1. Filed a lawsuit to suit a strata council for rent loss. The unit was empty because of the roof leaking for almost two years with rent loss close to twenty thousand dollars. I am suing for council members' negligence after I repeated ask the chairman to repair the roof. I filed and registered the paper with the court and sent the paper th the council using registered mail.
I talked with the insurance company and threatened to sue them, the insurer told me it is a waste of time to sue the insurance company, but if I sue the council for liability, the insurance company will pick it up. So I expect the council will transfer the paper to the insurance company when they receive the paper.
I am not sure how much I can recover the cost, but I have to prepare the evidence that I did repeatedly ask for the repair, and after they did not, I actually paid a handyman to go to the roof to cover it up.
2. T town has a explosion. It is a gas explosion in a house, and the house was completely destroyed. Several houses nearby have to be torn down, and there are a total of 36 houses damaged. My house is very close to the site, but fortunately there is no obvious damage. I talked to the insurance company and they are sending an appraiser for a look. This is very bad for a small town.
3. The bank wants to increase the LOC rate to prime plus one from prime. I decided to fight against it after the banker told me and I received letters. I already met the branch manager who explained me everything. I told him I understand but told him this is a big hit for me so I wanted him to do something. After long talk, he revealed that he can reduce the the plus one to plus point nine for me, and he can only do it for two members at the branch.. I want to escalate the issue and he was kind enough to arrange regional manager to talk to me. This morning the regional manager called, after a brief chat, I wanted to meet him in person, which is arranged for next week.
My plan for the meeting with the regional manager is that I will show him how much business the bank loses if I choose to go to another bank. By raising the LOC rate, the bank may eventually lose all my business. I do not plan to make a deal with him for the meeting, but one of the goals is to escalate the matter to the VP level first. I do not know how high I can escalate this but I will try it as high as possible. I do not expect the reduction to be zero for me but I will try to reduce it as much as possible.
I did learn from the branch manager that the bank cannot change the rate directly because of the wording of the original agreement, that is why the bank sent paper to members to sign to authorize the bank to change the rate. If a member refuses to sign it, the bank can eventually call back the LOC, which the bank has the right to do. I have to fight with a stragety, not to break the talk, but try to bring the talk to higher level for each step of the way.
I may eventully go to the court for a injunction order to block them from raising my rate and calling back the loans. I feel more comfortable now going to the court to do the paper work. I can always back down, though.
4. Rent situation in B town has been improving. It looks like two more units will be rented for July 1. Then there will just be one vacancy. One vacancy actually exceeds my expectation.
I am paying more attention to daily operation now, with an aim to reduce vacancy and reparing costs by finding out unnecessary repairs.
P.S: Update on the bank situation(July 16,2009): I signed the paper for the bank to increase my HELOC rate by 0.9%. I got the 0.1% reduction, but have to pay several hundred dollars more each month because of the rate increase. I did this because the bank has the last resort to call back the loan, and I do not have a way to stop that. I could drag on for another while, but I figure eventually I have to sign or pay off the loan. I do not have intention to pay off the loan, and I do not have the ability to do it, either. I hope someone has a way to organize the members who do not sign and as a group we have more power, but it is hard because we do not know each other and there is nowhere to get contact information.
P.S2: The banck announced today it is not go to increase the interest rate on HELOC because too many members are against it. I am plesantly surprised to learn this. Also, thanks go to a friend who called me and informed me about the news immediately.
