Just a friendly reminder to fill out the Doodle poll. (http://doodle.com/poll/vbb48tv62uq33fp5) It would be good by tomorrow (Wednesday) to finalize this all and get the meeting on our calendar.
I know a few people may not be in town and if that is you then let me know I will see if we can do a conference call or video meeting of some sort but need to know how many would be able to join that way. If that is you fill out the survey and let me know you can only do with a remote connection.
Thanks
Jason
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2016 4:53 PM
To: Jason
Subject: Lennar Letter on BBQ
Hello fellow Merchant Owners,
This past Friday we started receiving a letter from Lennar in regards to the BBQ. I will get into the details of what the letter says but first wanted to suggest we get together as a group to talk about this as it might be good to approach this as a large group and not individuals.
In order to do this I have created a doodle pool (http://doodle.com/poll/vbb48tv62uq33fp5) to see what might work. I realize we are going into the Holidays so am trying to get something set-up prior to the Holiday's given Lennar wants responses shortly after the New Year. So please fill out if you are able to attend. I am suggesting dates starting with next weekend giving us multiple time slots on the weekend days and 7pm on weekday nights. Also the "(Yes)" response means "Yes if Need Be." This means you preffer another time but can do it if it works best for the group as a whole.
I do need to emphasize this is NOT a HOA meeting rather simply a meeting of homeowners, more why this is not a HOA meeting will be explained in my details below about misinformation in the letter below.
Also it has been a while since we last used this list so I have BCC'ed everyone to make sure everyone is still a homeowner here and reply all do not fill up people's mailboxes who have sold their unit. Once we have had a chance to clean up our list I will do a new email with owners on it so we can talk as a group via email in the future. If you are a former owner can you please put us in connect with the current owner if you can. Also the following units are missing from the list so if you know who is in the unit please forward them this message and get me name and email address so I can add them to the group list. Units that we have no email contacts for #206, 208, 209, 216, 302, 304, 305, 307, 311, 314, 317, 401, 404, 408, 409, 413, 415, 504, 505, 506, and 507.
Sorry this next part is long but a lot to explain so please try to take some time to read through and see homework at the end.
Letter from Lennar. I read this letter and it has some very one sided accounts of what has transpired and to be blunt in my opinion lies about what has transpired so far.
In the 2nd paragraph they talk about meeting with owners and there offer being "rejected." Here is what transpired. The HOA a while ago had formed a committee of Merchant owners to come up with some ideas of what to do with the currently empty community room. That group has done some good work including a survey that many of you filled out on what folks would like to see, which favored a work-out room. The Lennar (represented by customer service team lead by Via), through First Service (FS), requested a meeting with this group not saying what they wanted to about other then it pertained to the Community Room. No single time was good for all the members of the HOA committee so a time was worked out where part of the HOA Committee meet Lennar representatives. At this meeting Lennar true wish was revealed. They wanted to take what they would have spent on a roof top grill and instead give it to the HOA to spend on the community room. I was in this meeting and quickly informed them that the HOA Committee was not the correct group to talk with because the HOA committee was not established to negotiate with Lennar on any items. The committee was established to simply give ideas to the HOA board on what owners wanted to do with the room. I further asked that they talk with all homeowners and that if the homeowners wanted to appoint a committee to negotiate with them that would be the correct path to take. (Clearly this seems to be a suggestion they did not seem to have any interest in do since they sent the letter without even attempting to meet with everyone.) During this discussion we did mentioned the survey that was done and the fact outside of the survey we know many homeowners wanted a BBQ on the roof and had been taking personal small grills to the roof to use while we waited for them to build something. They seemed surprised that homeowners really wanted a grill. So they said they would take this information back and would look some more into this matter and get back to us.
I then went to First Service to see what they knew about Lennar request to meet with the HOA committee and was told First Service did not know they wanted to talk about the BBQ with us and agreed with me that the committee was not the correct place for this and the HOA had no role in this process given this is an issue between the homeowner and Lennar. (This is something Lennar now seems to understand given its statement in paragraph 4 of the letter.)
They then asked to meet with just the 3 people who had been part of this first meeting seeming to think once again it was OK to meet with the HOA Committee. I was also at this meeting repeated the committee is not the correct place for this to occur and they are simply talking with homeowners and not the community. During this meeting I repeated the request they reach out to all homeowners and talk with them about this matter. To me nothing new was said at this meeting other then a BBQ was not likely but they still wanted to check every avenue to make sure it really could not happen. They did bring up issues around doing things with the Community room and I mentioned that was an HOA issue and I will get into this item more in the next section about this paragraph shortly.
They tried to meet with us one more time but seemed to appear they have what in there mind was a final resolution they wanted to present. So it was asked if this was about the community room or just the BBQ since we made it clear again that they were not meeting with the HOA committee but only 3 owners and if it was on the BBQ we had no interest in meeting just on the BBQ since we were not the correct group to meet with. They would not really answer that question but we sent a clear message that they needed to talk with everyone. So we were informed the meeting would not take place and they would simply be sending a letter which you hopefully have gotten or will be getting in the next day or two.
The final item on this particular matter Lennar claims there offer was "rejected". This is complete wrong the only thing the group rejected was we were the correct group to even talk with. As stated earlier we repeated multiple times they needed to talk with all owners not just the three in the room. They are really the ones that rejected our request to actually talk with all homeowners together and not to hand select who they wish to talk with.
One more comment about the HOA subject matter I mentioned above is in the letter in the 2nd paragraph is the last sentence where they try to blame the HOA Board of Directors for not being able to come up with a simple solution. Lets be very clear on a few things on this matter. Lennar is the one who created the way the HOA was set-up. Lennar appoints who sits in 3 of 5 of the seats, aka a majority, so if something needs to be changed or fixed they can tell their appointee to do it. (I will not claim any of this is simply to do but if Lennar has the desire to see change they have total control to do it.) Finally I brought this up during the course of the meeting and had the Lennar representatives try to claim things about the HOA that I personally do not believe to be true and not fully investigated. Your homeowner representative on the HOA have asked for these items to be looked at by our legal team and FS to report back on. I have not seen any results of this work so not sure how Lennar can make the claims they do in this letter. I am sure some costs will occur to make changes needed within the HOA for the community room and suggested to Lennar that they help cover the costs of this as part of a settlement with the owners should no BBQ be possible. They never really replied to that spefific request and instead try to make it as if Lennar has no control of the HOA.
Suggestions (and personal request) on this letter – I would ask you not respond to Lennar just yet on this request as for starters this should be a negotiation not a mandate from Lennar. We should be able to do better then what they are offering. (Just as an FYI they mentioned wanting to pay $10,000 to the HOA to group they meet with but have now raised that to $12,600 given 63 units times $200.) If we stick together we are stronger and while they have failed on many other items this one I think is harder for them to dodge. Lets meet and work on this together.
Homework assignments – I hope it OK with you that I am assigning a some homework items for you prior to our meeting.
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Please fill out the Doodle Poll. (http://doodle.com/poll/vbb48tv62uq33fp5)
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Do you have a lawyer you have worked with about other items impacting Lennar? If so can you ask them what rights we have under this and get a very basic opinion on what rights we have and what Lennar is legally obligated to do about this. We may want to get a lawyer to represent us on this.
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If you had an outside (none Lennar) real estate agent when going through the buying process can you ask them what they think the value of having a BBQ on the roof does for your resell value.
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Once again check the list of unit owners we don't currently have emails for to see if you know who lives there or perhaps they are your neighbors unit so go meet your neighbor so we can be a stronger larger group. Units #206, 208, 209, 216, 302, 304, 305, 307, 311, 314, 317, 401, 404, 408, 409, 413, 415, 504, 505, 506, and 507.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this and happy to try to answer any questions I can.
Jason Fried
Merchant #411
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