Re: Dispute regarding ground rents for condo owners. The item below this sentence appeared recently in the Wassup? section of Blogfinger.net:
Condominium associations lose their suit regarding ground rents. The two condo units are on Ocean Pathway. The ruling allows the Camp Meeting to change ground rent charges according to the sale price of the unit.
Here are links to two of our three Blogfinger February, 2017 posts about this subject. This court ruling can have major implications regarding the condo market in OG. The lawyer for the condo owners has recommended an appeal.
To the Editor:
I am Gorton Wood and I live at 40 Ocean Pathway; I am one of the litigants in the ground rent lawsuit.
In 2007 when I purchased my 1,090 square foot condo (two bedrooms and one bath,) I was given a ground rent spreadsheet schedule by OGCMA. It was titled “New Condo/Townhouse Ground Rent.” It covered a period of 12 years. The first three years I paid 1% of the sale price of my condo or $475.00 per year. The second three years it went to 1.5% of my sales price or $712.50 per year. The third three years it went to 2% of my sales price or $950.00 per year. The final three years it grew to 2.5% of my sales price or 1,187.50 per year. Then beginning year 13 and going on forever [hold your hat], it was going to be tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which could be 3%, 4%, 5% annually, who knows. I could end up having to pay an annual ground rent of $3,000 or more annually.
On two occasions I went to the OGCMA and demanded to have someone explain who cooked this up (Jack Green—I learned from another source) and when did they cook this up? No one would speak to me. Then in 2014 I wrote out my ground rent check and sent a message to the OGCMA saying that when they gave me a meeting I would bring my check. They never responded. In 2015 I did they same thing and again they refused to grant me a meeting. Then I received a letter from their law firm in Freehold saying if I did not pay immediately, they would prosecute me.
I am willing to go to any length, even alone, to have this situation corrected. I don’t believe any of the owners, myself included, expect to not pay ground rent, but for God’s sake make it fair. I actually wrote the OGCMA and their law firm a letter saying I was confident I could get every owner at 40 Ocean Pathway and 30 Ocean Pathway to agree to $200.00 a year. They wrote back basically telling me to take a hike.
GORTON WOOD
Ocean Grove, NJ, April 10, 2017
The writer is a resident of a condominium at #40 Ocean Pathway.
Surfer: The CMA accounted for all the FEMA money and all the Together Fund money. There were no funds available to contribute to public works, nor is the CMA required to pay for such projects.
Remember, they had to fix the GA roof and the Thornley Chapel. Many of the contributions to the Together Fund were provided by those who support the CMA specifically.
Also they saved a ton of money by the free labor and supplies offered by those amazing volunteers who often came from far distances to help with the cleanup, the boardwalk, and with the fishing pier as you see it today; and, in many instances, they came because the CMA needed help.
You would perhaps be surprised by all the folks around the world who care about OG because of the religious heritage here. I got a sense of that when the views to BF rolled in by the thousands after Sandy. (25,000 the day after–from all over the world.)
The relationship of the CMA to Ocean Grove is complicated, and there is no rule book to legislate how that relationship should work. Regarding this subject, fairness and kindness should prevail.
Devo,
The OGCMA does not fix sidewalks (property owners do) or streetlights (JCPL paid by Township). They argue that ground rent is for the public areas like cutting the grass between the auditorium and boardwalk.
There is a Beautification Project of volunteers who plant flowers, receiving no money from OGCMA. Also, have you noticed how lovely the grass is between Ocean Ave and the boardwalk in Bradley Beach?
It is coming on five years since Sandy destroyed the fishing pier and a big part of the boardwalk. OGCMA begged “we are not getting FEMA money, help us rebuild TOGETHER” and many fools contributed a total of $1.5 million. But then they got FEMA money—millions! Did they return the $1.5 million to donors?
And as far as a war chest is concerned, OGCMA makes huge profits on the beach every summer. Badge prices are higher than neighboring towns. When a town owns the beach they can keep taxes down by kicking profits into general public works, but not here. Why didn’t OGCMA have a war chest when Sandy hit?
As for Jack Green, he made lots of money building the condos. Also, he built a bunch of single family homes on Clark. and those homeowners also got stuck with high ground rents. I’m sure the OGCMA loves Jack Green.
Presumably Jack Green negotiated the change in ground rent when he was sole owner of the properties — as would be his right. Any of us could certainly go to the CMA and offer to change our land lease agreements to increase the ground rent — these are contracts and can be renegotiated.
I have always wondered why the ground rent is so low. If the CMA could collect, for example, $200 from every house, instead of a fraction of that amount, they would have money to make much needed improvements to the town, like nice looking street lights or fixing sidewalks. Or they could fix the fishing pier, or build a war chest fro the next Sandy storm.
I LOVE that condos are having to pay the large amounts they are — $3,000.00 a year, eventually. I agree with Jack B. that this will diminish the developers’ ability to sell condos and thus the creation of condos. That’s a fantastic outcome. I congratulate Jack Green for conceiving of this clever approach to stopping condos.
This situation is not a problem for most OG homeowners. AT this point in time the Worried Condo Association (WCA) should fight their battle themselves.
I don’t believe that the OGHOA or the Township should get involved.
The HOA spent $7,000.00 on a legal opinion regarding ground rents. Why don’t the HOA members demand that the opinion be released for public evaluation?
Homeowners in Ocean Grove:
It is time for a class action lawsuit against OGCMA, Ocean Grove Counting Money Association, over ground rent. The Neptune Township Attorney, Mr. Anthony, should file this (we pay his salary with our taxes: he is supposed to work for us). If our five elected representatives really represent us, they should direct Mr. Anthony to do this.
If this does not happen, perhaps there is some courageous attorney willing to take up this case. Imagine if just 10% of Ocean Grove homeowners contribute this year’s ground rent to this cause, we would have a ton of money to take on OGCMA. I will personally contribute TEN YEARS of ground rent (OK, it’s only $105. – not like Mr. Wood’s rent).
OGCMA can be defeated. Until about 1980, they prohibited driving in town on Sunday. A lawsuit overturned that policy.
This is looking more like Alice’s rabbit hole:
One condo building on Ocean Pathway sits on 2 non-conforming lots that weren’t merged.
Two non-conforming lots (fire site) that should have permitted only 2 units at #50-54 Main Ave. were maybe merged to build 11 units.
And 4 lots on Surf Ave. (Whitfield site) that were merged and possibly are still merged are now longer merged—- so says the Township official, in order to build 4 houses on 4 non-conforming, undersized lots.
There are serious legal issues here that aren’t being addressed. It is time that the State step in to find out what is going on here before the Township digs even a bigger and deeper rabbit hole, sucking all of Ocean Grove into it.
Kevin Chambers
Gorton Wood, I think this unreasonable OGCMA policy for “ground rents” will effectively end the development of condos in Ocean Grove.
Logically, if a three condo building sits on one lot the owners should divide up the land rent.
But here we have OGCMA math. Instead of $21 ÷ 3 = $7, we have some outrageous multiplication.
I wonder if Mr. Wood and his neighbors tried to get help from other sources. If so, I suspect:
OGHOA + our elected Neptune representatives = 0.