Happy Thanksgiving / Send in your Budget Proxy

On behalf of International Village and the Board of Directors, I’d like to wish all unit owners a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving. As we approach the end of 2015, I’m thankful for a great year of being able to serve you as president. As a community, we have a lot to be grateful for this year – including continued progress on our building renovations, new efficient washers and dryers, improved landscaping, and saving more than $400,000 on the third and final phase of our 40-year certification. And to top off a fantastic year, International Village unit owners can now look forward to lower maintenance fees for an unprecedented second year in a row!   

If you haven’t already done so, please return the budget proxy you received in the mail. If you want maintenance fees to go down, you must vote YES to waive reserves and mail back your proxy or drop it off at the association office as soon as possible. If you never received the proxy, you can download and print one HERE. For detailed instructions on how to complete the proxy, click HERE.

In addition to saving more on maintenance, many unit owners will have the opportunity to save hundreds of dollars on Hurricane Wilma special assessment payments by paying off the balance before the end of 2015. By making a lump sum payment no later than December 30, 2015, a one-bedroom unit owner can save about $350, while a two-bedroom unit owner could save well over $500.  To find out your exact payoff amount, visit or call the association office at 954-484-9106, or send an email to manager@intlvillage.com with the subject line “Wilma Payoff” and include your name, phone and unit number in the email. Be sure to act before the end of December to take advantage of these savings.

Once again, happy Thanksgiving! 

John Labriola

International Village President

Our deepest sympathies

On behalf of International Village and the Board of Directors, I wish to extend my deepest sympathies to all those with family or friends in Paris in the wake of Friday's horrific terrorist attacks. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of France as the world stands in solidarity with them against the threat of radical Islam. God bless France, and God bless America.

John Labriola

International Village President

Welcome back, snowbirds! / 2016 Budget Preview

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome all the snowbirds back to International Village. I hope you’re enjoying our warm South Florida weather as well as some of the improvements we made while you were away.  As you can tell, we’ve been pretty busy, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to recap just a few of our accomplishments over the last several months:

- First, we continue to make significant progress on the building renovations, as residents in the Orleans, Grenoble and Zurich buildings can attest – all, as promised, without a special assessment.

- Second, our newly installed Maytag washers and dryers are saving money by operating better and more efficiently – without the need to put your clothes through a second dry cycle. And because we decided to purchase the machines instead of leasing them, we’ve more than doubled our laundry revenues every single month. 

- Third, I’m sure you’ve noticed the improvements to our landscaping, thanks to the hiring of an excellent new lawn company, which also restored the ficus hedges at our entrance and throughout the property by treating them for whitefly, and did a very thorough job of trimming overgrown trees throughout the property. 

- Speaking of landscaping, you’ve probably also noticed the beautiful new bougainvilleas along the Inverrary Boulevard wall courtesy of the Inverrary Master Association. These attractive plantings, which came at no cost to International Village, were the result of significant lobbying by former property manager David Friedman, and they’re not only increasing our curb appeal but also improving safety by deterring wall jumpers. 

- As I announced recently, we’ve also had significant success on the legal front, including securing $71,000 in settlement money from our insurance carriers after we sued them for wrongly denying us coverage in a lawsuit filed by Ilan Weiss. 

- And finally and most importantly, I’m pleased to announce that just last month we passed the third and final phase of our 40-year certification by completing the inspection and certification of our last two buildings at a cost of about $4,000. That’s a savings of over $400,000 compared to what it would have cost us if we had gone along with the now infamous Criterium Report recommended by AMG, which called for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary repairs. Let me repeat that: the association saved over $400,000 on the third and final phase of our 40-year certification by getting an honest second opinion. Combined with the approximately $800,000 we saved on the first two phases completed last year, that brings our total savings on the 40-year certification to more than $1.2 million!!! 

The bottom line is we’ve been keeping our promise to save money by doing a lot more with a lot less. We also recently finished crunching the numbers for the 2016 budget, and I’m happy to report that thanks to all the savings, International Village unit owners can look forward to a modest cut in maintenance fees for an unprecedented second year in a row! 

Check your mail in the coming days for your 2016 budget and proxy. Be sure to vote Yes in favor of waiving reserves and mail back your proxy or drop it off at the association office as soon as possible, because we’ll need it to approve the maintenance fee reduction.

John Labriola
International Village President