An Article
DUCK DUCK GOOSE
Mother Goose Tales of How Your HOA Could Get Stuck With Big Bills!
March 20, 2004
By Grande. Ganzo (View author info)
Laguna Niguel, California -
Here is a grim fairy tale for board members and homeowners to consider. The following is a scenario, one that is expensive for the homeowners, an inconvenience to the membership, and exterminates animals, all unnecessarily. This story only serves to line the pocket of the association's management company and the vendors with whom they do business. A tale that you could not imagine, actually did happen, one that seems so preposterous as to be inconceivable. That, unfortunately, is how this system really operates!
AND SO THE STORY GOES
A homeowners association has a community swimming pool located at a park facility. The homeowners' assessments pay for its maintenance. The management company supplies the various vendors and contractors who service the community.
One day in the fall of the year, mallard ducks are spotted paddling around the community pool. Some mallards lay eggs, and no more then a half dozen ducks decide to make this community pool their temporary home. One must remember mallard ducks are migratory birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the state of California. The Treaty states that taking or disposing of these migratory birds is against federal and state regulations.
Regardless, once the pool maintenance contractor observes ducks, he notifies the management company (who we were told shares 70% of his accounts), and immediately padlocks the pool facility. Having possession of the only key, the pool contractor is effectively denying use of this common area to the members.
The membership is locked out of their pool facility which also houses community amenities such as the park's bathroom facilities, etc. Simultaneously, the pool maintenance contractor immediately halts cleaning the pool, which he was hired to clean. With everyone locked out of the pool area, the ducks are left to flourish without intrusion, and suddenly what was a handful of mallards leave a mess worthy of an immense flock of ducks. The ducks, left to their own devices, produce feces covering the pool decking, inside the pool, and eroding the plaster. This goes on for weeks.
Suddenly, by creating a duck-friendly environment, and discontinuing cleaning services, the board is presented with a community emergency! THEY MUST DO SOMETHING about those darn ducks that are creating an unhealthy environment at our pool, so they are told!
'Who you gonna call? DUCK BUSTERS!' To the rescue comes the association's management-friendly pest management company. Here are the 'heroes', they have a license with the state (the only one in existence) to exterminate ducks, since the ducks are damaging property. They make their pitch to the board and the community.
For a substantial fee they will provide a permit (which they already have, and cost them $25) to bait the mallards. Once caught, they will charge the association over one thousand dollars. This endeavor carries a hefty price tag!
Keep in mind - while this emergency is being created - the association's management company continues to pay the pool maintenance vendor his monthly fee, even though he has abandoned and locked the pool (this locked pool facility creates an attractive nuisance to the association, a true liability).
For the next several months pest management employees place tainted duck bait around the pool area in efforts to catch these temporary guests. In doing so, they are placing poisons where children once played. The poisons leech into the water, polluting the pool. All this creates an environment unsafe for the community and the resident's beloved pets.
Finally, after diligent efforts, the pest management company is successful. On a late morning in mid March the drugged ducks stagger and fall in front of homeowners and their children. The pest control employees put the drugged ducks in their truck, telling several versions of the ducks' fate. Regardless of their stories of relocating the ducks, the ducks are exterminated.
Concerned homeowners are labeled "PETA fanatics" by the management company. The management warns the pest control company to be aware of these fanatical homeowners who could give them problems (there are no known PETA fanatics in the community). Regardless, the damage has been done.
On an inspection of the community pool facility, the county health agency declares that the pool is filthy and the plaster needs replacement. Another big bill for the association! Not to mention the fact the pool needed intense cleaning after months of neglect. More money on top of the neglect the homeowners financed.
By the time one adds the charges of maintenance not performed, removal of the ducks, and plastering the pool, the association is hit with considerable charges, hitting the budget with charges that were utilized to solve a contrived emergency and a self-serving industry. If everyone had done their job professionally from the start, there would have been no need for these charges or the extermination of protected water fowl.
This illustrates how a management company and their vendors can work in concert to create a money generating proposition, taking association funds for this collaborative effort.
Who loses? Everyone, especially the ducks. Who benefits? No one except management, the pool contractor, and the pest management company!
Does this sound familiar or resemble a practice you have observed within your association? Next time you observe a community condition, consider the possibility of vendors and management working in concert to create billable situations, eroding your assets erroneously.
THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU !
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"Hello Grande Ganzo! What a lovely pool ...thanks for letting us drop in " said Mallard
" Love the sunny brach and ocean vu here too", said Ducky.
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1 comment:
surfside hoa in huntington beach did the same thing turning the pool over to ducks and locked out homeowners each breeding season for the ducks because the board members, who never use the pool themselves,,felt the raising of the ducks was cute.
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