Red Squirrel
No Lifer
I was looking at Unistrut pricing which I'll need for a solar project, and it's now $50+ for a single 10 foot length! Complete madness. I remember it being in the $10 range only a few years ago. This inflation is completely out of control.
I may just use lumber for this project as I may have enough on hand for a basic mount but was hoping to use unistrut.
Crazy how everything is so expensive now days. Pretty much have to make due with whatever you already have on hand when it comes to projects.
I may just use lumber for this project as I may have enough on hand for a basic mount but was hoping to use unistrut.
Crazy how everything is so expensive now days. Pretty much have to make due with whatever you already have on hand when it comes to projects.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
Yeah sucks when you can't build anything because all the materials cost too much though. I guess it does force to be a scavenger more and reuse old stuff. It's hard to get that stuff though, they don't tend to just let anyone get it. Like say they are tearing down an old building they won't just let you take or buy metal scrap. Liability and all that BS. Would be great to get in on a tear down though. Even lumber, you pull out all the nails it's still usable. Before It would not be worth the effort but now it is.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
As a side note I feel bad for the people who lost everything in the hurricane lately. Probably won't be affordable to rebuild anything. Insurance payouts are most likely based on pre covid cost to rebuild.
QueBert
Lifer
- Jan 6, 2002
- 22,982
- 1,179
- 126
Tried to do a mobile deposit of a check, tried 3 different times and every time the app was saying the amount I entered doesn't match the check. It does but something's obviously not working. So I tried on my iPhone and don't know my password so I clicked on the reset password link. After I did this, I remembered I haven't gotten any emails from my credit union in months even when I tried to sumit something for a change. I didn't get the email today (tried 3 times) and unlike 95% of other sites, they don't email you a "change pasword" link. it changes your password without you clicking on shit in an email. And there's no CS on Sunday, so I can't access my monies to buy shit I don't need until Monday! I already had the damn $$$ spent too, AAAARGH!
I would go deposit the check in the ATM but they have you write "for mobile deposit only" on the back when you deposit using the app. And if I tried, I know my luck so they'd probably red flag the check and it would take me 2 weeks to get the shit sorted out.
FUCK
I would go deposit the check in the ATM but they have you write "for mobile deposit only" on the back when you deposit using the app. And if I tried, I know my luck so they'd probably red flag the check and it would take me 2 weeks to get the shit sorted out.
FUCK
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,225
- 126
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
- 66,316
- 14,723
- 146
If you ask, they'll mail you a return shipping label.
Torn Mind
Lifer
- Nov 25, 2012
- 12,078
- 2,772
- 136
Creative, fradulent bullshitting.
When a roofing company says adjacent neighbor's townhouse is the cause of the leak in house two units down...but the features of the house two units down indicate simple shingle failure in the house .
Neighbor two units down called my mom a week or so ago, stating that a roofing company stated that the adjacent neighbor's roof is causing a leak in neighbor two units down's upper bedroom.
My mom called said company and described our townhouse unit's situation. We are experiencing a leak in the ceiling unit as well. Said company rep, who incidentally is a Chinese female, stated that she climbed up the roof and checked our unit too...a suspicious answer since no one heard footsteps. Stated there was rotted wood in the adjacent unit's townhouse, no mention of flashing issues. No mentioned of the plane discrepancy between our unit and the adjacent unit--ours is lower than the adjacent unit. Just said it was the same situation as the neighbor two units down...which turned out to be bullshit.
Today, my mother and I took a look at the neighbor's roof. Neighbor had modded her roof so there is a windowed attic room, which made inspection easy. Readily evident was that the neighbor's roof had a wavy section of shingles close to the gutter but also far from the border between the townhouse units. The roof plane was also higher than the alleged problem in the adjacent unit.
Last I checked, water isn't traveling up or sideways without major wind assistance. So, this motherfucking roofing company is likely spewing some misleading bullshit of the neighbor one unit down having a defect of a leak going into the unit of the neighbor two units down. The only thing I can come up with is that company wants to contact that neighbor to offer fixing up their roof.
Not only that, the company had the gall to advise neighbor two units down to contact the HOA first...not correct protocol. Demand letters are to be sent to the party responsible for the property, which is the own.
Checking the business records, the woman receptionist who made the bold representation of running the company, paying workers even without a job, etc, is not the listed resident agent or owner of the company. The business owner doesn't even own the house he or she(can't tell gender from the spelled out Chinese name) lives in but rents it.
Come Monday, a different guy will check out the roof. The company was listed in the County's "green book" listing of best contractors in the area.....
My hunch, neighbor two unit's down simply has failed shingles. The townhouse my mom owns has a bad flashing installed, and the adjacent townhouse has nothing relevant to either neighbor's situation. But bitch company wasted considerable time and energy with her fraudulent misrepesetnation. Neighbor two units down asking adjacent unit's tenants for landlord's phone number. Meanwhile, I had to draft a demand letter. Fucking bitches. If I wasn't pressed for time for more important matters, I'd sue the bitch company for fraud.
When a roofing company says adjacent neighbor's townhouse is the cause of the leak in house two units down...but the features of the house two units down indicate simple shingle failure in the house .
Neighbor two units down called my mom a week or so ago, stating that a roofing company stated that the adjacent neighbor's roof is causing a leak in neighbor two units down's upper bedroom.
My mom called said company and described our townhouse unit's situation. We are experiencing a leak in the ceiling unit as well. Said company rep, who incidentally is a Chinese female, stated that she climbed up the roof and checked our unit too...a suspicious answer since no one heard footsteps. Stated there was rotted wood in the adjacent unit's townhouse, no mention of flashing issues. No mentioned of the plane discrepancy between our unit and the adjacent unit--ours is lower than the adjacent unit. Just said it was the same situation as the neighbor two units down...which turned out to be bullshit.
Today, my mother and I took a look at the neighbor's roof. Neighbor had modded her roof so there is a windowed attic room, which made inspection easy. Readily evident was that the neighbor's roof had a wavy section of shingles close to the gutter but also far from the border between the townhouse units. The roof plane was also higher than the alleged problem in the adjacent unit.
Last I checked, water isn't traveling up or sideways without major wind assistance. So, this motherfucking roofing company is likely spewing some misleading bullshit of the neighbor one unit down having a defect of a leak going into the unit of the neighbor two units down. The only thing I can come up with is that company wants to contact that neighbor to offer fixing up their roof.
Not only that, the company had the gall to advise neighbor two units down to contact the HOA first...not correct protocol. Demand letters are to be sent to the party responsible for the property, which is the own.
Checking the business records, the woman receptionist who made the bold representation of running the company, paying workers even without a job, etc, is not the listed resident agent or owner of the company. The business owner doesn't even own the house he or she(can't tell gender from the spelled out Chinese name) lives in but rents it.
Come Monday, a different guy will check out the roof. The company was listed in the County's "green book" listing of best contractors in the area.....
My hunch, neighbor two unit's down simply has failed shingles. The townhouse my mom owns has a bad flashing installed, and the adjacent townhouse has nothing relevant to either neighbor's situation. But bitch company wasted considerable time and energy with her fraudulent misrepesetnation. Neighbor two units down asking adjacent unit's tenants for landlord's phone number. Meanwhile, I had to draft a demand letter. Fucking bitches. If I wasn't pressed for time for more important matters, I'd sue the bitch company for fraud.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
Stories like that make me so glad I bought a single detached house. My first house that I looked at was a condo but they were asking too much so I kept searching, and eventually found the house I live in now for cheaper. Condos, etc are kind of the worse of both worlds, because you're responsible for repairs, but yet you're still answering to a "landlord". Recently read a story where someone that just moved into their condo found the fridge that was already there was leaky, and they owe 100k to the strata corporation because the leak caused some damage. 100 grand! You can buy a house for that in some places.
Can't argue with that. It's perfectly true. Just check out the post-Grenfell "cladding scandal" and its concequences for leaseholders.
Unfortunately in this country (UK) because of the freehold/leasehold system, it's increasingly the case with detached houses also. It's commonplace for such houses to have the same situation as flats in blocks - a freeholder who charges ground rent and service charges on the leaseholder.
MrSquished
Lifer
- Jan 14, 2013
- 26,067
- 24,397
- 136
I don't think you understand how condos can work. Also good luck finding fully detached homes in cities where many people want to live.
It's the only way to live in many desirable areas.
Anyways, it can work out very well for people. For example many of us live around here in 2-10 unit condo buildings. As long as you have decent property management, if needed, and at least contribute to the reserves with your monthly payment, if anything goes wrong, you now get to split that cost.
Anything outside the walls of my unit is a shared cost between all us three owners in my building. If the roof needs repairs, it comes out of the reserves, split three ways, etc ..
Quite a lovely way to be able to live near the stuff we want to, where single family homes are beyond our budget and rare, and we get to share the costs of homeownership among multiple owners for any exterior issues.
We are still responsible for our own appliances and plumbing that's in our units.
I disagree, at least in the context of this country. My experience is that it very often doesn't work out very well.
For example, there are thousands of people trapped in blocks that the freeholder put cladding on, which are now considered very serious fire risks, but the cost of removing that cladding - which would have to be paid by the leaseholder, as the law currently stands - is so high that those flats now have negative value.
Then there's the new tactic freeholders and property-developers have come up with of having ground rents that double every few years. Some properties have been sold with such provisions that mean within a few decades the ground rent will be millions of pounds.
Ground Rent Scandal | Property Solvers' Homeowners Hub (Tenure)
We run through the ins and outs of the Ground Rent Scandal (also known as the Leasehold Scandal), homeowner protection and what steps to take when facing this situation.
www.propertysolvers.co.uk
Service charges (and ground rents) are a racket. Freeholders always try to rip leaseholders off.
The complication is that they are increasingly being applied to houses, not just blocks of flats. Even more so as every other house in this city is now being divided into flats, as we try to cram in an ever-increasing number of people into the same area. But if you want to avoid the racket that is the freehold/leasehold system, you really have to avoid blocks of flats (or 'condos')
MrSquished
Lifer
- Jan 14, 2013
- 26,067
- 24,397
- 136
That sounds completely different than condos here from the way you are describing it. I'm not leasing anything from a landlord type person. I owe the bank money for the property. A monthly fee goes to the condo association, in my case that consists of myself and two other owners. We make all the decisions regarding maintenance.I disagree, at least in the context of this country. My experience is that it very often doesn't work out very well.
For example, there are thousands of people trapped in blocks that the freeholder put cladding on, which are now considered very serious fire risks, but the cost of removing that cladding - which would have to be paid by the leaseholder, as the law currently stands - is so high that those flats now have negative value.
Then there's the new tactic freeholders and property-developers have come up with of having ground rents that double every few years. Some properties have been sold with such provisions that mean within a few decades the ground rent will be millions of pounds.
Ground Rent Scandal | Property Solvers' Homeowners Hub (Tenure)
We run through the ins and outs of the Ground Rent Scandal (also known as the Leasehold Scandal), homeowner protection and what steps to take when facing this situation.www.propertysolvers.co.uk
Service charges (and ground rents) are a racket. Freeholders always try to rip leaseholders off.
The complication is that they are increasingly being applied to houses, not just blocks of flats. Even more so as every other house in this city is now being divided into flats, as we try to cram in an ever-increasing number of people into the same area. But if you want to avoid the racket that is the freehold/leasehold system, you really have to avoid blocks of flats (or 'condos')
In a larger building, the condo association has a board voted on by the owners, and they make decisions on the building. And they can put things to a vote to all the owners as well.
When a developer keeps ownership of a lot of the condos then that can be trouble as they have too much power.
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I guess the system is different there. Here, if you 'buy' a property, you either buy the freehold or the leasehold. A majority are buying the 'leasehold', pretty much always so with blocks of flats, but often with houses as well.
In some cases there's a company that owns the 'freehold', that all the flat/appartment owners are shareholders in, which I suppose works out exactly as what you describe about a condo association, but that's not at all the most common situation. More usually the freehold is owned by the developer, or just some random person, or often, by the local council, because a lot of such blocks started off as council flats ("housing projects" in American) before being privatised.
The system really doesn't work very well. I think it dates back to medieval times, and local lords and serfs.
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
- 66,316
- 14,723
- 146
So, yesterday, I went to an elderly neighbor's house to assemble an adult trike for her. (She's 87)
When I had it all assembled, I thought I should give it a test ride before I turned it over to her. The roadway has a severe crown to shed rainwater...and the bike headed for the ditch...I turned the handlebars...and kept going towards the ditch...grabbed the brakes...and kept heading for the ditch...and into the ditch I went...ended up with the trike on top of me.
Apparently I hadn't tightened the handlebars...or adjusted the rear drum brake tight enough.
No harm to me or the bike...I protected it with my body... but, dammit, the whole thing was seen by one of her neighbors.
When I had it all assembled, I thought I should give it a test ride before I turned it over to her. The roadway has a severe crown to shed rainwater...and the bike headed for the ditch...I turned the handlebars...and kept going towards the ditch...grabbed the brakes...and kept heading for the ditch...and into the ditch I went...ended up with the trike on top of me.
Apparently I hadn't tightened the handlebars...or adjusted the rear drum brake tight enough.
No harm to me or the bike...I protected it with my body...
but, dammit, the whole thing was seen by one of her neighbors.
MrSquished
Lifer
- Jan 14, 2013
- 26,067
- 24,397
- 136
Yeah the freehold sounds completely different to a condo association. There could be 20 units in a condo building, and each owner has a mortgage through a different bank. So there is literally nobody that owns the building, it's a smorgasbord of individual owners who can go into default on their own property to whatever bank or lender they used.
The condo board are residents who are voted in by the other residents and they usually work volunteer have board meetings and make decisions on the property such as went to maybe increase the reserves or projects or improvements if they have extra money. A lot of condo buildings have rules of course. But they do not control what you do inside your unit. One of the biggest rules condo associations make is how many units can be rentals. It is harder to get a bank to finance a mortgage for a buyer in the building that's more than 50% renters. Because they feel a lot of owners aren't as invested in the space as if they were primary homeowners. There are some horror stories where developers kept more than half the units and thus had controlling voting power on the board and put individually run the buildings finances into the ground, making it very difficult for current owners and potential buyers.
I live in a three unit condo building. So the association is Just us three owners. Clearly we don't need a board with just three units. This is true for many smaller buildings. So we just have a group email and we make decisions on our own. We have a property management company handling all the financials and we get a monthly statement of our reserves and bills and they maintain our master insurance policy..
It's kind of a partly self-managed building because it's so small. Once you start getting into larger buildings that's when you need a condo board to represent all the owners. Otherwise how are you going to have big buildings in any urban area. If one developer owns it how are you buying property? I don't know if you can explain those terms to me but it would help.
This is how many buildings are run in the US. New York City is an outlier because they have a lot of buildings run as cooperatives, AKA co-ops. I think it's a pretty unique New York City thing that some other cities have but it's a small portion. Pretty sure the vast majority of multi-unit buildings that aren't rentals in this country are condos. Some co-ops are run very well but others are just really ridiculous. There's an interview process to buy a co-op in the building and depending upon the board it can be really intrusive and snobby. Condos are the way to go around here. And when you buy a condo in an existing building during attorney review you and the bank need to do thorough investigations of their finances and get a sense of how the building is run. Not all condo associations are run equally well.
HOA's are also a different animal. For the most part I would never buy in an HOA.
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That sounds exactly how it works in the (minority) of cases where the leaseholders all own shares in a management company (which in turn owns the freehold for the entire building).
But most aren't done that way. A lot of the developers who retain the freehold are pretty dodgy in how they treat leaseholders - as has become clear in the cladding scandal.
And the cases where the freeholder is the local council aren't a huge lot better, because councils are always starved of money so skimp on maintenance and try to extract as much cash as they possibly can from leaseholders.
I think only very recently was the law changed to make it so leaseholders legally have the option to buy the freehold. Previously the freeholder didn't have to sell it at any price. In blocks of flats that can only happen if every flat is occupied by a leaseholder and they all agree to club together and buy the freehold. If some of the flats are still council flats it isn't really possible.
In some cases, with houses divided into several flats, say, one of the residents will own the freehold for the entire building. They have to deal with all the maintenance issues outside of each flat, and they charge the others a service charge.
The whole system is a bit weird now I think about it. People 'buy' property at huge expense, but still don't fully own it. They just own a sort of license to occupy it for, usually, something like 99 years. And the lease starts ticking down, as each year passes, and when it gets to too short a period it becomes almost worthless...but legally leaseholders have always been legally entitled to pay a fee to 'extend' that lease. Furthermore, I've been told, ultimately all of it is 'owned' by 'the Crown'.
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Torn Mind
Lifer
- Nov 25, 2012
- 12,078
- 2,772
- 136
HOAs are an experiment in corporations running communities. Because that's exactly what they are. A corporation in the eyes of the law. To battle the HOA requires a nice reserve of funds for lawyers and the knowledge of corporate law, common law, and certain discrimination laws--only the U.S's fair housing act applies to a "private" entity like an HOA, but not the ADA or other laws.
At least in the states, condos are just a type of HOA corporation. Yes, it is usually associated with high rises with multiple units that can be owned fee simple, but not necessarily so. Some "condos" are townhouses.
MrSquished
Lifer
- Jan 14, 2013
- 26,067
- 24,397
- 136
Yes talking about corporate owned buildings that are not rentals or corporate-owned suburban developments - is completely different than what people around here understand to be a condo.
The vast majority of condo buildings in this area are two to three units, then like four to six to eight units, and then downtown you have large buildings with hundred plus condos.
There are a few bigger buildings that have reputations for being very poorly managed but they are in the minority.
I mean if you can't afford a single-family home in an expensive and very desirable dense urban area, the condo is the best solution as we have it now. They're quite equitable.
People are very surprised sometimes when they want to buy into one of these two to three unit condo buildings that you tell them they're going to be in a condo association. They don't think that's possible with anything but a big building. But that's technically what you are. Two or more owners in one building that own your property and together are responsible for the common areas.
The condo association is generally your address as an LLC. This way the reserves and various functions like the master insurance are controlled by the LLC and not one of the two or more owners.
As I say, the whole system is a bit weird. Interesting that it also applies in Canada, because they also have the monarchy...
This Land Ain't Your Land (Part 1) - Highland Titles
The Queen, which we call ‘The Crown’, owns about one sixth of the planet’s surface, and is the largest legal land owner in the World. Of the 60 million acre
www.highlandtitles.com
MrSquished
Lifer
- Jan 14, 2013
- 26,067
- 24,397
- 136
This will also be my last post in this thread on this interesting topic.As I say, the whole system is a bit weird. Interesting that it also applies in Canada, because they also have the monarchy...
This Land Ain't Your Land (Part 1) - Highland Titles
The Queen, which we call ‘The Crown’, owns about one sixth of the planet’s surface, and is the largest legal land owner in the World. Of the 60 million acrewww.highlandtitles.com
We do have some similarities in that the government here can also use eminent domain though it sounds much more difficult than for the crown.
Also there is no 99-year limit on owning land. Yes when you buy land you get a deed from the township or city you live in. It's not like the deed is to God the deed is to the government which we all agree to run society. And you do have to pay property taxes to the local township. If you do not pay the taxes, generally 6 months to 2 years depending upon what state, then there is a lien on the property and the local government can seize the property and sell it.
If you fall behind on your mortgage payments then the bank can force what's called a short sale, where the property is sold for a price less than what's owed on it to the bank.
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