It has been one year since most of the water meter batteries were changed to return VLC to individual water and sewer billing. (as we should have). Thousands have been paid to the contracted attorneys for their opinions and analysis of the Water Amendment passed in Dec 2010, many meetings conducted to ensure the “community” is okay with each paying their own. Goodness knows we don’t want any owners upset that they have to pay for their own utilities! (Which encourages water conservation also but not important-or is it? )
The letter dated May 1, 2014 from BOD President Rick Aliperti told us all they would be up and running soon! Water_Meter_Change 2014 05 01
All of this should have been done in Oct 2013 but former BOD President canceled the scheduled and free repair, via an email that the maintenance man was too busy. PS. She fired him a week later. She worked tirelessly to keep VLC from having individual meters and here we are, 19 months later and no metesr being used. The former BOD President currently has her unit under contract for sale and we hope all goes well for her in her move.
In Jan 2015, a group at VLC took the time to go door to door and mail proxy votes to pass a new Water Amendment, which ended the debate over the “illegal” Dec 2010 amendment. The amendment was signed by Mr. Aliperti on Jan 22, 2015 and filed with the County Clerk in March.
We were told in January that the meters would be operating by April 1 this year. Then we received an update that it will be September due to faulty transmissions of readings to the data mining for billing. We mailed a certified letter requesting information related to this (and other financial issues) to the new management company, including a copy of a current contract with a billing company and its terms and dates. We received a copy of a contract signed by Mr. Aliperti and United Utility Service (UUS) rep Victor Lucas.
This “contract” does not include any starting date or any dates at all. Only a Term of 12 months. Now we are not lawyers but we think it is safe to say that it isn’t a valid, executed contract and only the same draft reviewed by the GAD attorney last year.
Our new CAM included a copy of an email from Rick Aliperti to BOD Treasurer, Pam Decraene, dated May 7th, 2015. The email stated the following:
“Currently Van Loon Commons is working with Master Meter and their authorized service provider to get all 150 meters functional. The Master Meter system that was sold to Van Loon continues to fail. Once all 150 units are up and running a one to two month test billing cycle will be conducted to assure Van Loon does not have a repeat of the massive failures experienced in 2013. All owners will be informed of the official billing company and water billing program when all malfunctioning meters are fully operational.”
In Feb 2014, I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Aliperti who asked if Master Meter was “the best in the business”. I explained that they were paid for, under warranty and yes, they are the best. The phrase “sold to Van Loon continues to fail” seems to be taking us back to the lie that circulated (by former BOD Pres Kisner and pals) regarding our former property manager, and that he SOLD the meters to VLC and made a big kickback.
We are hoping that there isn’t a Master Plan to try and purchase new meters, using this story of the equipment not working. See the May 1, 2014 email again from Mr. Aliperti, stating we have a 10 year warranty as of the battery change. That doesn’t sound correct but whether it is 5 or 10 years, doesn’t matter. Replacements are easily $400 each and we don’t need an additional expense.
Mr. Aliperti is a commissioned salesman and reports himself to be very successful at it. The owners who regularly attend meetings like him (we guess) and many will believe anything he tells them. We hope it isn’t going to be “now that we have a valid amendment, we are in violation by not having the meters operating and these are clearly not the Best in the Business, and cause massive failures therefore we MUST PURCHASE ALL NEW METERS to not be in violation”. Or something like that.
We will be staying on top of this. In God We Trust, in Man/Woman, verify, verify, verify.