 Good afternoon. Welcome to condo insider and I'm your host Jane Sugimura And we are here to talk about condominium issues mainly because one-third of the people in the state of Hawaii live in condominiums and We you know have these weekly programs to talk about issues that affect people who live in condominiums and their management Today I have as my guest Cameron de Costa and Cameron works for C4 management Cameron. Can you tell me what you do for C4 management? Well, I'm in it one of their elite site managers been working with C4 for about 12 years now, and I worked with R&J services prior to that C4 management does pretty much what a site manager Jer does is a daily operations of all the the pool the janitorial overseas contractors for the landscaping If you're gonna do asphalt repair Any kind of minor projects? No, no large projects, of course Pretty much make sure that your building is running smoothly So I've been doing that for quite a while now And you do this for condominiums and for community associations, right? Correct, correct. High rises and associations such as Ewa Beach that has multi-family homes structure and and C4 I understand You do temporary property management so that you can go in and take over for what when the the resident manager Has to take a leave or is on vacation. You can just go in and take over for that temporary Correct, correct. I'm the owner of the company Angel de Costa um Has been doing this for a few years now where we do come in when resident managers go on Sick leave or vacation a lot of resident managers, you know Family emergencies have to leave for two weeks to a month Etc. So we'll come in in the blind take a set of keys and run a building With the experience of our crew We're able to make that happen. We're unique because When you purchase a C4 contract a monthly contract with us, you don't just get the the resident manager So you'll get myself, which is like a resident manager. I'm there all the time I make sure all your contracts are flowing but in the background you still have a Lot of other people that help out like you said. We have electricians we got Handyman we got a lot of other site managers who's experienced different things I'm more mechanical So I will know a lot about your domestic water pumps and your booster pumps your heat pumps and things like that where a lot of our other managers will know more about landscape and Everything else and so this is like a collective effort. So you get everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah So you get everybody so that's how we make a building run is we'll bring in different What's needed if certain buildings need certain things a lot of times most people just need Janitorial someone the streets in the chairs someone to clean the bathrooms and check the pool then we'll bring that in if you need oversight of Contractors so you need someone to come in and oversee your employees that are doing all the work Make sure you meet with them every Monday. Let them know what their job scope is for the week, etc Then you'll bring in someone like myself more of a site manager So whatever the association needs we're usually able to provide Okay, and today we're going to be talking about an issue. It's called aging in place in condominiums and you and I were talking about this several times and And and you know, there's a law that the condominium statute has a provision about aging in place You did you know about that before I told you? No, I did not. Okay. That's probably because you're too young Well, but let me just tell you that maybe 10 15 years ago We started to hear issues. I mean to condominium attorneys Were come and and people in the business managers were talking about Problems that they were experiencing in condominiums where you had elderly people and maybe some of them had dementia And they'd go walking in the hallways, you know half naked or you know they just didn't really understand what was happening and They weren't taking care of their units and maybe there was hoarding and and and and and the situation with these unit owners was affecting other people in the building mainly because if they didn't take care of their units you ended up with bugs and hoarding causes, you know fire hazards and so people started complaining and And a bunch of us went to the legislature and asked the legislature to enact some Laws to allow condominiums to deal with these Situations because we had no authority. I mean, it's not like we could go in and and do anything for these people who were Having these aging issues Especially if they had no family members and many of them had no family members and see that was part of the problem They had no family members here maybe their friends had all died and so they really had no support and So the legislature did enact the statute that said that if condominiums if the association and their staff Do help these people they're not going to be held liable for any actions that they take and one of the things that they They did is they allowed the associations to call social service agencies to come in and you know with social workers and Who would then deal with these residents and help them get services that? Would help them. I mean maybe they need somebody to go and get the groceries or take them to doctor's appointments Or even just to come once a week in the units and you know for all of that You kind of need the management Assistants correct right because you know when you have vendors because that means you have vendors coming into the building and they would need parking and So we would have to cooperate with with the managers to get those types of such You know services to accommodate the vendors who come and help these People and some of them weren't elderly. Some of them were disabled, but you know, they needed the services So anyway, the law was changed so that you know those the the condominium could Association could take those steps now based on your experience. Have you Have you have you? Personally seen any type of situation that would fit within this aging in place Well, I only have a few small incidents. Okay relating to this Many many it's really really small ones such as bugs like you like you mentioned hoarding Elderly not being able to take care of themselves Meaning, you know after they're done eating dinner cleaning their own dishes putting it back cooking their own food and such so a lot of times we'll see them ordering a lot of fast food or people delivering food for them and There might not even be able to go to the trash cans themselves, so they won't take out their own rubbish Therefore it's sitting there, you know days weeks months sometimes even years and it does cause an infestation of bugs and You know normally when we find out about this kind of stuff It's normally other units surrounding it will start having problems with roaches and so What do they do do the residents complain to them? Yeah, they'll definitely complain about it and we'll our first action is normally the building will get on to some type of monthly Service and we'll treat the units around it and and try to minimize it From affecting the entire building try to keep it into that one unit It's very difficult like you said because you don't know, you know You those those homes belong to the person and you can't just enter and go and treat that unit without permission and so That's that's good to hear about this This law and 514 be that does help the elderly and people without family Because we were pretty much stuck at that where we can treat all around it with permission of the units around that want help but when it comes to that individual unit, they may or may not let us in and To get forced entry, you know, it really has to be an emergency and we really have to know that something is wrong in that unit whether the person's you know passed away in the unit or it's it's a real health hazard and To get to that point. It's really really really difficult and there's not too many services out there that will help us when you're When you suspect something Yeah, the bugs do the bugs do they complain about the bugs coming out into the open? I mean Yeah, and I don't know Yes, they do they definitely run run through the walls and and go into the other units Especially when there's not a food source in that unit anymore And they'll start to spread and so what when you get a complaint about bugs and what what I mean What have you you know, what are your on behalf of the association? We normally only can treat this the common areas and that that's because everybody who pays their association fee Doesn't want to pay for you to treat individual units So we only can treat the the association and that only gets you so far and then after that We usually will get the units around it a really good rate whether it's $15 $20 a unit to To offer the service inside their unit Wow We're having treatment of the common area and in that way we're able to get into those units Really evaluate it treat it and hopefully stop it at that but to get into the unit if if the person that's causing the disturbance wants help Then we're always willing to help management will get on the phone. We'll have all the services come out and help them But that's 99% of the time not the not what happens about the Department of Health You know, we just haven't I personally haven't had too many incidents where I had to call on Department of Health The few times that we did we were we we didn't get any help because Maybe the complaint wasn't large enough or it's too, you know, we just didn't have enough evidence So so I mean is but if the department Has there been a situation where the Department of Health has come out? I mean you can call them Not for me. No, I haven't I haven't had them come out for any any large situation before okay Is there any government agency that you know of that you can call with if you know the adult protective services is another one but I think I think they're all kind of on the same line where the person has to want help and they have to Be willing to contact this service and get a social worker or get help For us to just give it to them. It's pretty much impossible Every time I've called and tried to get somebody help I was unable to So so this is a very frustrating situation. Yes very very frustrating and it and you know when when you know Let's say somebody's like you say has a huge infestation in their unit and causing a lot of problems for the whole building It's very frustrating because we can't just pick the locks go in there and Do what we need to do what I mean you can there's a fine line. There's a really fine line and So that's and that's where we don't want to cross the line because we don't want to be liable and we want to make sure that You know we though usually the homeowners Don't want us to come in and they're very clear about that so we don't want to we don't if we cross the line You know there's there's liability and and and and and you know when you have a situation like this like with bugs or With smell like you said people you know have the food and they maybe they don't clean up And do people complain about the smell? Yeah, yeah, so that's one of the the biggest signs is the smell and I Say two out of three of the situations. I've been in we've we've smelt it before we actually knew there was a problem And we're like wow what's that smell and you know it gets stronger and stronger than you're like, okay Some something needs to be done. There's either a roach bomb Hopefully someone didn't pass away in that unit. So you do you do your duty and you try to contact that unit, you know Of course you hopefully you get a hold of that person if you don't then at that point we call HPD We go we we enter and we make sure that that person's okay. We call all the emergency Numbers that we have which is which leads me to the registration of units is very very very very important that you put all of your Family information on that type of form because as management we we use that that's you're talking about the registration Yes, every owner must turn in or tenant who lives in a building fills out for the management Correct correct And that's one of our our largest things we do is make sure that that's up to date every single year and that we have As much information as possible and a lot of people don't want to give it out You know, why does management need to know this? Why does management need to know who my parents are and what their phone numbers are my my brother and sister that live in Vegas? It doesn't you know, they don't live here. They don't need that information But it's really really important especially if your parents are elderly and you don't live on the island And this is the way that they you can get them help. Yes, but right now we're gonna have to take a break So we'll come back. We'll come back. We'll take we'll take a one-minute break. I think Aloha everyone, I hope you've been watching think tech Hawaii But I'm here to invite you to watch me on Viva Hawaii every Monday at 3 p.m I'm waiting for you mahalo Hello, this is Martin Despeng. I want to get you get excited about my new show Which is humane architecture for Hawaii and beyond we're gonna broadcast on Tuesdays 5 p.m. Here on think tech Hawaii Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard I'm the host of center stage which is on Wednesdays at 2 o'clock here on think tech on center stage I talk with artists about not only what they do and how they do it But the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it why we go through this a lot of us are not making our Livings doing this and a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had to that choice And that's what I love to talk to people about I hope you enjoy watching it And I hope you get inspired because there's an artist inside g2 join us on center stage at 2 o'clock on Wednesdays Okay, welcome back, and we are talking to Cameron Dicosta about his experiences with aging in place and you were talking about you know the Frustration that you as a manager have to face when you're dealing with somebody who may have some Mental or emotional problems or you know maybe you know they don't understand what's happening and maybe maybe because they're you know getting older and and and And and and some of the problems that you you mentioned were you know the infestation of bugs and the smell So How do you deal with this? You know what means how I mean what does the association? How does the association deal with these problems? You know it's really case by case because there's the large spectrum of things that could be happening in that unit and like you said the fine line of of Doing your due diligence and doing your job and trying to make sure that person's safe first of all And you know are they in an environment that could be a health hazard to them and the the units around them and and How do you follow protocol based off of your bylaws and such so you know It's pretty simple to do the first few steps of like sending a letter or contact in the unit if you get contact And they're not able to remedy the smell whether it's like set pest control or and if I do what when you when you send the letter You're basically sending them a letter saying we've been receiving these complaints Correct. Well first we do the calling and then if they don't remedy it, you know quickly then we send the letter that way we can make sure we We cover ourselves and And the letter will normally state that yeah You're getting numerous complaints from adjacent units and you need to take care of the situation Or we may be requesting that we enter and inspect and we have had to do that numerous times where We smell something from a unit. We send them a letter We schedule an appointment with them Requesting that we we just make sure that it's safe and it's a clean environment And we go in and we just inspect and a lot of times, you know, they know we're coming and they'll clean it up they'll have their their everything boxed and cleaned and they'll shampoo the carpets and You know do what they can to make it past and we'll come in and we'll No further for the people that don't you don't have a problem with the people you who do have the problem A lot of the hoarders they know they know that they're saving a lot of things and they more than that They need and it's stacking up and they're throwing things in the corner and sometimes it's just it It causes smells because they didn't know that they had something in a bag That was perishable and they just didn't take care of it and it's and it's they're not doing it on purpose And when they're when they live in that unit and they got pets, you know sometimes there's feces and things like that they'd clean it up but maybe they don't clean it up really good and it Occurs every 24 hours, you know the pet might pee on the carpet or poop on the carpet Continuously, and you know, we might be months down the line and we start smelling something So we're like hey, you know, we want to inspect your unit or you need to take care of this smell And then they usually do most most of the time those kind of items They'll they'll come and they'll take care of it most most homeowners are good about that It's the elderly ones that they might not be able to and they might not know what they need to do And they just live with the situation Where like you said their their kitchen is full of You know Dinnerware that hasn't been cleaned and their refrigerator and fridge have they haven't used it in years So whatever was in there when they when they stopped walking or you know, it's still in there And and you you you did have an incident where you where there was an elderly person who was it and into denial Yes, and she was not cooperating correct in fact you weren't even allowed to get in Correct, and you contacted her family members, correct, and the family members will also try to get Help from social welfare agencies and what what happened correct Well, we were thankful in this situation where the the family was willing to help and they did come down from the mainland and Try to talk their way into the unit. It was a little bit of hoarding and a little bit of a little bit of everything on this on this situation she was elderly wasn't mobile and Definitely a hoarder as well. So we had a little bit of everything the family Themselves haven't spoke with with this their mother and over a year as well So it wasn't a good situation, but we at least we had help from family. So the family did come down and try to get in Unfortunately, the mother did not give access to even her own family Kept denying us access made a lot of promises to us that she was going to be taking care of the situation and that she did schedule with different Pest control companies and she even gave us dates, but they never did show up In fact what you found out when when and and and this incident came to your attention because the residents The neighbors were complaining about the noise. I mean about the smell. Yes. Yes. Yes And you found out that there were neighbors who were actually enabling this person Correct her groceries and running her errands. Yeah Like you said the the elderly that live in the building They might have bought in the building when they were in their 30s or 40s and now the building's 40 years old So, you know, they've been living there all this time and they have a bunch of friends all their neighbors So nobody really wants to complain about them. Even though they know there is a problem They they usually shop for these people take out their trash for them do a lot of a lot of helpful things So that's why we get into those situations is because they're they're helping but at the same time they're enabling because You know while they're enabling them that person doesn't seek help Correct that person thinks she has it all under control and they they're like you said they're getting someone to deliver them food and take out their trash And so what's going on in their unit? They feel like They're they just stay like that for years and years and that just keep that just keeps happening and happening Meanwhile, they're not they're not Cleaning or in or out of their unit. They just stay there. They don't see doctors a lot of them So it it gets as they get older and without family on island It really gets tough tough for management and and with this particular person You were the family was finally able to get removed her take her back to the mainland correct What happened to the unit after they were able to remove her? well, it was it's it's kind of a good situation because The family hired a vendor to come in and clean. Yes a bio company to come in and clean and when you said bio company What do they mean? What I mean? What exactly is a bio company? Well, I don't know how much detail do you want me to go into but yeah, like I said people don't enter and exit the unit and so The elderly in this situation. She I guess her toilet must have Broke on her and so she started to urinate in bottles Don't know what she was doing with her feces at this point, but we do know that It was very it was a very Dangerous unit at this point, you know a lot of spores in the air and it's not it's a health hazard for sure And so in fact in fact when they went in they they went in with gas masks, isn't correct? We made sure that it and full bio hazards. It needed full suits and booties and and gloves and Helmets so they went into this unit with full hazmat gear Correct It's a perfect example on how not you know how it's dangerous and you know I think this situation it did lead to her getting sick in the ends and so and what happened to this Resident well, I just found out she just recently passed away from some type of lung Lung problem and so and everybody pointed in the direction of that She was living in her unit with Infested and like you said with all the bio around so with all the toxic And so she shouldn't have been breathing that for all these months or even a year And so you you you were present when when the biohazard people went in what exactly did they have to do to? clean this unit well, of course dispose of all the carpet, you know throw away all of the food that's Left out like you say clean up everything clean the refrigerators. They they removed everything they had to throw out 90% of the unit pretty much work. It's gonna get that whole unit's gonna get overhauled It's gonna demo the everything yeah the bathroom needs to be demoed pretty much all the walls got to be demoed because of The smell gets like you said absorbed into the paint so they had blowers and it's it's pretty bad situation So they took out all the furniture correct they furniture soft items clothing All the clothing closet got everything all the clothing in the closet got thrown out all the bedding was thrown away Correct the furniture if it was usable it was what donated. Yeah, they donated they saved on what they could They they worked it with the with with the family For them to come in and also take what they what they wanted and sell what they thought needs to be sold like nice China Or anything that of value they would keep but all of the clothes and rugs and Soft items couches things like they all had to be disposed of because of the situation Okay, and unfortunately and and and and and now what the family now has to do Now that the unit is in the process of being demoed as they're gonna have to renovated correct and after they renovated they'll probably sell it correct But that's been quite an odyssey Right. Yes Very very difficult and it takes a lot of time to do it to do it right and and make sure that You know you're looking after the well-being of the person in the unit and and and with in your situation You mean it was you and your staff the association staff and it was the association board members There's really a lot and there were the vendors and it was a family member the family who had to Come over and some of the residents who were good friends of the of the woman, right? It took a lot of steps a Village and all of those people tons and tons of people that Had to help and throw in and and it costs a lot of money. Yes lots and lots of money lots and lots of money Which is a shame? Okay Okay, well, thank you. Thank you Cameron for being with us and sharing with us and I'm sure you know You're young to this industry. So I'm sure you're gonna have a lot more stories but and hopefully you'll come back and share them with us and Join us next week and we will have another topic of interest and