Homeowners Resources

Unprofessional and lacked follow-through by matt March 2010

I was one of the first residents to move into a new condominium which Mr. Curtis Whitney of J.M. Whitney & Co. was hired to manage. During the two years of the developer's tenure on the initial board,
he delegated most of the daily events to Mr. Whitney, and Mr. Whitney would be our sole means of communication with the developer--a role that Mr. Whitney would vacillate between encouraging and ostensibly disliking. Nevertheless, it is his character and ability as a property manager which I will address here.

Mr. Whitney was active in attending community meetings during the first year of our existence. He dutifully relayed letters and communiques between the community and the initial board; and in this extent he served the active associate reliably as a barrier between the residents and the board.

In his role as property manager, however, he would at a meeting accept tasks, or indicate that he would "look into" issues, which about he would not follow-through. Several months in a row he'd give varying status updates when pressed such as "we're looking into it", "we're planning on getting quotes" but often no actual data would be available--such as the pushing off for a year the transition of common area lighting to compact fluorescent lights (CFL) to alleviate the high electricity and replacement costs of the developer-installed lights. Generally, while Mr. Whitney would indicate agreement with a course of action suggested by the community and take it upon himself to execute the action necessary, this is where progress would stop. Mr. Whitney would subsequently prove unable to complete the tasks he accepted.

Mr. Whitney would eventually indicate that he was willing to step-aside and leave his contract early given the general frustration that the community had with his lack of follow-through and communication. However, when we actually tried to plan a transition, including going over condominium records and financial statements, Mr. Whitney was highly evasive. Mr. Whitney was not forthcoming with providing legally-required documents when requested. When one resident requested to review the financial records of the condominium, Mr. Whitney directed her to his lawyer and prohibited her from entering his office which contained the records.

Mr. Whitney has also violated both state law and the condominium deeds when it suits his desire. On more than one occasion, he trespassed in resident units without attempting to contact the resident before doing so, nor even indicating so after. When pressed about the subject by the various unit owners involved, Mr. Whitney did not deny the trespass, but varied between several inconsistent excuses--at one point stating there was an emergency, but subsequently admitting that there hadn't been. In one instance, Mr. Whitney's trespass caused a security monitoring company to call the police to the property. Mr. Whitney's response to this incident was to chastise the resident--who was a young professional living alone and called home from her place of work by the security company because of the alarm--for not providing him with a code to disable the alarm.

Finally, as we moved towards the transition from the initial board of trustees consisting of the original developer and the first elected board of trustees of the condominium owners, Mr. Whitney again demonstrated a lack of competence and communication. What should have been a simple election held in January was delayed until March, where despite inquiries from concerned residents and candidates, Mr. Whitney did not address or even appear to show any concern to the planning of the election. The complete mess and confusion that resulted served as a capstone by which Mr. Whitney's unfortunate tenure is demonstrated.