The Greater Toronto Area is the North American condo building king.
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B.C. arsonist who left 100 homeless gets 2-year conditional sentence
Oak Bay News
Alex Browne
16 November 2023
The man who pled guilty to setting the 2016 Five Corners fire in White Rock has received a two-year conditional sentence.
James Adrian Dyer, was sentenced Tuesday (Nov. 14) in Surrey Provincial Court, the BC Prosecution Service has confirmed.
The sentence conditions include house arrest for the first 12 months, to be followed by two years of probation.
The sentencing follows the recommendation of a joint submission from the Crown and defence counsels at the Oct. 12 sentencing hearing.
Dyer pleaded guilty on June 2 to three charges, including ‘arson damaging property’ and ‘arson in relation to inhabited property’ – some seven years after the original incident.
The early-morning fire in May 2016 left 100 people in the 60-unit Ocean Ridge condominium development homeless, many of them fleeing with little more than the clothes on their backs, and destroyed ground-level business premises as well as causing damage to nearby Star of the Sea Hall.
Firefighting efforts stretched White Rock’s water supply to the limit, resulting in a subsequent three-day boil-water advisory for the city, and a $107,000 bill for the use of Surrey’s firefighters and water.
(Crews had to tap into Surrey’s supply for more than six hours).
Mr. Dyerhouse sentenced to house arrest for 12 months, to be followed by two years of probation. Wow, that’s so harsh.
He caused 100 people to become homeless, burnt down a business, damaged another building, gave the city a three-day boil-water alert and gave the city a $107,000 fire fighting and water bill.
You realize that the condo owners will have to continue paying their monthly mortgage payments plus continue to pay their maintenance fees. Then they need to move somewhere and pay rent (or live with relatives) and replace all of their belongings. Their insurance, if they have it, will only pay for some of their losses.
Meanwhile the arsonist gets to sit at home and watch TV and play video games
for a full year.
This could be really bad news
Back in 2013, I read this notice with dread. Not only was the new board freezing the maintenance fees, they were reducing them.
What possibly could go wrong.
Thunder Bay councillor under fire for gesturing middle finger, claiming authority as city rep
CBC News (abridged)
Sarah Law
06 November 2023
A Thunder Bay, Ont., councillor's colleagues have delayed a discussion on an integrity commissioner's report that found she breached the city's Code of Conduct, involving video footage that appears to show her raising her middle finger during an incident involving residents of a condominium townhouse complex.
A complaint against Coun. Rajni Agarwal says that on June 13, she repeatedly harassed property owners who were doing exterior grading work.
The city's integrity commissioner, Principles Integrity, has recommended Agarwal's pay be suspended for 30 days, or two pay periods.
The integrity commissioner's report from Oct. 27 says, "Coun. Agarwal's behaviour was far from exemplary. It was, in fact, an example of inappropriate interference by an elected official: overbearing, harassing, invoking her status claiming to 'represent the city' in order to threaten and intimidate, and unduly influencing the attendance of law enforcement.
"Over their assertions that both property management and the condominium board had both approved the work, she escalated her tirade, yelling, giving them the finger, and repeatedly calling out the police."
condo’s ex-property manager
Agarwal, a real estate agent and developer, was first elected as an at-large councillor last fall. She formerly provided property management services for the townhouse complex where the complainants live, and operates her real estate business next door.
This wasn't the first time Agarwal has butted heads with those living in the complex. In fact, property management implemented a harassment policy in January "as a means of dealing with Coun. Agarwal's pattern of behaviour," the integrity commissioner's report says.
abuse of authority
The biggest issue with Agarwal's behaviour was she claimed to be representing the city while telling the property owners to stop what they were doing and threatening them with calls to the bylaw department and police. No contravention of any bylaw was determined.
"Her attempt to invoke her status, or threat of public humiliation, to cause the police to pursue some action against the owners constitutes an egregious abuse of authority," the report says. "We find that her conduct in gesturing with her middle finger to be a shocking breach of decorum."
After arrests and 300% fee hikes, Florida’s largest homeowners association gets new board
Miami Harold
By Linda Robertson
Updated 04 April 2023
The last time the Hammocks held an election for board members, it was a debacle that further alienated homeowners from a tyrannical board of directors that had seized control of the West Kendall subdivision. Hundreds of residents waiting in line were not allowed to vote because of a bomb threat, which police later said was fake.
A protest erupted outside the clubhouse. There were accusations of ballot-tampering and bribery. Despite the outrage, the board running the largest homeowners association in Florida was re-elected after certifying its own results.
The new board then held a secret budget meeting and promptly ordered a 300 to 400 percent increase in monthly maintenance fees.
Ten months later, two board members and two former board members were charged with stealing $2 million from the HOA.
On Thursday, a sense of serenity returned to the Hammocks. And a sense of trust. A clean election was held and seven new board members took office. First order of business to be discussed at their first meeting Tuesday, April 4: How to get the fiscal books in order and replenish the reserve fund that was plundered.
“It was a secure and fair election. The best I’ve seen in my 30 years here, and we feel relief,” said Idalmen “Chicky” Ardisson, who led all candidates with 926 votes. She served on the Hammocks’ architectural control committee before it was disbanded by the old board. About 2,500 ballots were cast in the community of 5,800 homeowners and 18,000 residents, which is spread over almost 4,000 acres from Southwest 88th to 120th streets, between Southwest 147th and 162nd avenues.
“My vision is to ensure we get what we’re paying for,” Ardisson said. “But we have a lot of catching up to do after years of corruption and turmoil. Our lakes and beaches are in disarray. Two swimming pools are closed for repairs. Many things are broken and it will be expensive to fix what’s been neglected.”
Budget more than tripled under old board
After the board members were indicted in November, the Hammocks Community Association was placed under the supervision of receiver David Gersten by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko. She heard testimony about how the old HOA harassed the community with code violation fines and threats of foreclosure. The board had not held a public meeting in four years. They refused to provide documentation of expenses. The annual budget mysteriously ballooned from $4 million to $13 million with no signs of how the money was being spent as the Hammocks’ amenities deteriorated. Gersten has found evidence of at least $3.4 million in missing funds, confirming Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s warning last year that investigators would uncover more fraud. Board members have been accused of running a scheme in which they used HOA checks and HOA credit cards from 55 bank accounts to pay for no-show work by shell companies or vendors, who would funnel money back to the board for their personal use.
“I believe there are many more arrests to come and justice has yet to be served on individuals who looted this community into oblivion and terrorized people,” said Don Kearns, a 29-year Hammocks homeowner and former HOA president who was elected to the new board. “We are thankful the receiver has stabilized the ship and is going down every single rabbit hole.”
At the center of the scheme was former Hammocks president and treasurer Marglli Gallego, according to law enforcement investigators. More than 200 checks were written to a company run by Gallego’s husband called Excellent Work and Services. Both Gallego and her husband, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, were charged with racketeering, money laundering and grand theft. They allegedly used money to renovate their house, buy a truck and build a home in Colombia — one of the reasons Gallego has been deemed a flight risk and has not been released from jail.
Gallego was first charged in April 2021 for stealing $60,000 from the HOA from 2016 to 2018, which prosecutors said she used to pay a private detective to spy on her rivals in the community.
the “Gallego Mafia.”
Around the Hammocks, Gallego and her allies were known as the “Gallego Mafia.” About $825,000 in HOA fees have been used to pay for Gallego’s defense lawyers, Gersten found.
Homeowners rebelled in 2022 after the chaotic Jan. 3 election. They suspected their fees were being siphoned off by the board, which stopped holding public meetings and ignored bylaws. A group of residents formed a coalition called Justice for the Hammocks and complained to the state agency that oversees HOAs and the state attorney’s fraud investigators. They managed to hold a recall election in June but two-thirds of the ballots were thrown out by the board.
‘seven-year battle’
In November, the grass-roots activists triumphed when Gallego, her husband, board members Monica Isabel Ghilardi and Myriam Arango Rodgers and former board member Yoleidis Lopez Garcia were arrested. Fees were temporarily reduced to their former level then hiked 50 percent by Gersten starting April 1.
“It was a seven-year battle that started with four people fighting the board,” Ardisson said. “Little by little it grew as we cut through the apathy to show residents how they were being exploited and ripped off. We proved that people have the power to make change if they don’t give up.”
Kearns, the longtime Hammocks resident and former HOA president, advocates major reform of state laws regulating HOAs but doesn’t think it’s a priority during the current legislative session. “The abuse that HOA boards perpetrate on homeowners — it’s an epidemic in Florida,” he said.
Watch the video
This Home Owners Association had it all.
• failure to hold annual membership meetings
• rigged elections
• fake bomb threat
• the board certifying its own election results.
• 300 % increase in maintenance fees
• charges of board stealing $2 million (more charges coming)
• at least $3.4 million in missing funds
• neglected maintenance
• no-show work by shell companies or vendors
• President paid a private detective to spy on her rivals
• $825,000 in HOA fees have been used to pay for the President’s defense lawyers
Two important items that must not be overlooked:
1.) Less than half of the owners voted in the latest election.
2.) It took four owners seven years to bring the crooked board to justice.
“It was a seven-year battle that started with four people fighting the board,” Ardisson said. “Little by little it grew as we cut through the apathy to show residents how they were being exploited and ripped off. We proved that people have the power to make change if they don’t give up.”