New Door for $4000

I am afraid that our board members are doing some fraud. Recently our condo building entrance door was changed. They installed a new frame, new door, magnet hinges and 12 copies of the keys were made for every owner in our building.
I was surprised to see the total cost for the work done.

Do you think these expenses are ok (we are in NJ)? Or something wrong with this? How can we find out? Is there anything can be done?

FYI - I have an ordinary tomehome and starting shopping for a new entry door with one panel (1/2 light) on each side which was 12 inches wide. A cheap door and the side light panels were $2,000 from either of the two big home supply stores (you know who I'm talking about) and that was just for the parts (NO LABOR). Contractors gave me prices in the 3500-4000 range. I finally decided to go with a Energy Saver, Fiberglass Woodgrain door made by the company who name ryhmes with Fella and the price for this was $2,800 without labor. The cost for installation was another $700. Your price doesn't sound outlandish to me.

Did they get several bids? We are required, by our bylaws, to have three bids for expenditures over a certain amount. The door's price does not seem out of line, however.

The door is not made from glass or steel or using any metal. I dont know much about doors but I am planning to find out from home depot.

I read our by laws and it says above 2500 dollars notices should be sent to all homeoners. This is not conducted in our association. What can be done? Please put some light on this aspect.

PradnyaK1: ..."I read our by laws and it says above 2500 dollars notices should be sent to all homeoners."

How were you notified or how do you know info on the door? Have you asked the Board why homeowners were not sent a notice according to what the Bylaws state?

Yes, USUALLY the meeting of the Board is for board members only,unless your documents state that general owner members can attend.

Also - was the door's expenditure taken from the annual expenditure budget or out of the Reserve Fund, or it could have even been an Emergency expenditure.

You need to get more information, but you should be able to call the treasurer and get all the facts. Also, I am concerned about the use of the word "fraud" in your original post. Please be careful about labeling actions until you have all the facts.

We never have any board meetings. The door work was done by the president and treasurer. Vice president does not live in the condo. Secratory (i spoke with her) was not aware of the expenditure and never informred about the work assesments. Voting?? It never happened.

Please accept my apologies for using "Fraud" word in my 1st post without having all the details. I am new to this forum and also a first buyer. I am learning how things work.

I would like to know if i have a right to ask president for the detail door bill? Material cost+ labor? I am not a board member but a homeonwer.

PradnyaK1: First of all, yes you certainly can question the Board on this expense. But, be careful that your question/s pertain to what your documents state the Board has authority to do. And, the Board should be assuming their authority only according to the document directives.

You need to study your documents and learn what the Association Common Expense Items are for your community--these items could the condo door, ground maintenance, streets/sidewalks, roofs--whatever is listed in your Declaration as the "responsibility of the Condo Association". Further, a Capital Expense Fund should be designated for repair/maintenance of these Asset items listed and the money is alloted from a PORTION of the regular assessment fees collected from residents. This directive, also, should be included in your documents.

IF you learn the door is a common expense item, and the cost of replacement is to come out of Capital Expense Fund, then IMHO I don't see a problem. The Board replaced the door, and showed the expense on the 'expenditure list' which I assume is a financial report. You may want to take a look again at the expenditure list to learn under what 'line item' the $4000 is shown. That should tell you if the funds were taken out of Capital Expense Fund or elsewhere.

PK1: I am not surprised that you would not be granted the invoice.

However, to repeat, you need to learn from your documents the process to 'review' the invoices as shown on the 'expenditure list' given to residents.
You may need to make an appointment for review of the records and there may be a charge if you want a copy. All this has to be done according to what the documents allow for you.

Are there any online documents where I can find- what are the Condo Owner's rights (I live in NJ)?
If i am entitled to see the invoices? and all general rights given to a condo homeonwer.

I get replies from the president and tresurer that "You have to trust us, we have been doing this from 23 years".

Our association is very small. 12 condos in total. There are no formal board memebers meeting held in past. Everything is done in very casual manner.I am new in association. There was special meeting held for re-electing a president. That time an expense sheet was distributed. Now I want to know the details. I am not doubting their work. I just want to go tho' the door expense cause i feel $4000 is a big amount.

My question is if they have information and they think work is correctly done then why don't they keep the information TRANSPARENT. We (ever owner) pay the maintainance. The condo association fund is not owned by any one person. If the work is done and if we want to know how the money has been spent over it, then is there anything wrong in it?

PK1: Did you receive official documents when you purchased in your community?

I'm the treasuer of our condo association and I'm MORE than open about the expenses. It's not MY money, it's EVERYONE'S money and every association member has a right to know where ever single dime and dollar is going---IF they ask! We have monthly board meetings and I always bring the financial reports with me from the previous month. Everyone knows they can "look them over", if they'd like. They can also request copies, which will be printed for a fee to them. People very rarely ask to see them anyway, because we're very specific in our monthly (posted) minutes about what costs and prices are, for projects. I'd be suspect, too, if you ask and are refused information. Don't worry about using the "fraud" word. We suspected that a few years ago, and lo and behold, we discovered our president had stolen over $5000.00 from our reserves fund for "misc. building supplies". We got it back, she did felony jail time......but that's a whole other story.

PK1: Read them, study them and learn what you as a condo association member are allowed to do in reference to your review of files.

AnnaD2: Thanks for your replies. I really appreciate it.

We received the bill for door expenditure from condo president (after convincing). The bill is not at all descriptive. It just has list of jobs done and total cost. No break up about the material and labor.

Treasurer says that's how contractors give us the bills. When we told her that if you ask them to give the break up they should give you. But looks like board is not willing to get it from the contractor. Here my suspicion grows! Also she mentioned that this time i will give u the bill. Is there any online link where i can find the condo association onner's rights? I will print them and show her in the next annual meeting.

(MicheleD: I think i did not give the whole background when i posted the query..sorry for that. Here you go)
In the special meeting, we were told that the maintainance is going to go up. This is the 5th time maintainance is going up in a row. We do not have security guard, no heating inc, no hot water inc, no pool, no tennis court. We have a common yard, parking lot and maint includes cold water. Current maintainance is $210. No asscessmanets for next year. We have enough money (10k +) in the reserve now. All the board members work on no pay for the association. We have 12 condos in the association.

When i discussed with the other owners they are also not happy with the continuous increase in main. 5 years back prev. treasurer left only $1000 in the account who sold the condo and left. Also heard that he never kept the bills or gave the financial document at the year end.

2 years back roof was changed (we were not there). Every owner had to pay $2000 from their pockets as there were no money in the reserve. It just makes me curious after listing this from other owners that why did not they sue the previous treasurer who left no money in the reserve. Every board member remains mum!

Yes! Board do not conduct any meetings. In fact the secretary who is willing to get involved is always side tracked. She was not aware of the door costs until we were given the finance statement. I dont think they took the 3 quotes for the door work from 3 different contractors.

Also one more thing bothers me. When we moved in, we wanted to install dish. We asked the president if we can? She said we are not allowed to drill any holes in the outside wall and the roof because if it leaks or something else happens it is associations responsibility to fix it. We respected the rules of the condo. Now I saw that the top floor owner who lives next to us has the attic ladder (this is not recently done.) and she is using the attic for storage. I am sure attic ladder is installed on the roof beams. Isn't it a violation of the rule?

She was not involved in the decision making process. She is willing to know whats happening.

In California we get to BUY copies of minutes, bids, contracts, etc. 15 cents a page, don't laugh, it adds up month after month. Also, our contract with our property management company requires at least 3 bids. We have found that sometimes it is hard finding 3 service providers for a specialized product to a HOA. But also we have found that we often need to get MORE than 3 bids, 7-10 bids. It has been my experience that when you try to save money, go cheaper, you end up with a product that does not hold up as well, or costs more to maintain. I prefer quality over cost as quality will pay for itself many times over by lower maintenance costs. There should be a consumers reports for business type products, like community doors & locks & gates & ..

Our experience is that we often have saved up to 50% plus getting better services. It does require through evaluation of bids and the bidders by highly qualified evaluators. Poor results can be achieved when one selects 3 unknown companies, solicits bids without a carefully developed RFP, and/or automatically selects the low bidder.