Hello, Please allow me to apologize for the length of this. I hope
someone can help me.

My fiance and I bought our first home together, a condo in a small
nine-unit building, a year ago. Being first-time buyers (and
relatively stupid), we did not do much research into the building
itself. We are located in New Jersey.

Now, one year later, we have discovered that the past and current
owners never formed any kind of an owners association, and that the
building was, for a time, self-managed before those responsibilites
were put in the hands of a property management company.

The problem: the building is only sixteen years old. The physical
problems of the building, so far, are slight. However, as with any
building, problems could be on the horizon. We are all extremely
dissatisfied with the property management company; they have allowed
certain aspects of the property to decline. A wooden fence surrounding
the property has begun to fall, there is evidence of termites on
another side of the fence, the interior halls are not being maintained,
etc. Ans when we do have to call them, they are nasty in the extreme.


The reason they give for this is that there is not a surplus of money -
at all - in our account. They have never contacted anyone to inform
them that the dues might have to be raised but the fact that we had no
organization may have something to do with that.

We recently started to have meetings twice a month to discuss how we
should proceed (I was voted - for now - Treasurer, based on the fact
that i am a bookkeeper by profession.)

Our for-now President offered to find another company willing to take
us on. He found a local company, who informed our President to request
copies of certain financial records from our current company. Our
President left a voice mail a few days in advance for the woman who
handles our account, asking her for the records, and giving her a ime
and date for his intended visit. When he arrived at her office at the
time he had told her he would, she left him sitting there for two
hours, and gave him only a basic document listing total income and
expenditures for the year, a good deal of which I question ($3000.00
this year, to date, for electric service? When the lights in the
common hallways are only on at night, the hallways are not
air-conditioned, and the heat is kept to a minimuim? It's not adding
up for me.)

Three days after our president made his visit, all unit owners received
certified letters, stating that property management was dropping us as
of 10/31/2005.

There is also some indication that the present property management may
have violated some of our bylaws. They told a new owner that she could
put up a satellite dish when the bylaws strictly prohibit it. When
this same new owner's poorly-installed whirlpool tub (installed by an
unlicensed contractor) leaked into another owner's storage room,
causing some major ceiling and drywall damage, our pres. was told that
this new owner contacted property management who paid for it with
whatever monies we may have had.

Does anyone have any advice at all as to how we should proceed? Should
we secure legal representation for the time being, outside of any new
property management we may sign on with? Does the fact that the condo
owners themselves were violating bylaws by not forming and
organization, having meeting, etc., nullify the fact that the present
management violated our bylaws to our financial detriment?

Can anyone help us?

Thank you so much,

J. Meier