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FFR · 07-15-2008, 12:43 PM

/Rant

My husband and I moved into our brand new townhouse in February of this year. In early May, we recieved our first letter from the Condo Management Company regarding the payment of condo fees and the board of directors and all that. Included was a form to return to set up the PreAuthorized payment as that is the only form of payment that they would accept. Fine. Anyways, they requested that we return the form by a certain date. The day before that date I realized that we hadnt mailed it yet so I called our specific community manager and asked if it would be alright for me to fax over the form instead and mail the original so that they would have the information in time. She said no problem. So off we go, faxing and mailing. Later that day, it occured to me that I had no idea when our first payment would be coming out so I emailed her and she said that because our form came in late, the first payment would come out the following month and would include all previous months. Great! Sounds good to me. Not a problem. Two weeks after the month end (not the one we were paying on) we get a notice in the mail informing us they were going to put a caveat on the house unless we paid them within 3 days. Well. I lost it. Not only did I have written proof from the Community Manager that we were paying in June, not May, but we had spoken to her on the phone regarding this issue. So we call her back and leave message after message for the next 3 days and we never get ahold of her and she never returns our calls. Finally, my husband gets ahold of her on the day that they are supposed to be issuing the caveat and she says that we were a low priority phone call and so she was going to 'get around to us.' We asked what could be more important than a LEGAL issue that could hurt us the next time we are looking to buy (as this is our first house) and she says, oh emergencies. Seriously? Three days of emergency phone calls? Unreal.

Anyways, we finally get everything sorted out (with her assistant, not her, becuse she is too busy) and once we prove we were not supposed to pay until June, their reason? On the form we sent in to authorize the prepayments, we had put May 1 as the first withdrawal date, and since they had missed that day, the form was invalid. I couldn't believe it. Maybe I'm crazy, but that has got to be the worst excuse I have ever heard. The form we sent said that we authorize payments to begin on May 1. June 1 is after May 1, so would it not be included? Ridiculous. So we send another form and include a letter authorizing them to withdraw for the total of all months oweing and a note saying to contact us if there are any other outstanding charges and they assure us that the caveat will nto be filed and they will not charge us the 100 dollars that they want to charge us for sending us the letter. Fine, we're happy. June 1, all oweing condo fees backpaid from February are withdrawn. July 1, next months condo fees withdrawn like normal.

Then yesterday, we recieve a bill in the mail from them for close to 100 dollars. No explanation what it's for, just a bill saying to pay them immediately. Once again. Not so happy. I'm fairly certain its the charges for the letter they sent us regarding the caveat that was supposed to be removed becuase we have paid all of our condo fees in full. But I can't get ahold of my Community Manager or her assistant. So I have no idea. But I'm pissed off. Not only have we been billed by them improperly now, twice, but both times, I've been unable to get ahold of anyone. We have been told that charges would be removed and they weren't. We sent them a letter asking them to inform us if there were any other outstanding balances. They have our email addresses and phone numbers. We spoke to them the day we sent in our form. We spoke to them after they recieved the form. The customer service is disgusting.
/End Rant

And unfortunately, we can't do anything about it. Because the Board of Directors for our community has chosen this company. I suppose we can bring up our complaints to the Board, but I don't think that us as one townhouse in a community of a couple hundred is going to mean anything.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with them? I don't want to bring up the companies name, but I've heard from friends that they are one of the worst in the city. Anyone else have any horror stories?

07-15-2008, 12:43 PM	#1
FFR Powerplay Quarterback Join Date: Mar 2005 Exp:	Condo Management Company /Rant My husband and I moved into our brand new townhouse in February of this year. In early May, we recieved our first letter from the Condo Management Company regarding the payment of condo fees and the board of directors and all that. Included was a form to return to set up the PreAuthorized payment as that is the only form of payment that they would accept. Fine. Anyways, they requested that we return the form by a certain date. The day before that date I realized that we hadnt mailed it yet so I called our specific community manager and asked if it would be alright for me to fax over the form instead and mail the original so that they would have the information in time. She said no problem. So off we go, faxing and mailing. Later that day, it occured to me that I had no idea when our first payment would be coming out so I emailed her and she said that because our form came in late, the first payment would come out the following month and would include all previous months. Great! Sounds good to me. Not a problem. Two weeks after the month end (not the one we were paying on) we get a notice in the mail informing us they were going to put a caveat on the house unless we paid them within 3 days. Well. I lost it. Not only did I have written proof from the Community Manager that we were paying in June, not May, but we had spoken to her on the phone regarding this issue. So we call her back and leave message after message for the next 3 days and we never get ahold of her and she never returns our calls. Finally, my husband gets ahold of her on the day that they are supposed to be issuing the caveat and she says that we were a low priority phone call and so she was going to 'get around to us.' We asked what could be more important than a LEGAL issue that could hurt us the next time we are looking to buy (as this is our first house) and she says, oh emergencies. Seriously? Three days of emergency phone calls? Unreal. Anyways, we finally get everything sorted out (with her assistant, not her, becuse she is too busy) and once we prove we were not supposed to pay until June, their reason? On the form we sent in to authorize the prepayments, we had put May 1 as the first withdrawal date, and since they had missed that day, the form was invalid. I couldn't believe it. Maybe I'm crazy, but that has got to be the worst excuse I have ever heard. The form we sent said that we authorize payments to begin on May 1. June 1 is after May 1, so would it not be included? Ridiculous. So we send another form and include a letter authorizing them to withdraw for the total of all months oweing and a note saying to contact us if there are any other outstanding charges and they assure us that the caveat will nto be filed and they will not charge us the 100 dollars that they want to charge us for sending us the letter. Fine, we're happy. June 1, all oweing condo fees backpaid from February are withdrawn. July 1, next months condo fees withdrawn like normal. Then yesterday, we recieve a bill in the mail from them for close to 100 dollars. No explanation what it's for, just a bill saying to pay them immediately. Once again. Not so happy. I'm fairly certain its the charges for the letter they sent us regarding the caveat that was supposed to be removed becuase we have paid all of our condo fees in full. But I can't get ahold of my Community Manager or her assistant. So I have no idea. But I'm pissed off. Not only have we been billed by them improperly now, twice, but both times, I've been unable to get ahold of anyone. We have been told that charges would be removed and they weren't. We sent them a letter asking them to inform us if there were any other outstanding balances. They have our email addresses and phone numbers. We spoke to them the day we sent in our form. We spoke to them after they recieved the form. The customer service is disgusting. /End Rant And unfortunately, we can't do anything about it. Because the Board of Directors for our community has chosen this company. I suppose we can bring up our complaints to the Board, but I don't think that us as one townhouse in a community of a couple hundred is going to mean anything. Anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with them? I don't want to bring up the companies name, but I've heard from friends that they are one of the worst in the city. Anyone else have any horror stories?