Help Support Gerrit Geurs

As you may or may not know, my partner Gerrit Geurs (original owner, 10G) has been taken to court over the installation process of his Unitone intercom replacement during the building-wide replacement project. He has been embroiled in this action since January 27, 2022.

The Board inaccurately insisted access to install his intercom was being denied, and made public claims against him. And based on these claims, they initiated legal action against him.

Gerrit was forced to hire his own attorney.

During the very first hearing February 8, 2022, Gerrit scheduled his installation. Installation was completed February 18, 2022.

But even after that, the Board doubled down and continued to wage a legal case against him in spite of getting exactly and immediately what they claimed to be suing for.

In this pursuit, over two years since installation was completed, the Board claims to have accrued attorney fees of over $20,000.00 attached to this case, fees of which they are now demanding Gerrit pay half, on top of his own legal fees of approximately $10,000.00 for his own defense.

He is being expected to pay half of their $20,000.00 claim based solely on heavily redacted legal bills to determine the accuracy of the Board’s claimed total, legal bills which predate the legal action taken, and extend past resolution of the suit.

He is being asked to foot half of their bill, based solely in good faith that this Board is telling the truth about when and why this action was instigated.

They have recently accelerated the legal process, forcing Gerrit to now either pay up or face an extended, lengthy and expensive discovery phase, with no hope of Gerrit himself recovering any fees, regardless of outcome.

The Board is using the Condominium’s attorneys to wage this action against Gerrit, with no personal stake in ending this retaliatory legal action, since no money comes from any of their own pockets. This is also a legal firm selected and hired by the currently sitting Board. And the Board has not even engaged all Board members in weighing the validity of the initial and subsequent claims or negotiated settlement amounts in Gerrit's case. Some didn't even know it was happening.

This a Board that by its President's own public admission, is quick to sue. In 2020, the condominium’s legal expenses were $22,000.00. In 2021 they were $112,000.00 – a 500% increase. In 2022, legal expenses increased again to $136,000, while the Annual Budgets released during this time show budgeted amounts based on past trend at approximately $50,000.00 per term, for comparison. They have weaponized the Condo's retained legal counsel against the building's own residents.

Gerrit lobbied against the Unitone system’s shortcomings, project fiscal mismanagement, and life-and-safety issues based on the new system no longer being integrated into the building’s fire alarm notification system, on behalf of all residents of Strivers Gardens. (The new Unitone system's disconnection from automatically providing smoke alarm notification to the front desk played a substantial role in the extensive water damage in six other units caused by the fire in Unit 8J on September 17, 2022.)

Many other resident owners had the same questions and raised the same issues about the intercom replacement project, yet it was only Gerrit who was singled out, threatened, and punished legally. And in spite of responding to Gerrit's very valid questions with threats and legal action, the Board answered these specific questions afterward in building-wide communications, to ALL building residents because of Gerrit's requests for information and transparency. That would not have happened had Gerrit not spoken up.

Now, we're taking the difficult and uncomfortable step of asking for financial assistance against these exorbitant legal fees, fees which we maintain are punitive and retaliatory.

Gerrit is available at any time to provide further information.

And although I am highly biased, Gerrit is a caring, good and honest man, and I know you all also know that. And he needs your help.

Please give what you can.

With love and gratitude--

Patrick J. Hamilton

All funds collected through this GoFundMe effort would be applied directly to paying the Condo Attorneys and Gerrit's lawyers, but we are also looking at this effort to potentially provide the seed of a Resident Owner Legal Aid Fund, to give support to neighbors facing any such action in the future. A fund like this could have assisted when the Board used the building's attorneys to shut down the recent Primary Election Board, as one example.