Attorneys: Questions about condominium fraud #1 (long)

[john70t]

What is the legal Michigan Statute of Limitations for fraud.
Is it 6 years or 2 years?

Background 1:
1). After purchase, non-profit corporate condominium records were not available for three years.
-Five different owner demands for an audit were ignored.
-The Developer (owner for 6 of 18 units) was not paying dues. Period.
-The shady management company was witnessed repairing inside his personal units. Not the building.
-There was evidence of utilities, insurance, and banking fraud. A great amount.
-My personal layman review showed about $42,000 was due to the association.

2). I was voted President by eleven of twelve other owners.
-I was also appointed prez by the board and another appointed treasurer, as per the by-laws.
-The Developer ignored all.
-Personal threats/defamation against owners followed.
-The direct involvement of two other directors/three other owners was well known. One director attended court hearings.
-Eight owners paid into our escrow account. Others stopped paying.

3). Our Board of Directors took the developer to court in 2009.
-Our attorney completely bungled the case, but donated his time pro-bono. He tried.
-The single page scribbled "audit" by a "professional firm" was submitted as "evidence". No ruling exists on this.
-I'm assuming it was dismissed 'without prejudice'. This is not specified on any court docs.
-The outgoing Judge was a 'female ex-best-friend' of my mothers, and soon after retired.
-The powerful defense-attorney was running for her vacant office. They were friends.
-His law-partner is currently our association's representative.
-She has also violated professional ethics, numerous times.
-Legal 'conflict-of-interest' was quite prevalent.........to say the least

4). After the failed lawsuit, the developer assessed me (solely) his legal defense fees.
-The official court judgement was against 'The Association'.
-The only existing eligible member on the board voted against such.
-There are four clauses specifying automatic volunteer director indemnification unless malfeasance is adjudged.
-No judgement of any malfeasance exists on record.
-I was a volunteer director at the time.
-The defending attorney admitted "I do not represent the association". and then later claimed that I was culpable of malfeasance.

5). Subsequently, the same rat-bastard owners turned on me.
-They forgave the developer's previous assessment of $7,500 in unpaid dues.
-They denied further audit demands.
-They sent notice of assessment and the foreclosure right before several Christmases.
-They rejected several settlement offers based of owners involved.
-All actions and communications were purely vindictive and intentionally defamatory.
-The settlement money was borrowed from family, and paid 'under protest'.

6). Of the three majority board members following the trial to uphold this illegal 'special assessment':
a). One met with our attorney.
b). One did not pay dues for 18 months.
c). One(current) has admitted in email "Yes, I was involved in the lawsuit".

At this point, financially I could just walk away.
However, I am seeking justice for individual corporate rights to prevail, and to clear my name.
a). $3,000+ has supposedly been embezzled from me, personally.
b). $9,000+ has been taken forcefully, in opposition to all corporate rules.

No local attorney in this town seems willing to accept my case, supposedly because of the defense attorney's status and connections.
(Or they want $15k to reclaim $9k.)

My only option at this point seems to be to file in small claims court.

[GG Allin]

Remind me to never purchase a property with a HOA. Sorry I can't be of any help.

[Rot 911]

This kinda sounds like that book you were going to write: Defamation question for the attorneys: Book on condo nightmare

[greglepore]

John-I don't mean to offend, but generally when I was practicing, a story like your's was a red flag to stay away-I mean, "my mom's ex-girlfriend was the judge but she was in cahoots with the defense atty so she screwed me"? Be objective. I'm not saying this didn't happen, I'm just saying that its so out there that most sane attorneys would run.

The couple times I actually took a case like this I got screwed either financially or emotionally. One guy paid me with the only asset he had-a Ducati, then literally stole it back from me when he was unhappy that he lost his case despite my work which hourly would have bought a Ferrari, not a Duc.....

[recycled sixtie]

John I have been thinking about your situation for the past couple of days.

You have a few options. The others posters here have good points.

Option 1. Sell your condo to an unsuspecting buyer. I am sure there are lots of those. This kind of cr_p can eat away at you.

Option 2. Get a petition signed by all the non-developer condo owners. Now I tend to have radical ideas but they sometimes work. If it was me and the other condo owners stop payment of condo fees to the developer and you can self manage with the assistance of the other condo owners. Much like a cancer starved of blood flow ie. $$$ the developer has less incentive to be dishonest.

We have a condo unit in a bldg of 56 units. It is managed by a condo management co. I am on the board as treasurer. I am the go between the owners and the management co. Management fees are about C$2200 a month total. I trust them totally. If you get enough support you could possibly vote out the developers as your managers. They sound like crooks.

3. Go the legal route.

This kind of cr_p impacts your health John. I know it would mine. Clean house or get out.
Cheers, Guy

[john70t]

Greg, I'm truly sorry about your clientele problem and frustrations.
Thankfully it was only lost time, and not near-bankruptcy.
That money was slated to go to Pelicanparts.

You volunteered a great deal of effort to a noble cause, but got screwed by the same people.
I would hope that I'm more similar to yourself than your client.
I'll take my lumps when even slightly wrong, but this is the opposite.
Many people told me to recover these monies from the attorney who tried to help us.
I refused to even consider the idea and gave him a decent gift card to help with his actual expenses.
I was the only one of the group to do so.

Rot, good memory! Yes the saga continues. Now in volume form

Guys I'm just wanting to know whether Michigan S.O.L. on Fraud is six years, or two.
I've been told both during consultations.

(and apologies for any previous hyperbole)

[greglepore]

John-major disclaimer-not a Mich lawyer-but here's a good a link- http://www.bsdd.com/CM/Custom/Michigan%20Statute%20of%20Limitations%20for%20Frau d.pdf

Summary-statute of limitations for fraud is 6 yrs but there is an argument that it could be 3 that hasn't been accepted by Michigan courts to date, but always could be...

[berettafan]

I don't mean this in a personal way...but I'm being honest with what I'm seeing. I'm not an atty, just a cpa who has dealt with a couple hoa's and has learned his lesson.

My gut is that you are a pain in the ass condo owner. Your background statement reads somewhat like a one man crusade for injustices that not everyone perceives in the same light.

There is very little mention of the condo docs in your complaint. Were they followed or not? if not then perhaps enumerating in great specificity each and every failure would be helpful. Too much feelings and not enough contract. I'm not sure you can draw a line from each of your complaints to a definitive breach.

I think you need to make it easier for a qualified atty AND judge to see your point in their own language.

One complaint of yours that I do find reasonable is the suggestion that atty's take jobs based on who the opposing counsel is. That, in my experience, is fact. The result is almost always decided before you finish signing the retainer check.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by berettafan

My gut is that you are a pain in the ass condo owner. Your background statement reads somewhat like a one man crusade for injustices that not everyone perceives in the same light.

Thank you for the reflection.
I respect it, and in most situations would also concur.

However, you are not familiar with the situation:
-One third of the entity not contributing (a corporate duty to profit).
-Building was trashed.
-Building should have been condemned.
-Roof was leaking for 8 years following purchase. Known at sale.
-My unit had three holes in the ceiling, with trashed carpets.
-Sewer backups. Multiple insurance claims. Parking lot lights out(scary for women especially), drug dealing, homeless in the laundry room, entry locks broken for months(denying egress during any fire), etc.
-Zero reserves held against bylaws.
-Multiple audits denied against bylaws.
-Personal defamation. Physical threats.
-The list goes on and on.

And to be blunt, I wasn't just 'a condo owner'.
I was the Board of Directors President, elected unanimously to fix the problems.
I demanded the same of anyone.
No politics. No personal favors. Just fix the problems one at a time.
That hard line didn't work.

Originally, I was the most subtle and patient of the group.
I actually defended this parasite against others.
That was a mistake.

[1990C4S]

The problem I see is this: 'pain in the ass condo owners', and people who have been really mistreated are virtually indistinguishable from a distance. They both appear to have a long list of valid complaints.

Life is short. Sell and move on.

Originally Posted by john70t

No local attorney in this town seems willing to accept my case, supposedly because of the defense attorney's status and connections.
(Or they want $15k to reclaim $9k.)

My only option at this point seems to be to file in small claims court.

Perhaps the unanimity of legal advice here should be telling you something, right or wrong, maybe you can't get a fair trial. And maybe the $9k can only be retrieved by spending $15k, and even that is a gamble.

[MRM]

This isn't a $15,000 case to see it through to the end. The issues raised include fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of common ownership interest statutes, usurping corporate opportunities/corporate assets, failure to adequately fund a common ownership development, failure to properly turn over control of the development to the unit owners. And you have competing slates for the board of directors. I'd quote $50,000 minimum to see the case through trial.

That's why no one wants to take the case for you. You're never going to get your money back, it will be a hard and unpleasant fight, and you won't be happy with your lawyer when it's done.

Think about this one question: What is the legal remedy that you want done? Can you refine your answer to a sentence or two?

[Tobra]

You need to get the other owners to band together and kick the developer to the curb, vote them out. Legal action is not the way you want to go.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by MRM

Think about this one question: What is the legal remedy that you want done? Can you refine your answer to a sentence or two?

Recover $5K through small claims.

Fraud based on Breach of Contract.
There exist four clauses of indemnification, unless adjudicated malfeasance.
That is simple enough.

The malfeasance was on the part of the following boards.