When you wish it was a condo
It is not always best to living in a free-hold townhouse.
'It's like a horror film': Rat infestation has residents fleeing Kanata row houses
Residents say they've felt abandoned by the city since July, when rat infestation began
CBC News (abridged)
Emma Weller
09 October 2024
Ana Cojuhari lay wide awake in bed each night, unable to sleep because of the horrifying screeches of the rats scurrying behind the walls of her Ottawa home.
"It was just insane. It's just impossible, it was so loud," she said.
Then there was the odour. "[It] just smells like death in that house," Cojuhari said.
Cojuhari rents one of the four units in a row house in Kanata South, all of which have become infested with rats since early July.
Videos she took show nearly a dozen rats climbing over her seven-year-old son's toys in the backyard. The rodents have also been chewing and destroying the inside of her home, she said.
Cojuhari said she tried to stick it out, holding out hope the city would intervene to resolve the situation. When that didn't happen, she and her son fled last month to stay with a friend.
"At this point I had to [say], let's save myself, save my kid, and we had to leave the house," said Cojuhari.
The infestation has also forced her former neighbour Heba Wasfy, who came to Canada three years ago, to temporarily move back to the United Arab Emirates.
Residents of the row house allege the problem started at an end unit and the rats have spread from there.
"We called 311, we called the city, we called the fire department. We called everyone that we can. We screamed for help but no one took it seriously," Wasfy said.
Ottawa's bylaw department confirmed it received a report about an infestation at a property on the street.
"Following inspections of the property in question, Property Standards Orders were issued requiring the owner to conduct pest control, extensive repairs, and a clean-up of the property," according to a statement attributed to Roger Chapman, the department's director.
The owner of that unit was originally given until the end of September to comply with the orders before charges could be issued.
But just days before the deadline, the owner appealed one of the orders and after a hearing the deadline was extended to Oct. 11, the city said.
The city said the extension was provided "as the resident had already taken steps to begin the work."
These four townhouses must be freehold units. Note that the four owners are not working together. They should have pooled their money together and hired one pest control company. There is no indication that they have hired a lawyer. Are they keeping detailed records and keeping all their receipts for their expenses?
Expecting the city to act quickly and thoroughly on their behalf is a huge mistake.
Where a condo shines
This is one of the situations where a competent condo manager and board would shine. First of all, all of the exterior walls, including vents and openings belong to the corporation. They would have contractors close the holes and immediately had a pest control company on site.
The condo has the right of entry to do necessary repairs in the end unit.
If the end-unit owner was negligent, the condo would have sent the owner a bill for all the damages to all of the units and the common elements.
If that didn’t work, the very expensive legal letters would start. If that didn’t work; well the condo lawyer starts the lien process with a notice to the mortgagee. Most likely, the bank would pay up and proceed to seize the unit.
Another question. Why didn’t the owners get a cat or a dog? Some breeds are better than others at killing rats. Even if a cat may not kill rats, they will kill the kits and that fear deters rats. The original Siamese is still a favorite mouser and ratter.
A good feral barn cat, kept outside, would help.
Condo manager has licence revoked over cryptocurrency buy
Globe and Mail (abridged)
Shane Dingmanreal estate reporter
24 April 2024
A property manager who transferred $500,000 in condominium reserve funds to an alleged cryptocurrency investment company known as Pink Piggy Investment Group Inc. has had his license to manage condominiums in Ontario revoked.
The initial notice to revoke Norbert (Bert) Berger’s license came with a suspension by the CMRAO on Oct 12, 2023, following its investigation after a Sept. 20 Globe and Mail story described the allegations against the long-time condo manager and his company L & H Property Management Inc.
The April 5 ruling by Colin Osterberg, Vice-Chair of Ontario’s Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), was unequivocal in weighing the evidence against Mr. Berger: “The Tribunal can have no confidence that he is prepared to act in accordance with the law or with honesty and integrity in the future.”
Mr. Osterberg found Mr. Berger contravened section 52 of the Act, which requires a manager to provide written notice to a client if they have an interest in a contract or transaction. Also breached was section 32 of the Act’s regulations that bar a licensed manager from completing a transaction they have an interest in without written approval.
Mr. Berger is the chairman of the board of Pink Piggy and a shareholder, but told the LAT that he had no “financial interest” in the transfer of $500,000, and that he gets no compensation or benefit from the company.
Mr. Osterberg rejected that contention.
“It is not believable that the appellant would take on the responsibilities of being a member of Pink Piggy’s board of directors and be issued shares in the company without some expectation of a benefit, financial and otherwise,” he said.
The question of whether Mr. Berger notified the board of his client building, York Condominium Corporation No. 25, and received approval for the transaction was also contentious.
Mr. Berger argued the lack of approval from the board was commonplace: “The appellant says that YCC No. 25 ‘operates on silence’ and that if he waited for approval from the board, nothing would ever get done. He testified that, for him, ‘silence is approval,’” said Mr. Osterberg.
Mr. Berger has said the money has since been paid back in full, but Mr. Osterberg ruled that the condo “lost the opportunity to earn investment income during the better part of a year that the money was allegedly in the possession of Pink Piggy.”
HubKoin / Pink Piggy Investment Group Incorporated
As part of the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) mandate to protect investors and the integrity of our markets, we issue investor warnings and alerts. Investor warnings caution the public about individuals or companies that may pose a risk to investors.
The OSC has issued an investor warning with the following information:
If you have been approached by the individual or company above, contact us immediately. Please also contact us if you are approached by anyone who is not registered.
Please read Condo Election Tricks on the CondoMadness.org website. When that site was written, the author started with exposing election fraud at one condo corporation. When months, the one article turned into a full chapter that exposed crooked elections in the GTA and then across North America.
Datsun Property Management fined
I recently received this email from a group of owners at a Toronto condominium.
“We are a group of condo owners living at YCC #414 located at 2645 Kipling Ave, Etobicoke. We are sending you a copy of the CMRAO decision—see attached—issued earlier this year against Datsun Property Management and its Property Manager (PM) Slobodan Pavloski for interfering in the election of Directors at YCC #414 in order to have specific candidates hand picked by the Property Manager himself, elected to the Board.
The PM used its authority to solicit proxies from the owners in favor of "his" candidates. Other candidates did not stand a chance of getting elected.
Once elected these directors operate under the direction of the PM and this way the PM controls the board and the financial and business decisions of the corporation.
In the light of the CMRAO decision, a petition was signed by the owners and sent to the directors asking them to terminate immediately the management company for undermining trust and confidence in the election process at YCC #414. However, the directors did not do anything as they, themselves, are the primary beneficiaries of the PM's unlawful conduct.
The PM unlawfully got the directors elected and in return the directors protect him.
We believe this situation, whereby Property Managers in the condo industry use their authority to interfere, influence and rig the election of Board members, is widespread in Ontario. Other owners should be made aware that PMs should act professionally and ethically, all the times, for the good governance of the condo corporation.
And bad directors should be held accountable and liable when they fail to act "honestly and in good faith"—as required by s.37 of the Act.
We are sending you this email anonymously for fear of retaliation from both the management and the directors.
Thank you.
Concerned Owners”
The decision (abridged)
THE DISCIPLINE COMMITTEE ORDERS THE FOLLOWING:
3. The Licensees are required to pay the CMRAO a fine in the amount of five thousand
dollars ($5,000) within three (3) months of the date of this Order.
What was the offence:
Solicitation of Proxies and Interference in the Election of the Corporation’s
Board of Directors
5. It is agreed that in or around May, 2021 and June, 2021, in advance of the
Corporation’s Annual General Meeting and Election of the Board of Directors
of the Corporation, Mr. Pauloski:
a. asked for proxies from unit owners of the Corporation for particular candidates in
the election;
b. asked unit owners who had already completed proxies to change their votes to
support particular candidates in the election; and
c. told unit owners that certain candidates were not fit to be Board Members and were
not good enough for the Board of Directors, or words to that effect, to influence how
unit owners voted in the election.
Read the decision in full:
Click on a case to expand and view each discipline and appeal decision.
Datsun Property Management LTD. and Slobodan Pauloski | Date of decision: 2024/04/17
Topic(s): Solicitation of Proxy Forms, Failure to Properly Supervise a Limited Licensee
View decision and order [PDF - 316 KB]
You can download the decision here:
https://cmrao.ca/consumer-protection/discipline-and-appeals-decisions
Property management companies need a friendly condo board of directors to retain their contracts. No contracts, no money. The smaller the company, the more serious is the losing a contract. As I recall, Datsun is as small as it gets.
So will many property management companies interfere with condo elections? Of course they will. Some lightly but others treat election fraud as if it was a favourite hobby or sport. There is a special delight in jerking people around that fraud provides; there is little to match it.
To see how bad it can get, read:
Condo election tricks (Read the whole chapter)
Channel Property management (This story would make a great TV series)
So Datsun paid a $5,000 fine and had to take a community college course. Big deal. That is just a small business expense. What is important is that Datsun kept the contract.
Of course the present directors will keep Datsun on. Mr. Pauloski got them the proxies they needed to get re-elected didn’t he?
The disgruntled owners are unfortunately few in number. They rightfully fear retaliation from the board and the manager. What do they need? A person who can take the time to study the Condo Act, the corporation’s Declaration, Bylaws and Rules and the annual audited financial statements. Once someone fully understands all of that, then the owners can start to organize.
Then wait. The manager, in the normal performance of his/her duties will annoy some of the owners. That however is not enough. Be patient.
At some point, the majority of owners will turn against the board. Usually it is caused by a large increase in maintenance fees, a special assessment, or the need to take on a large loan. Kick a man in his testicles, he will holler. Hit condo owners in their pocketbooks and they will scream and demand blood.