In a previous post, we covered the self-appointed folks who have taken over control of our property and refuse to let go. One more person has joined the gang, this time a person named Thomas Jedi.
What do we know about Thomas Jedi? The key thing to know about Mr. Jedi is that he does not seem to be an owner of a unit in Berkley Court.
Harris County records do not show any unit in Berkley Court as being owned by anyone with a surname of Jedi.
As per Berkley Court governing documents, board members MUST own a unit within the property.
Is this yet another example of the folks who have held the majority of the Berkley Court owners hostage while doing what they want, no matter what the rules are?
Berkley Court home owner concerns were featured on KPRC’s 10 pm news program today, and is the lead story on their website tonight. You can view it here:
Today, there was a meeting of the so-called directors at Berkley Court. The notice sent out said all owners were encouraged to attend, and delegates can be sent with a POA if home owners were unable to attend in person:
POA – also known as a power of attorney, which allows a designated person to speak on your behalf when authorized.
However, instead of letting these representatives in, the self-claimed vice-president of the board denied these folks entry.
At the door, home owner representatives were turned away by Ms. Ceceilia Carrizales, with the blessing of the others who claim they’re in charge, stating there needed to be a “court-authorized power of attorney on file”.
This is after home owners confirmed no special form was needed in advance, as seen in the below message, sent 1 week prior to the meeting taking place:
The OWNER of the association’s management company confirmed that no special form was required when sending a representative to attend the board meeting.
Why is it that Ms. Carrizales and company denied entry? Is it because:
The folks claiming to be the leaders are ignorant of what the requirements for entry into their own meeting?
The agents responsible for this meeting do not want to home owner engagement because it will put their own actions under scrutiny?
The self are discriminating as to who they will let in based on personal bias?
Homeowners received an email that 2021 financials had been audited by an independent CPA and a copy of the report was attached to the message.
The audit report is seen in the file titled FS AND AUDIT RESULTS(1).pdf.
It looks like there is an account with over $2M dollars at Berkley Court, as of December 2020.
Note: This is the only page highlighted in the entire report by the CPA.
Why has this account not been audited? Why are owners being subjected to an illegal rate increase when there seems to be a fund in place that is intended to replace common area elements?
The self-appointed directors and the association management company are completely unaware of what this references. If the auditor that completed the report highlighted this in yellow, how is it that no one thought to look into it as the report itself is over 7 months old?
Owners beware, these are the folks managing your money and your investments!!!
In a previous post in February, we mentioned that it looks like the self-appointed board members have steered benefits using home owner funds for themselves. We put in a picture of Lisa Hernandez’s fence, which looked like this at the time:
The self-appointed board president had a fence that looked like this in February 2022.
Lo and behold, it was surprising to see the same fence being torn out and redone again in July 2022 by LED contractors.
The state of Unit 110’s fence on July 28, 2022.
Meanwhile, we have home owners who have been asking for YEARS to get their fence repaired as it has fallen on them, it is rotting, or it is being held together with band-aids. In some cases, it’s all of the above:
When looking at the finances that was sent out to all home owners on 11/12/2022 by Houston HOA, it seems that Berkley Court home owners have paid an amazing $3674 for LED to change lightbulbs during the 2022 calendar year.
Berkley Court owners have paid $3674 to change light bulbs in 2022 – and the year is not yet over!
This is especially remarkable, considering that light bulbs were generally changed by previous porters, in addition to picking up trash and other duties.
In section 5.4 of the Declaration for our community, it states:
Based on this, a number of concerns emerge with the recent communication regarding the 2023 maintenance increase announced by the board in September 2022:
1. Elementary school math teaches us 110% of X = 10% more than the whole. Not 2X. So, for example, 110% of 200 = 220, not 420. X, in our case, is the current monthly assessment. For convenience, here is a Google search result of the same so you can check multiple sources.
The answer is the same, no matter what browser or search engine you use!
2. Any assessment that covers any special project like reconstruction is not a usual maintenance fee. For capital projects, there is a separate assessment involved, and usually includes the specific scope, cost, timeline, etc. in order for it to be passed. None of this has been put forward and voted by the home owners, as per Section 5.6 of the Declaration.
Instead, as usual, the current self-appointed directors are breaching the contractual obligations of the association at home owner expense.
3. The majority of the self-appointed home owners have been on the board for at least 3-5 years. The first requirement of a board member is to understand the governance structure and the legal requirements of an association. It is VERY concerning, disturbing that after all these years, the self-appointed directors still do not have a grasp of what is allowed or not allowed in the Declaration. What else are they mismanaging due to a lack of understanding or willful misunderstanding?
Can the board members forgotten all their elementary school math?
4. The property management company, Houston HOA Management, is perpetuating this breach of the declaration. A property management company’s basic requirement is to understand the governance structure and the legal requirements of an association so that it can enforce it as needed – it is EXTREMELY alarming that Houston HOA is enabling violations of governing documents, rather than advising the board to abide by it and distancing themselves with any association’s directors that is determined to break the law.
Have you wondered why some of the fences in our community look very different from the others seen in the community? Unit A’s fence is painted and standing up straight, Unit B is not. Is it because the owner of Unit A is paying more? Could it be that the owner of Unit B does not want his or her fence in good condition to withstand the elements?
What the average fence looks like at Berkley Court, from a distance
Or, may I suggest, it might be because Unit A’s owner is on or has a friend on the Board, who has steered that benefit to him or herself?
You may wonder why the owner of Unit B doesn’t speak up about this disparity. In fact, many residents have brought this up and unless they are on personal good terms with a board member, the repair request is ignored or worse.
Here is one home owner’s troublesome experience in trying to get his fence fixed.
If you think owners of Unit A and B both should be treated alike, and that the unequal treatment of community members should stop, please join us in our movement to improve our community. After all:
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.
