EAST BRIDGEWATER —
Residents of Hillcrest Village in East Bridgewater learned a hard fiscal lesson when they let one person control the condo association’s money.
The group’s former treasurer, Edward M. Richards, 55, is now charged with embezzling $102,000 from the association.
“To let one person control the money is a horrible idea,” said Bob McBride, CEO of the Dartmouth Group, a condo and property management company based in Bedford, “because people don’t ask the right questions.”
The safest bet for associations – and other groups – is to have more than one person watching the books and sharing responsibility for the money.
“When it comes to finances, you absolutely need to go with a management company,” said Pamela Brown, a unit owner and former condo association trustee at another complex.
Brown is a 27-year resident of Pomponoho Pines Condominiums in East Bridgewater – a 128-unit complex just yards from Hillcrest Village.
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I am gobsmacked! There must be something in HOA waters that addles people's thinking.
Millions of dollars have been embezzled by management company employees. As long as HOAs can operate under cover of darkness, embezzlement will be a very real part of association living.
2 comments:
Makes you wonder whether CAI is just a front for organized crime. In Texas, CAI representatives are always lobbying against open records, open meetings, and generally any kind of transparency. They claim to support openness and disclosure, yet they always lobby heavily against it and try to compromise any bill that empowers homeowners with a remedy when the HOA corporation (represented by CAI members) refuses to divulge the records. The prime beneficiary of the concealment is of course the unscrupulous vendors - the HOA attorney and the HOA management company.
> Makes you wonder whether CAI is just a front for organized crime.
Oh, I stopped wondering a long time ago.
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