Two victims who died in yesterday’s fire at the Marco Polo Apartments, a 572-unit condominium overlooking the Ala Wai Canal, had owned their 26th floor apartment for less than two years, real estate records show.
The 901-square foot apartment was purchased by Britt Reller and his mother, Melba Dilley, on November 30, 2015 for $599,000, its full asking price, records show.
Their unit, 2613, was on the ocean side of the high-rise building, with views over the Ala Wai, the Waikiki skyline, and at least sliver of ocean. It did not face Kapiolani Boulevard, where flames could be seen for hours in several units on the same floor.
Photographs accompanying the 2015 real estate listing show the apartment, which appeared to be in very good condition, and the view from the large balcony.
While apartments facing the mountains get lots of natural ventilation, apartments on the Waikiki side of the Marco Polo do not. As a result, many apartments have screen doors which can be locked while the main door remains open, allowing cross-ventilation that provides some relief from afternoon heat. It some spots, it can be like a wind tunnel when the door is open, rattling pictures on the walls.
But the open doors could pose an additional risk in the case of fire. While there’s been no indication so far that open front doors contributed to the spread of flames and smoke, based on past practices, that can’t be discounted.
According to Marco Polo’s most recent registration with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the building is managed by Hawaii First Inc.
The required report, filed in May 2015, shows that the condominium had fully-funded reserve account with sufficient funds to cover 100% of the cost of replacing its key infrastructure in the years ahead. At the time of the report, 56% of the apartments were owner-occupied.
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per Ian: “the building is managed by Hawaii First Inc.”
Richard Emery, president of Hawaii First, which Dallas-based Associa bought in early 2011, became the corporate regional vice president of Associa in Hawaii.
Why is this important?
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By Brigette Namata Published: January 30, 2017, 5:57 pm
After several high-profile cases involving lost or stolen money, there’s a push to make homeowner associations more accountable.
There are several proposals being considered that could change the way they operate.
The number of House bills involving condo and homeowner associations has more than quadrupled in two years.
Two years ago, four bills about condo and homeowner associations were introduced in the House. Last year, there were 10.
This year, there are 29, not including those introduced in the Senate. (Some examples are listed below.)
So why the increase in wanting to implement stricter rules?
A lawmaker tells us problems have been brewing for a long time, and it’s time for the laws to change. But a property management company says that’s unnecessary.
“I think the reason you see an overwhelming growth of numbers is people are screaming for a solution,” said Rep. Matthew LoPresti, D, Ewa Villages, Ewa Beach, Ewa Gentry. “They have real problems where their only option is to pay thousands of dollars for attorneys, and they’re asking the Legislature to help them.”
We followed one of those problems, when $276,000 was stolen from Kukui Plaza homeowners in downtown Honolulu.
We went through the list of proposed changes to the laws. Among the ideas suggested by LoPresti, getting condo associations to be more open and appointing a public advocate for associations to help mediate problems.
“More and more people are living in associations and there are more opportunities for these problems,” LoPresti said. “These people don’t have the resources to fight it. What are their options? We’re their last step.”
LoPresti says homeowner associations have too much power. Boards have the ability to cite homeowners, or put a lien on homes.
We asked the vice president of Associa, a property management company that manages 400 condos statewide: Do you share the sentiment of these lawmakers who say there needs to be more transparency with homeowner associations?
“I don’t see where they’re so powerful. They’re five to nine people. They’re not related. They’re just individual homeowners, and they debate like we see in any form of government,” replied Richard Emery.
But Associa has had problems in the past, when it was known as Certified Hawaii. In 2015, Toni Floerke, former CEO of Certified Hawaii, was sentenced to a year in prison after she pleaded no contest to stealing $100,000 from three associations.
Associa has since changed its practices.
“They immediately paid the money. This is the case where the CEO was also the treasurer of the association. That was probably not best practices,” Emery said. “Today, we don’t allow that to happen.”
Associa says there are strict rules and laws in place, including requirements over how board meetings are handled, notifying members about any maintenance fee increase, and handling association funds.
Thanks, Ian, but what’s with all the “it’s”?
Dominatrix spell checker.
I recently read this link. I used to work for Certified Management, which later became Associa as one of their property manager. I am now fully retired and currently in Missouri. My first comment is in defense of Toni Floerke because she was one of my “bosses” in the property management chain of command. I heard and read of her criminal activity and I was very disappointed reason being is that she was a very fair “boss” and very helpful in management issues. I do not condone her crime at all and I do hope she can recover from this.
My second comment is the association’s board of directors. One of my management philosophy is that managing a property is like a three legged stool, between the account executive, the board of directors, and the property manager. They all must equally work together because if one area tries to dominate the whole concept of management, then you will have a very uneven stool and can fall over.
I managed a total of four different properties during my time of employment with the company.
I found out that each one of the properties and board of directors are all very different from each other. However, there is one common factor. All of the board directors have their own personal agenda. They also have their own “click” and will only allow a board of director to be part of their “click” if that potential person is aligned with their own personal agenda. In addition, I also found out that they have their own “corruption” within their own “click”. I have seen this many times and with my integrity, tried to inform them of this situation diplomatically. However, due to being the “minority” (being just one) in their group, I was many times ignored or threatened indirectly.
I had an association board of directors that directly try to tell me to do something illegally which I adamantly refused. Unfortunately, I did receive repercussion. In one case. I felt like they, meaning the account executive and board of directors, were being unfair to the one of the home owners (senior citizen husband and wife). I tried to talk to the account executive director and the board of directors to reconsider their action towards this particular owner. This poor defenseless senior citizen couple was being taken advantage of.
Their violation fines was running up to hundreds of dollars and possibly even more. Again, they refused to reconsider. To clear my conscience, I thoroughly researched this owner’s issues going through their record as far back as I could to the time they originally bought the property many years ago. I literally had to dig in the company’s archive in the company warehouse.
My research proved that the owners had been unfairly given a violation years back which proved that the property management and the previous property manager were in error and no one took the time to correct the situation. In the meantime, due to the couple not being able to resolve the issue without the real estate agent that sold them the property and title company, their violation fines were increasing.
I directly contacted them and told them of what I found and the legal ramification if they did not assist this couple. I provided the documents to support what I found. The real estate agent and title company was willing to help the owners to correct the situation on their end.I also provided the documents to the homeowners which is not a company violations because what I provided were the owners own documents. I just helped with the paper trail.
I also advised the owners that they now have the legal documents to file a complaint against the company or directly sue them and to hire a lawyer to assist them. I left the company after that. I could no longer work or tolerate this corrupt management team. Being a property manager is by far the worse job I have ever had. This is coming from a retired United States Air Force, Vietnam Veteran, Been there. Done that.