Merry Christmas!

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I’d like to wish all unit owners a very Merry Christmas, and to thank you for helping make 2014 a great year for International Village. Without your steadfast support, we would not have been able to accomplish all we did over the past year. Let's continue working together in 2015 to build on these successes, and may God fill your new year with good health and prosperity!

P.S. Thank you to all those who attended last Saturday’s Latin Christmas Party, which drew a record-breaking crowd of well over 115 attendees. To see a slideshow of pictures from the party courtesy of John Henderson, click HERE.

Lower maintenance fees and 40-year success story Part 2

International Village unit owners will be getting their first maintenance fee reduction in decades. Of the more than 340 owners who submitted their proxies before our budget meeting last Tuesday, about 97 percent of you voted “Yes” to paying a little less in maintenance starting in January. The Board of Directors heard you loud and clear, and I was very happy to cast my vote for a budget that will make that happen.   

Cutting maintenance fees even modestly was no easy task given the significant challenges we faced this year: First, we inherited a situation in which over half of the community’s residential buildings still had not been renovated after more than two years’ delay due to the previous board’s neglect and mismanagement of funds. Second, the association’s Hurricane Wilma loan with Wells Fargo was coming due, with a $2 million balance. And third, due to the actions of our former property management company AMG and a small group of disgruntled unit owners, we faced a premature and potentially costly 40-year certification. 

But we overcame these challenges by keeping a tight rein on spending, which not only allowed us to pass some of the savings on to the owners, but also put enough money in the bank to enable us to resume the building renovations without a special assessment. These savings also were instrumental in recently helping us obtain an 18-month extension (with 6-month renewal option) on our Wells Fargo loan, which required a $250,000 principal reduction payment at the signing. 

But the 40-year certification threatened to overwhelm all our other efforts, since AMG and Criterium Inspection Engineers (the engineering company AMG brought in) insisted that more than a $1 million would have to be spent to complete all the repairs they claimed were needed to pass the County-mandated inspection. Of course we now know those claims were completely false.

As I reported back in September, International Village saved approximately $220,000 on the first phase of our 40-year certification by getting a reputable engineer to re-inspect our three oldest buildings, which came due in the summer. And I'm pleased to report that we just completed the second phase of the certification last week by passing inspections on seven more buildings using the same well-respected engineer from Ace Flood & Inspections. How much did we save by getting this crucial second opinion on those seven buildings? Almost $600,000! That means we saved a total of about $800,000 on 10 buildings by NOT blindly trusting AMG and Criterium Engineers. Combined with the approximately $300,000 in operational savings that we have achieved this year, that brings our total savings for 2014 to well over $1 million!! And more than a million dollars in savings sounds like a pretty good Christmas present to me.  

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer

Want a maintenance fee reduction? Send in your budget proxy!

It has been brought to my attention that a number of unit owners have not yet turned in their budget proxies. It is very important that owners submit their proxies immediately and vote “Yes” to waive reserves in order to receive a maintenance fee reduction next year. Your proxy must be received by the association by the Dec. 9 deadline, which is the date of our budget meeting. Some of you have told me you never received your proxy or perhaps you misplaced it. No problem. Click HERE to download and print one. You can also pick up a copy at the International Village association office.

Others have asked me for specific instructions on how to complete the proxy, so here goes:  Fill out the very top part where it asks you for your unit number and building. Leave the line just below that blank (as in this sample proxy); Board Secretary Colbert “Carl” Simmonds will act as proxy-holder and is required by law to cast your proxy just the way you voted it.  Just make sure you check "Yes," date it, sign where it says "SIGNATURE OF VOTING REPRESENTATIVE" and print your name below that. Leave the “SUBSTITUTION OF PROXYHOLDER” part at the bottom blank.  If you own more than one unit, fill out a different proxy for each unit you own.

You can bring your completed proxy to the office in person, fax it or scan and email it. You could also mail it to our mailing address, but considering that the proxy must be received before our Dec. 9 meeting, it might be safer to use one of the other methods.

To email it, just scan or capture a clear, legible image of the completed form and send it as a PDF or jpeg attachment to ASSISTANT@INTLVILLAGE.COM.  Double-check the email address to make sure you have spelled it correctly, include the word “Proxy" in the subject line, and request a reply to confirm that it was received.

To fax it, send it to 954-739-1604.

If you have any questions or need any assistance to get your proxy in, please let me know.

On an unhappy note, I’m sorry to report that our property manager David Friedman has stepped down for health reasons. David has been a trustworthy and hard-working manager who can point to several important accomplishments in the last several months, and his presence will be missed. Please keep him in your prayers as he recovers from open heart surgery which he unexpectedly had to undergo last week. 

Our interim manager Richard Sayre has several years’ experience working as a property manager and brings an impressive background with him. Please help me welcome him to International Village.  I also want to say a big “thank you” to our staff and the folks at Campbell Property Management for working extra hard these last several days to make this unplanned transition a smooth one. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

John Labriola

International Village Treasurer