonstrate responsibility and accountability for their actions is not in their DNA.  As they have skipped court appearances previously, and they have not shown up for a meeting that they called for their own benefit, we have no confidence that they will show up for court tomorrow, and will keep wasting all of our time with their games of hide-and-seek.

Thus, the hearing that was to be held tomorrow, December 16, 2021, will be rescheduled until we can proceed without the defendants’ presence being required. 

We will inform you of the new date, in hopes that all home owners and residents who can attend will do so. We will continue to provide home owners with fact checks and the truth about what is going on at Berkley Court via this web site, berkleycourt.com. Feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns via email at berkleycourtneighbor@gmail.com.   

Fellow Berkley Court home owners, 

Please don’t get confused on the issues at Berkley Court. The previous directors have sent out defamatory messages to home owners, trying to scare them with vague doubts of things that were never in question.

Let’s fact-check a recent communication sent from the previous directors on 12/12/2021: 

1. “The current board does NOT have access to the assessments of the association as previously stated… There are internal controls with checks and balances at the moment.“

• Incorrect. The management company cannot spend money without the board directing its use.  Thus, it is the directors who control the funds.

• One of the primary checks and balances in place for condo owners enshrined TX state law is the ability to get an audit of its financial statements every year, and access to the association’s books and records upon request. The former directors have NOT performed this audit in prior years and REFUSED home owner requests on multiple occasions to view the books and records, or to answer questions by home owners to see where the money is going. 
• Do you want to continue to support people who won’t follow Texas law, and puts Berkley Court at further risk for more and more lawsuits because of their behavior? 

2. “Betsy Cherian, who sued the association has expressed that she plans to self-manage and have full access to our funds directly. ” 

• This is a lie. Please ask yourself if you ever personally had a conversation with Betsy that was about self-management. 
• Do you want to vote for people who have no problem creating and spreading lies about people that they were supposed to be serving, for their own selfish reasons? What lies will they spread about you, when you ask for a repair request or some other home owner matter?
• As you can tell from the below screenshot of the case – Betsy did not sue the association. The association is suing the former directors, because those individuals have improperly kept association assets (e.g., keys to the clubhouse, passwords to computers, access to direct funds, etc.).

3. Please see the attached letter from the courts regarding the first hearing “Denying the Temporary Restraining Order” filed by Betsy Cherian against the current board of directors. The court agreed that we did not have to resign nor accept the candidates making invalid claims.

• Incorrect, the judge on 11/3/2021 declared that he did not have time to decide the facts of the case, and moved it to the next hearing for another judge to determine whether the defendants should continue to have access to association assets until the case is heard. 
• The hearing in front of the next judge was to be held on 12/2. The old directors did not show up. The judge then ordered them to be served for them to appear in court on 12/16/2021. Please find above the notice for their appearance. If the case was dismissed as they claim, then there would be no further appearances with the same case #.
• Do you want to vote for people who can’t show up to court? Do you want people who can’t seem to understand basic legal processes to represent Berkley Court on official matters? Is this the reason why there were so many ongoing lawsuits at Berkley Court under the former directors (e.g., 2 dog bite law suits, window vendor work, etc.).

4. “Here is a preview of a letter from a concerned homeowner. WHAT COULD HAPPEN, If all new board members take over, the new board could opt for SELF MANAGEMENT. “

• The former directors are the ones who have actively brought up self-management to home owners – is this why these folks want to stay in power? So they can then continue to pay themselves and their relatives for services that are questionable?
• The vast majority of the home owners are more concerned with why the property is not being properly maintained, why the former directors refuse to let go of association assets despite over 75% of the owners asking them to step aside, why repairs are not completed, why money is being wasted on elections and law suits 

5. Please know that with the current board, your condo is safe and your dues are safe.

• The former directors are the ones who, in their YEARS of service, not found time to do any of the below:
  • No audits leading to questionable uses of money
  • No published budget to know what the maintenance costs are for the upcoming year or the planned work that will be accomplished
  • No annual home owner meeting held when required
  • No complete set of minutes from meetings
  • No contracts for vendors, especially for those service providers who are related to the former board directors
  • Selective enforcement of covenants, usually done in retaliation or exploitation of vulnerable residents
  • No appropriate oversight of vendors to ensure quality work is completed on a timely and economical basis

Please don’t add to the noise at Berkley Court by believing the claims of a unethical set of former directors. Let’s focus on the goal of getting these individuals out of the association’s affairs so that we can then move on and make Berkley Court a better place for all of us.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the new directors of Berkley Court should be very flattered, as it looks like the former (unelected) directors have tried to copy the new directors playbook with some key differences:

New Directors in July 2021	Former Directors in December 2021
Established an email, berkleycourtneighbor@gmail.com in July 2021	Established an email, berkleycourt7313@gmail.com in December 2021
Began publishing this Web site in July 2021, to keep home owners aware of key events and concerns in the Berkley Court community	Circulated a DRAFT first page of a theoretical newsletter, full of news that everyone had already gotten to know
Sent home owner communications via email about urgent action needed to improve Berkley Court community	Sent home owners defamatory and inaccurate communications via email

It seems to this author that the former directors have tried to usurp the identity and methods of those that have replaced them. It is sad to see that there is no creativity in that group.

Let us be grateful that the new group of leaders have brought more vision, change, and transparency in the last six months than has been displayed by the last 5 years by the previous board.

An election has been announced at Berkley Court. Many owners have asked, what is going on?

Bottom line: we want you to come to the election and vote for us as directors. All owners will be allowed to vote. All positions of director are up for election.

If you cannot attend the election, please give us your proxy. You can bring or email the proxy to us, or we will come to pick it up. If you’ve already sent in the form, we can provide you a new one to update your instructions.

Background: we submitted our Resolution, but the former directors are refusing to turn over the association’s assets.

Most of you know that we have submitted signatures from more than 3/4ths of owners, voting to remove and replace the former directors (i.e., Rita Flores, Ceceilia Carrizales, Lisa Hernandez, and Urban Grass) . The way we did it is through a clause in our Declaration that states that is 2/3 of the members agree on any action in writing, that action can be done without a meeting having to be held.  Nearly two months ago, on October 18, 2021, the old directors were told of our action, and given copies of our resolution.  As of that date, they became former directors. 

Thank you to those who signed. Thank you to those who gathered signatures.

The former directors are refusing to leave. When asked why they have not left, they gave no meaningful response. Basically, they don’t want to.

In a condo association, its Declaration is the document that outlines all the authority and obligations that the association and its members have. The association’s leadership has a duty to act in good faith on behalf of all home owners, and to uphold the Declaration. 

The directors have ignored the provision of our declaration that gives us power as owners.

This continues a pattern where Rita Flores, Ceceilia Carrizales, Lisa Hernandez, and (new addition) Urban Grass have ignored what owners want.  We had poor leadership in the last 5+ years at Berkley Court with those directors –  neglecting the core duties for which they were responsible, and refusing any accountability for the same.

What is happening now?

As most of you know, the former directors were sued to enforce our Resolution. What we wanted was for them to do what the Declaration requires, to turn over the assets of the association to the new set of directors who have been appointed by the majority of the home owner community. To respect the owners’ choice of new directors to run the association.

In our last hearing in Court, the former directors REFUSED to appear.  

Instead of coming to Court, the former directors are now calling an election unilaterally, less than 3 months after they already held a bad election on September 28, at the association’s expense. At that election, many of us were not allowed to vote and the outcome was decided before the election was held. That was wrong.

We still expect to win in Court, but that could take more time while the old directors fight, and drag this on and waste our money through more shenanigans.

What the former directors are doing is not fair, but it does give us a chance to end this fast. By winning the election, we can have the former directors indisputably gone before Christmas.

Fellow neighbors, it is your decision as to how you would like your association run. If you don’t want the former directors and their bad behavior to continue, and you can’t make it in person to lodge your concerns, we encourage you to name Betsy Cherian as your proxy for the December 14, 2021 meeting. 

Additionally, if you haven’t signed the resolution to bar our home owner funds from being used for the personal defense of the home owners who used to be directors, please do so. Please reply to this email or call us if you have any questions, or need any help.

With your help, we are committed to improving our lives at Berkley Court.

Thanks for your time and consideration. 

Betsy Cherian, 

On behalf of the Association’s current Directors