Homeowner Drama: Averted or Continuing?
Over the weekend, I wrote an email expressing my concerns about our property manager to the other HOA board members. None of them have replied, but it appears my email got passed along to the company in some manner. Today, those on the board, myself included, received an email from the owner of the property management company that seems a direct response to mine.
Names removed/replaced:
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Please forward this to all the parties who are concerned about property manager contact's license. Her license was pulled for the reasons stated. At the time her license was pulled, I bought out her company. My company came in, audited all the books, and made sure that the amounts shown on the books were what was in the bank. The problems, by the way, were in her rental accounts, not the homeowner associations. The real estate commission did not find any problems with them nor did I. I am a licensed broker in good standing in Colorado.
When I bought the business, I took property manager contact off all signature cards for all accounts. The signatures on the accounts are myself and Renee, my bookkeeper. property manager contact has continued to work for me during the three years since I bought the company and is an excellent employee. There have been no problems with money or the accounts during the time I've been with her. She adds new HOAs all the time and has many satisfied customers.
I fully understand your concern about the books. I understand in talking with property manager contact that she has not been sending out monthly or quarterly reports. It is our general practice to do that. We also send out copies of the bank statement along with the reconciliation to the board treasurer. We would like to do that so you know that your money is safe. We will start doing this immediately. I believe me is the treasurer, so he will get the bank statements.
We will send out to the board members on a quarterly basis, a cash flow, income and expense registers. We are capable of producing about 40 other reports so if you want other reports, please let us know and we'll provide them.
In talking with property manager contact, she indicated that she never had any meeting with the board to inspect the property. She has done it with builder doing repair work on many occasions. We don't know where the idea came from that there was a board inspection of the grounds because there has never been one scheduled that we know about. She generally talks over everything with HOA president because he is onsite, is the president of the HOA and the grounds keeper.
The job has gone on for so long for several reasons. First, addition problems were found when the board and bat was removed. This has entailed extra work that wasn't figured in during the original scope of the work. He has not charged the Association for this additional work because he wanted the work. builder doing repair work is not an employee of your Association or my company so it makes it hard to get him to finish the work. We have been harping on him to the point where he will hardly answer our phone calls. About all we can do would be to fire him, but, since he is very close to being done, I would suggest everyone try to be patient for just a little longer.
The second problem is that the Association does not have the funds to pay builder doing repair work his final payment. roperty manager contact has been spending a great deal of time and effort trying to collect from the owners who aren't paying. We can provide the board with a list of the delinquencies. Besides turning them over to an attorney to file liens, which will cost more money, there isn't much that can be done besides what we are doing (calling & asking owners to please pay).
We don't want to loose your business. We just need to know what you want. We will implement the changes outlined above, but if you have other needs or requests please let us know so we can provide them for you. We will also do our best to keep you better informed.
Please feel free to contact me and or property manager contact with any and all concerns.
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So... now what? I do feel less inclined to believe there are nefarious plots at work. But I still have lingering doubts and this doesn't get us any closer to dealing with the immediate issue of a repair project that's taken over a year, isn't fully paid for, and doesn't look to be approaching done in my book. Rawrgh.
Names removed/replaced:
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Please forward this to all the parties who are concerned about property manager contact's license. Her license was pulled for the reasons stated. At the time her license was pulled, I bought out her company. My company came in, audited all the books, and made sure that the amounts shown on the books were what was in the bank. The problems, by the way, were in her rental accounts, not the homeowner associations. The real estate commission did not find any problems with them nor did I. I am a licensed broker in good standing in Colorado.
When I bought the business, I took property manager contact off all signature cards for all accounts. The signatures on the accounts are myself and Renee, my bookkeeper. property manager contact has continued to work for me during the three years since I bought the company and is an excellent employee. There have been no problems with money or the accounts during the time I've been with her. She adds new HOAs all the time and has many satisfied customers.
I fully understand your concern about the books. I understand in talking with property manager contact that she has not been sending out monthly or quarterly reports. It is our general practice to do that. We also send out copies of the bank statement along with the reconciliation to the board treasurer. We would like to do that so you know that your money is safe. We will start doing this immediately. I believe me is the treasurer, so he will get the bank statements.
We will send out to the board members on a quarterly basis, a cash flow, income and expense registers. We are capable of producing about 40 other reports so if you want other reports, please let us know and we'll provide them.
In talking with property manager contact, she indicated that she never had any meeting with the board to inspect the property. She has done it with builder doing repair work on many occasions. We don't know where the idea came from that there was a board inspection of the grounds because there has never been one scheduled that we know about. She generally talks over everything with HOA president because he is onsite, is the president of the HOA and the grounds keeper.
The job has gone on for so long for several reasons. First, addition problems were found when the board and bat was removed. This has entailed extra work that wasn't figured in during the original scope of the work. He has not charged the Association for this additional work because he wanted the work. builder doing repair work is not an employee of your Association or my company so it makes it hard to get him to finish the work. We have been harping on him to the point where he will hardly answer our phone calls. About all we can do would be to fire him, but, since he is very close to being done, I would suggest everyone try to be patient for just a little longer.
The second problem is that the Association does not have the funds to pay builder doing repair work his final payment. roperty manager contact has been spending a great deal of time and effort trying to collect from the owners who aren't paying. We can provide the board with a list of the delinquencies. Besides turning them over to an attorney to file liens, which will cost more money, there isn't much that can be done besides what we are doing (calling & asking owners to please pay).
We don't want to loose your business. We just need to know what you want. We will implement the changes outlined above, but if you have other needs or requests please let us know so we can provide them for you. We will also do our best to keep you better informed.
Please feel free to contact me and or property manager contact with any and all concerns.
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So... now what? I do feel less inclined to believe there are nefarious plots at work. But I still have lingering doubts and this doesn't get us any closer to dealing with the immediate issue of a repair project that's taken over a year, isn't fully paid for, and doesn't look to be approaching done in my book. Rawrgh.
At least this person's sent out the message, and is willing to show the paperwork. I'd say that's a very good sign. I'd accept the paperwork coming in to you, and then seeing if you can voice your concerns over the work needing to be done. If this guy's not willing to finish his work, you may need to snag someone else. As for the delinquents, when's the next homeowner's meeting? Funny enough, Cat had considered us moving into a co-op and this is the kind of thing I point to for 'err, no'.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by co-op? Because when I read that I don't take it to mean the same as his housing... or do you mean it as any kind of attached housing?
ReplyDeleteHeh. Studying the numbers more closely, and they're still a little wonky. Not necessarily in the some-is-missing way, but it looks like some of the money collected for the project might have been instead going to cover other costs due to people just not paying normal fees. Rawrghle. The next meeting... would be due sometime in the next few months, I think? I missed the last one or two due to work, so I don't recall the schedule. And, unfortunately, just "snagging someone else" is bound to be complicated. Options are limited, and there's sure to be some disagreement over the amount of money already paid versus the work done. It's the sort of thing that might require a lawsuit to settle - and those are painful, expensive, and not necessarily fast even if you do win. Community living definitely has its ups and downs. It's really a lot like living in a city (or country) and paying taxes, but on a much smaller scale. We can do more together than separately, but if some people don't pay their share it really mucks things up for everyone. That's where the small scale is a disadvantage - anyone failing to pay is a larger percentage and hurts more.
ReplyDeleteCould be a Canadian term? I dunno. ;) I hear "co-op" and usually think of a customer-owned company that has nothing to do with housing, but I suppose the term is more general than that.
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. LOL Canadians. ;)
ReplyDelete