Is Your Association Ready For SB410? Is Your Balcony Inspection Company?

January 1st is almost upon us and every year in California we see new laws come into effect on the first of the year and this year is no different.

Notably for HOAs and balcony inspection companies SB 410 will take effect on January 1st and impose certain requirements on HOAs and on balcony inspection companies.

For HOA Boards of Directors, you are affected in several ways; the first being that SB326 reports are now considered to be HOA records, which means an owner can request and review them at any time. Secondly, reports cannot be withheld or redacted and third sellers of a common interest development property now must provide buyers with the most recent SB326 inspection report.

In regards to inspection companies, their reports must include as of January 1st, the date of the inspection, the total number of units in the community. How many exterior elevated elements there are? And I think it would be a good idea to break down how many of each type there are IE stairs versus balcones versus walkways. How many units have exterior elevated elements? How many exterior elevated elements were inspected and whether any safety concerns were identified.

Our engineering partner is already in compliance with these requirements and so we are ready to forge ahead and set the bar with our superior inspections and inspection reports.

Lastly But probably the most important part of sb410 is the requirement for HOAs to have an engineer issue a final report after repairs are made to life safety issues. This final report is needed to be able to enable buyers of property obtain mortgages and sellers of properties to be able to sell without undue delay. Personally, I expect that we will see legal claims brought against HOAs that fail to obtain final inspection reports and unnecessarily delay there homeowners to be able to close a sale.

As always, this is not legal advice. Please obtain the advice of your HOA attorney related to SB 410 sb326 and any other bills that may affect common interest developments related to balcony inspections.

Solar Panels for Balconies? They're Coming!

Coming soon to your condo or apartment balcony are solar panels designed to be attached to railings with a minimum of fuss. That's right, according to an article in The Guardian, small solar panels with a power inverter will be coming to the US market in the near future. 

These small panels may not provide all the power your apartment or condo uses, but they will provide enough power to reduce your electric bill.

BRIGHT SAVER,  a San Francisco based company is one of the solar companies bringing solar panels sized to fit your balcony or backyard, has some exciting offers such as Black Friday deals (offer expires soon) low interest financing and more to get solar into your home and start reducing your power bills. 

Reach out to Bright Saver for a quote and get started today on reducing expensive electric bills. 

Do you have balcony solar already? We'd love to hear from you about how it's going. Email us at Deck.Expert@gmail.com , your story and photos welcome! 

AGOURA HILLS BASED LORDON HOA MANAGEMENT DECLARES BANKRUPTCY

From The Acorn, an Agoura Hills publication, Lordon Management has filed for bankruptcy 

"Lordon Management, a Southern California-based family-owned company that represents, among others, the Lake Lindero, Annandale, and Liberty Canyon neighborhoods of Agoura Hills as part of its 200-member California HOA portfolio, filed for bankruptcy Nov. 3 in the Central District of California. It lists between 50 and 99 creditors to whom it owes nearly $15 million in judgments, wages, products and services. The company, which has offices in Covina, Camarillo and Tustin, lists assets between $500,000 and $1 million. The business could not be reached for comment. Lordon was also the property manager for the Agoura Hills Morrison Ranch HOA until a breakup between the two a few years ago."

Read the whole article here

 Key HOA management company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy https://share.google/Hitl3fZPHWwMoBlVe

EMPIREWORKS AND THE DIRTY TRICKS THEY USE TO LURE HOA'S INTO A FINANCIAL TRAP.

We had a conversation with a concerned member of an HOA over the last couple days and his concern was regarding empire works + the contract that they propose to make repairs to his association's decks in Ventura County. Watch my video at our YouTube channel here at the link below.

https://youtu.be/h6Z4eb7IMa0?si=H6HY2UTkiEsx1Mjq  

From a newsletter posted at the association. 

A Google review shows one angry client who felt Empireworks is running a scam. 

the contract appeared to be open-ended with numerous exclusions + when he attended his board meeting last night, he found that empire works had actually waived the fee for the stage 1 inspection provided they performed the repair work on the balconies.

this should be a clear warning sign, but the association thought that it was a good deal until they came up against a million dollar bill and having to pass a special assessment. This is why contractors need to be banned from bidding on repairs at associations they inspect.

It turns out that empire works is using an architect who although he's licensed In California, he actually lives in Tennessee. which means that he is robo signing their reports and he admits as much in his cover letter by saying Empireworks performed the inspection.

326 needs to be amended to ban inspectors from bidding on repairs.

We're Back and Ready to Bring New Content To You!

DeckExpert.com vis a vis  this blog is coming back soon! New content and blog posts are coming! Stay tuned and get ready! 

R Brothers Waterproofing Has POS Victim Blaming Lawyers

When I read %&@! like this I want to hit something! From the Irish Times  article found here http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/berkeley-victims-may-have-contributed-to-balcony-collapse-1.2597039

“The plaintiffs and/or cross-complainants’ own carelessness and negligence may have proximately contributed to the events and damages complained of..."   

Those are the words in a filing from R Brothers Waterproofing attorneys on why the balcony in Berkeley collapsed last year, killing 6 people and leaving seven more with serious injuries and a lifetime of horror. 

It gets worse, R Brothers lawyers is trying to blame everyone else too - here they throw the architect under the bus. They may have a point but you don't follow shitty plans either...

 "R Brothers Waterproofing also claims the “designs of others” that it had no responsibility for were to blame for the injuries complained of.

“This answering defendant did not select, design or approve the allegedly defective components,” it says under the heading of “causation”.

It also said it had no notice of any alleged defects and that the injuries alleged “were caused by third parties’ deficient work or products”.

So in California when one is looking at plans and one knows, as the licensed expert waterproofing contractor that they are, that the design is wrong, you don't bid it. Secondly if it did slip by that the design was wrong and you did bid it, when you got to the job and saw what you were doing, you stop and don't do the work until an RFI is made and a decision is issued by the architect and the general contractor. R Brothers apparently covered wet substrate with moisture trapping membranes and wants to say they aren't responsible? 

So if R Brothers is saying this detail is wrong, why did
they apparently follow it? Inquiring minds want to know. 

Even worse, they say in their filing if we are found negligent, it's secondary to others negligence...excuse me but WTF? 

I see it fairly simply-you check the moisture content of your plywood with a simple moisture meter. If it's higher than 14-16% then you say can't do it...and the problem is especially compounded when/if it was a double layer of OSB that's soaking wet. It would take weeks of dry weather if ever to get that moisture content down to acceptable levels. 

Simple moisture meter gives a general reading of the moisture content
of the plywood I have the probes pushed into. The moisture content
is to high for applying a coating to right now so this wood needs
to dry more. 

Bottom line, the attorneys are POS scumbags IMO for even suggesting the victims had anything to do with their deaths and injuries.