From Resident OA Board Member, Barbara Blackmer:
The following is my response to a resident inquiry about the Comcast contract mailing you all probably received this week. I hope it answers any questions you might have -- feel free to email me with further concerns. The current Comcast contract has a strong non-Disclose Clause, and so the details could not be made available before now, until it moved into the public domain.
I was pleased to see that things are proceeding with the bankruptcy court. The OA has made an offer of $10,000 to the trustee, in order to have the Trustee sign over the contract to us. We had tried to get SunCrest LLC to sign it over to the OA before they left for good, but alas, it did not happen. We could do nothing until things had progressed to this point, with a Trustee appointed to liquidate the remaining assets of SunCrest LLC (which include executory contracts such as the Comcast contract). That Trustee has to make decisions based on the best interest of the creditors (not what is best for SunCrest residents). Realizing this, we offered the (relatively) small amount of $10,000 which the Trustee will be able to divide between the creditors.
Comcast will not be the beneficiary of any of that money, however, as we also guaranteed to pay the entire past-due amount to Comcast (which we have preserved in the bank while the bankruptcy proceeding continued).
That should satisfy their claim, satisfy the Trustee and the Court, and assign the existing contract to the SunCrest OA free and clear. As you can imagine, Comcast objects, but our legal counsel tells us we have a strong position.
As the Court Notice states, that contract is now a publicly available document. I have read through it multiple times, very carefully, and examined it with a couple of lawyers to make sure my interpretation was correct. It is a most beneficial contract for SunCrest residents, providing service at a remarkably reasonable cost, and the contract is renewable -- pretty much giving us access to low-cost service for as long as we (the owners) choose. The current cost of basic cable television and high-speed internet service under the contract works out to about $34 per household -- Comcast offered a new contract to us for $58.58. You can see why we would much rather have the current contract assigned to the OA. The current contract also provides the OA with the right to direct Comcast to shut off service to those residents who are not current in their dues; service would be reconnected (for a fee, with additional fees for the shut-off service) once dues are brought up to date. (This particular aspect of the contract was never exercised by SunCrest LLC to collect past-due amounts, as far as I know.) That should provide a very effective means of collecting overdue sums, practically eliminating the "free-ride" that a few have enjoyed at the expense of the conscientious, responsible majority. The new contract offered to us by Comcast gave no such provision. Where else could we get similar service for under $35 a month? Pursuing this contract has been a top priority for the Community Manager, Tod Bean, and myself -- and we are hopeful to see it successful by the end of next month. This is in addition to lowering this year's budget so that households are paying $98 per month instead of last year's $112.
-- Barbara Blackmer
10 comments:
Barbara - Thanks for the update on the Comcast situation. Its nice to finally hear what the facts around the Comcast relationship really are. As concerned residents we really appreciate the time and effort that you put into making our community a great place to live.
Jonathan James
Thank you, Barbara, for your service to our community. As someone who counts on Internet service, I greatly appreciate having someone like you looking out for our best interests.
Does everyone get charged a monthly fee the the router, that comcast requires?
Question:
Does everyone get charged a monthly fee the router, that Comcast requires?
Answer: No, not everyone is charged a monthly fee for the router. Some residents choose to purchase their own router as opposed to renting one from Comcast.
Tod Bean
Community Manager
572-1233
Don't get suckered in by the $30 Comcast loss-leader, folks. The OA has been collecting $60 per month per home and then paying Comcast only half of it on the books. The other half has been funneled back to our now-bankrupt developer as an illegal kickback for several years, totaling as much as $1M.
Did you know that the person who crafted this contact recently retired to the Cayman Islands? People just don't do that unless they have committed a crime and are afraid of extradition.
Comcast makes up for that other $30 by gouging us for any service upgrades, such as "expanded basic" and any single premium channel such as HBO. I get billed $70 a month on top of the $60 our OA collects. That totals $130 a month-- not exactly a deal compared to Comcast's competitors that provide much better service. How many times has your Comcast service gone out or glitched in just the last few months?
The SunCrest OA is NOT authorized by our CC&Rs to spend our assessments to purchase any cable/internet service contract, and attempting to do so may result in legal action.
I personally might be in favor of acquiring this contract if and only if each resident's participation were voluntary. Many of us don't want Comcast for TV; we might prefer DirecTV.
It is clearly the OA's intent to acquire this contract in order to hold the threat of utility cut-off over the heads of residents. This is not the role of an HOA. An HOA should not be acting as a public utility provider, subject to regulation by city, state and even federal government.
I have written letters to the Bankruptcy Court, to the Utah Division of Public Utilities and to the FCC in order to block this sale on behalf of SunCrest residents. We are homeowners with property rights, after all. We should not be treated like renters by our own HOA.
Scenario does not have all his/her facts straight. The OA stopped paying the now-bankrupt SunCrest LLC as soon as it became clear that SunCrest LLC was not paying Comcast. The money paid by residents for Comcast service has been banked since then, pending a resolution through the bankruptcy court. I wonder if Scenario is one of the handful of residents who has been getting a free ride from the rest of us, and not paying anything for Comcast or other OA services. OAs (and apartment owners) do not become regulated public services simply because they enter into bulk services agreements with utilities.
Barbara is a fool. Why should anyone in Suncrest pay $100 for basic cable and internet. Wake up folks. THe Suncrest idea is dead. It is a defunct organization and should be dissolved. The pool and clubhouse won't be finished. No developer is going to take over. You are wasting yor money by paying a Suncrest HOA fee.
Furthermore, no one is getting a free ride when they have seen their property values drop by over forty percent because of the scam and corruption between Suncrest LLC, Terrabrook, and Draper City. Free cable and internet are the MINIMUM that should be expected when hundreds of families have seen their largest investment become practically worthless because of corruption and the dismal hope that this project can ever be saved. Suncrest and the master plan should be dissolved, the common areas thrown at Draper City to maintain and THEN property values will stabilize. Until then, the only way out folks is to walk away or do a short sale (assuming you can find a sucker to buy your house). SunCrest is now DONECREST!!! Let's get rid of those plastic rocks and the silly sign too!
Neighbors,
I attended the Bankruptcy Court hearing today regarding the dispensation of the contract between SunCrest LLC and TCI Cablevision, as well as the $200K-300K of our dues that are being held in escrow by SunCrest OA and earmarked for payment to Comcast at the conclusion of these proceedings. The current SunCrest OA is on record as seeking to purchase this contract for $10,000 mainly in order to hold the threat of service cut-off against non-paying members.
Unbelievably, I was the only SunCrest resident who filed an objection to this motion on several grounds, chief among which was my belief that the contract was set up to defraud SunCrest homeowners out of around $1M in developer kickbacks over several years. The attorney for SunCrest said that he had a "quibble" with that claim, although he stipulated that the money paid to Comcast was in fact less than the money collected from homeowners by both SunCrest HOAs in the name of Comcast. We have proof from Brandon Taylor's 2007 Budget that these funds were improperly accounted for.
Judge Thurman agreed with me that it may be warranted for the residents of SunCrest to be entered as a class of creditors in this case. Our claim would be for damages somewhere in the neighborhood of $1M as well as the return of the escrowed funds. I believe we can reasonably expect a minimum award of the escrowed funds, since SunCrest LLC is bankrupt and SunCrest OA continued to collect that money under dubious if not false pretenses. To be clear, I'm not assigning any personal liability here. I understand that Tod Bean is just doing what he's told.
As for the contract itself, Comcast's attorney stated that they do not want this contract to be sold or continued and that they had found a "higher bidder" for it and they intend to terminate it. So it appears that regardless of my input, there's no way SunCrest would continue to operate under the terms of that contract anyway. In other words, within a few months the SunCrest OA will finally be out of the cable/internet service provider business and each homeowner will be free to select and control their own services. And then the next question becomes, what actual services will we pay SunCrest OA $38 a month for?
The judge granted a 60-day continuance in the case so that the parties could prepare to argue the matter further "under these new circumstances." He also stated his intention to "reject" the Comcast contract at that hearing. Per the judge's instructions, I am the only non-attorney who will be notified of this hearing, but I will keep any interested neighbors informed once I know when and where.
I will be expected to present evidence, so we will need to decide as a community whether to seek legal representation as a class action and officially enter the fray before all of our money is gone.
Regards,
Todd Ouzts
todd@scenario.com
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