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Address: 11351 Random Hills Rd, Ste 500, Fairfax, Virginia, United States, 22030
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Contract Violation
According to the contract agreement, between FirstService Property Management Company and *** at *** Condominium Association unit owners are to be provided an advance agenda and related materials in advance of community-wide meetings. A formal notification card and related information is sent out to residence two weeks before event and placed on the FirstService resident World Wide Web page (e.g., ***) for reviewing.
On Wednesday, February 12, 2020 the first meeting of new year for *** residence was held. The required documents for this meeting, that included formal notification card, previous meeting minutes seeking approval, topic agenda, anticipated contract proposals, and financial records were not posted to ***. In accordance with joint contract, Section 3.7, Association Communications, (b) The Agent (FirstService) will maintain records of written inquiries, correspondence and other matters reported to it by all members of the Association. Section 3.8, Meetings, (b) The Agent will distribute to the Board prior to each meeting that the Agent attends an agenda as established by the Board, along with materials that will support the facilitation of the meeting.
On February 15, 2020 my family has notified the *** board members in an electronic mail note that these items were not provided. On February 19, 2020 my family notified FirstService manager Mark Bailey and FirstService Agency for *** Laura G these items were not provided.
As of today, February 23, 2020 these items are still not posted to *** or provided to unit members. This is a clear violation of contract agreement.
From: Alan TDate: Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:09 PMSubject: Complaint ID - ***To: ***@myRevdex.com.org <***@myRevdex.com.org>***:Please accept our response to the above Complaint, as follows:· *** has years of complaints to the Association Board about the Board, about Management, etc. He has been told multiple times by the Board and Association counsel to come to a Board meeting and share his concerns directly. He has been invited to executive sessions to speak to the Board confidentially. (He fails to attend.) *** has been provided with information and direction on how to file a complaint against his Board via the CICB and Ombudsman’s office. To the best of Management’s knowledge, he has never utilized this path of resolution. · *** sent the same list of complaints directly to the Board several days after the 2/12 meeting. The Board chose not to respond. *** did not attend the meeting on the 12th.· *** then sent his complaints to the community manager and her supervisor. At the direction of the Board, management did not respond. The Association has a long-standing directive to management that the only responses to *** are to come directly from Association legal counsel unless *** has a specific maintenance issue directly related to his unit.· Management consulted with Association counsel about these complaints. Counsel shared that Management is NOT obligated to distribute meeting materials to the members in advance of a meeting. If a member requests to have the materials delivered, then the association/management would be required to comply. · The meeting materials were most certainly posted to management’s web portal, *** on the morning of Feb. 12th. Based on the screen shot provided to the Board and Management, he was not looking in the correct part of the Resident Portal.· Regarding contract section 3.7 – The Agent is in full compliance with this contractual obligation. · Regarding contract section 3.8 – The Agent is in full compliance with this contractual obligation. Management distributed all meeting materials and an agenda that was established by the President to THE BOARD in advance of the meeting. It should be noted that *** is not a member of the Board. This contractual obligation does not pertain to a member of the association. Regarding the requested Outcome/Settlement – the community’s Resident Portal is and has been current with all applicable materials. Management cannot mail the requested materials to the membership without the Board of Directors so directing and accepting the postage expense for such mailings. Management will not replace the community manager. Management has shared with the Board that for future meetings, a copy of the meeting agenda will be posted on the Community Calendar so that the members will be informed of the topics that are to be discussed at the meeting. Thank you. ALAN T***, Esq.In-House Counsel and Director of Risk Management21 Christopher Way | Eatontown, NJ 07724Direct *** l Toll Free *** l Fax ***Email ***@fsresidential.comwww.fsresidential.com24/7 Customer Care Center:
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: the response failed to address my initial area of concern. The bottom line, no screen shot, photographic, or applicable evidence was provided in return to show they are in compliance with contracted agreements.
Thank you for helping resolve this matter.
Interestingly, that a lawyer would reduce his return
note to personal attacks against me, the person who initiated this
matter of concern against his client.
The return commentary provided by Mr. T
reflects several inaccurate statements.
Accusation. It is indicated that the subject of my
concern in this request is failure by “Counsel shared that Management is NOT obligated to distribute meeting
materials to the members in advance of a meeting.”
Response: According to
the ***
at *** Condominium, *** Virginia Bylaws, the following information is
applicable.
Article 2. Unit Owners Association. Section 2.2.
Annual Meetings. The annual meetings of the Unit Owners Association shall be
held on weekdays (other than legal holidays) at least thirty days before the
beginning of each fiscal year. The first meeting of the Association shall be
held within one year after there is a unit owner other than the Declarant.
Section 2.4. Special Meetings. (a) The Secretary shall
designate the date of the meetings, (3) specify the purposes for which the
meeting is to be held…
Section 2.5. Notice of Meetings. The Secretary shall notify
each unit owner of each annual or regularly scheduled meeting of the unit
owners at least twenty-one but not more than thirty days, and …. The giving of
a notice of meeting in the manner provided in this section and Section 11.1 constitutes
service of notice.
Section 2.8. Conduct of Meetings. The President shall
preside over all meetings of the Unit Owners Association and the Secretary
shall keep the minutes of the meetings and record in a minute’s book all
resolutions adopted at the meeting, as well as record of all transactions occurring
at the meeting.
Section 3.7. Meetings of Directors, (e) Notice. Notice
of the meetings of the Board of Directors shall be given to each director,
personally or by mail, telegraph or telephone, at least three business days
prior to the day named for such meeting.
Article 11, Miscellaneous. Section 11.1. Notices. All
notices, demands, bills, statements or other communications under these Bylaws
shall be in writing and shall be deemed to have been duly given if delivered
personally or sent to United States mail, postage, prepaid, or if notification is
of a default or lien, sent by registered or certified United States mail,
return receipt requested, postage prepaid…
Section 11.5. Use of New Technology. The use of technology
in implementing the provisions of this condominium instruments dealing with
notices, payments, signatures, votes, consents or approvals shall be governed
by this Section.
Article 12, Dispute Resolution. Section 12.1. Claim Notice: Inspection. (a)
The Association shall make a prudent and reasonable attempt to mail or
otherwise deliver written notice to the Declarant specifying the defect or
defects that are the subject of its claim…
The lawyer response by Mr. T failed to
contain his return commentary to these facts, as outlined within my initial
complaint to Revdex.com.
Fact. The Board of Directors are to create an Open Session
package for unit owners to review, before conducting any official special or
regular meeting. The package typically
includes agenda for proposed meeting, prior meeting minutes for review, contract
proposals for upcoming actions to be completed within our community, management
report prepared by the management company, and financial report. According to the Mr. T’s response,
“Management is NOT obligated to distribute meeting materials to the members in
advance of a meeting”. This newly
implemented procedure was not shared with unit owners. I formally request that either the Board
or property management company provide date of notification letter, electronic mail,
or other method by which this information was previously given to unit owners.
Fact. The Board of Directors has decided only accept three-minute
homeowner comments during the regular meetings and not keep a formal record of
any discussions that occurred.
Fact. The Board of Directors has decided that
financial receipts, written statements, and accounting documents will no longer
be available for unit owners, either electronically or paper version.
Fact. The Board of Directors has decided, without
public notice to conduct meetings without official notification to unit owners. It now is evident that the Board is now withholding
prior, current, and previous Open Session package meeting notes, agendas,
minutes of preceding, reports of committees, and proof of mailing notice of a meeting.
Fact. The Board of Directors has decided to construct
a “communication bulletin board” to relay information regarding community-wide items
of interest. To date, this bulletin
board has zero notices, flyers, etc. posted. It cost $400.00 to build, place in the ground, and has zero usage.
Fact. The Board of Directors has indicated all communication
will come in the form of electronic mail notices or information placed on an
internal *** World Wide Web page, hosted by the property management
company. To date, general information is
being removed to prevent accurate historical records. At a previous regular unit owners meeting, it
was suggested that the Board use other electronic means, such as a *** page,
public web site, etc. The Board rejected
this idea as they felt only derogatory comments would be posted.
Fact. The dispute indicated a non-compliance by
designed property management employees to maintain the designed *** electronic
page, as it fails to include accurate information. No longer is the calendar of events, meeting
agendas, contracts under proposal, and other historical Open Session package records
kept on file.
Fact. The return comments from Mr. T indicates
that the Board has decided not to respond formally or informally to any
complaints submitted. It must be
understood this complaint affects all unit owners that comprise *** at
*** Condominium. When the Board formally
decided not to maintain, provide any advance notice, and remove all general
information regarding special or general meetings, they failed to give notice
to our entire unit owner population. The
goes beyond ignoring my area of concern, they are taking actions on activities
affecting everyone in the community and pointing the blame at one person,
especially when they are in non-compliance not me.
Fact. It was
indicated that “the meeting materials were most certainly posted to the
management’s web portal, *** on the morning of Feb. 12th.” It is interesting that before to the
reelection of Board President to another three-year term, this information was
posted on both management and resident portal. I formally request a screen capture of management’s web portal,
***. This will indicate the date Open
Session package materials were posted.
Fact. The resident portal today fails to include any indication
of a calendar notification, proof of meeting notice, formal agenda of business
conducted on February 12, 2020, minutes of preceding’s, and reports of
committees. I formally request explanation
on why unit owners are not provided these same materials on resident portal. The screen shot provided should have shown
documents, since the copy was made well after intended scheduled meeting. The resident portal offers three choices,
Calendar, Forms and Documents, and Directory. I will include a new screen shot, taken from today’s ***. It reflects that after 30 plus days, required
materials are not posted for unit owners to review under the Forms and Document
area. It does reflect other documents
posted prior to and after February 12, 2020. If require Open Session package and related documents are posted, where
is it located?
Fact. The return comments indicated, “Management cannot mail the requested
materials to the membership without the Board of Directors so directing and
accepting the postage expense for such mailings”. I formally request a copy of materials
sent via electronic mail. This procedure
is at no cost to the Board (and my unit owners association).
Fact. My family and I are in agreement. We are not a formal elected Board
member. This fact is not in
dispute. It is also not disputed that as
a unit owner, we pay on time monthly dues for services. This complaint reinforces that contract
agreement between *** at *** Condominium and the designed
property management company reflects non-compliance. Mr. T fails to comprehend when a
person pays into a unit owners association, they “The Agent – a.k.a., property management
company” is obligated by the owners. The
three Board members are not the only body to which they must provide contracted
services. They “the Agent” is agreeing with
the entire community of *** at *** Condominium. It is also important to point out that at no
time did the return commentary provide facts, only belittling comments to deflect
blame.
Finally, according to the return comments “Management has shared with the Board that
for future meetings, a copy of the meeting agenda will be posted on the
Community Calendar so that the members will be informed of the topics that are
to be discussed at the meeting”.
It does
appear that by Mr. T’s admission, required procedures
were not followed, as he must assure the Board that Open Session package materials
will be posted in the future.
I wish to keep this
complaint open for another 30-45 days. This will give the Board and property management time to respond in kind
to the previous request and act diligently in posting required materials to ***. If either party is serious about resolving
this matter, they will meet their required obligations. Our next community-wide regular meeting
should be scheduled in April 2020.
Again, thank you for
helping resolve this matter.
Regards
I am a 85 year old disable *** veteran and I presently reside in the *** retirement community in southern Stafford county. The community is managed by FirstService Residential management company. My troubles begin in 2017 when I electived to pay my monthly homeowner fee of $165.00 by mail with coupons issued by the management company instead of by bank debit, from that moment o take caretake care of the CLUB n I have been serviced with LOCK BOX NOTICES each month for late payment, mind you all checks are cashed the coupons are excepted but to date I am in debt to the lock boxes in the amount of $498.00.I feel am being scam out of my retirement pension. They want answer my calls or e-mail when I question the LOCK BOX CHARGES. May be you will have better luck than I have to date finding out the LOCK BOX CAPER and why am I being charged for it's use. MY account number is ***.I really do not know what the problem is.I pay my monthly HOA fee each month with the coupons provided and with the $165 due. I have been a resident in *** for the past 15 years and as such has paid HOA FEES totaling $26,000 these funds are used for the up keep of the club house and the common areas, homeowners must up keep their property at there own expense.
The collection of assessments by FirstService at *** is governed by Administrative Resolution No. 13-02 (“AR 13-02”), which has been in place since September 15, 2013. Although silent as to the method of payment (mailed in check (“lockbox payment”) or electronic), AR 13-02 provides, in relevant part: Part I.A. “The Base Assessment levied by the Board shall be paid in monthly installments. The due date for each monthly installment shall be the first (1st) day of each month.” Part II.A. “Any assessment payment, including installment payments, shall be assessed a late charge of five percent (5%) of the delinquent amount which is not paid within thirty (30) days of the due date.” Part II.D. “All costs incurred by the Association as a result of any violation of the . . . resolutions of the Association, by an owner, . . . shall be assessed against such Owner and are collectible in the same manner as other assessments imposed against a Dwelling Unit.” As of June 2010, residents at *** have been given the option to either mail in their monthly assessment payments or use an online debit payment. Either method is acceptable and no resident is penalized for the use of either. Payments that are mailed in will appear as “Lckbx Pmt” or “Lockbox Payment” on a resident’s statement. Payments that are made online appear as “Clickpay ACH” on a resident’s statement. The current monthly assessment at *** in $165.00. When a resident misses a payment or is late, he/she is assessed a late fee of $8.25 (5% of $165.00) pursuant to AR 13-02. Once a resident’s account balance reaches $10.50, monthly reminder notices may be sent. Each time a reminder notice is sent, the resident’s account will be assessed a $10.00 charge. Once an account balance reaches at least 50% of the monthly assessment amount, a monthly late fee of $8.25 may be assessed until the balance is paid. Thus, a resident who has been assessed fees in connection with a late or missed payment who chooses to not pay those fees runs the risk that their account balance will continue to accrue until the balance is paid off. This is true even if the resident has been timely with his/her monthly assessment payments since the missed or late payment. By way of illustration: Resident failed to timely pay his assessment for the month of May 2016. Although Resident eventually submitted payment for the monthly assessment, he did not pay the late charge that had been applied to his account. Resident’s account would then have a balance of $18.25 owed for the late charge ($8.25) and reminder notice ($10.00). Resident missed payments again in April and May of 2017, causing an additional $35.00 in charges for a reminder notice in May ($10.00) and a demand notice in June ($25.00) and $16.50 in late charges ($8.25 x 2). In June 2017, Resident submitted payment for the missed monthly assessments and paid an additional $16.50 for late charges. However, Resident did not pay the original $18.25 or additional $35.00, bringing Resident’s account balance to $53.25. Resident then began receiving monthly reminder notices, each incurring a $10.00 charge. Eventually, after Resident’s account balance exceeded $82.50 (50% of the monthly assessment) a monthly late fee of $8.25 was assessed. FirstService encourages residents of the communities it manages to contact management if he or she has questions regarding their account. If the complainant would like to arrange a time to meet with a representative of FirstService and *** in person so that his account statement can be explained to him.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
First Service Residential the management company for *** HOA has exceeded it's moral authority by falsely charging residents Fees that are NOT owed. Case in point First Service reports that on the may 2016 well before the 30th of the month when it would have been late a fee would be justified however I was charged anyway? All before may 2016 my fees were paid by Direct Debit 175 listed. You see First Service Conveniently omitted January and February 2016 payments for the use of their scam. First Service Lockbox the payment of $165 due to pay your HOA fee even when its not 30 days late, why when the payment is lockboxed they do not apply the $165 to your HOA fee as required but use your payment to pay the so called late fees of cause they have our monthly payment in their lock boxes and bill you for the late month that you paid but they did not apply as required. Even when the payment is not late for the 30 days as outlined in the by-laws. First service still seizes any month payment and deem it arrived late, lock box that payment, deduct whatever fees they wish to collect from the $165 in the lock box and bill you for none payment of that month. so you required to pay for the $165 amount in the lock box that they used for their fees and bill you for an additional $165 to replace the lock box $165. I have submitted a payment history for *** and First Service Residential, if you pay your HOA fee by direct debit you are covered, however if you pay by mail every 4 or 5 months or so your payments will disappear. First Service will only notify you when the 30 days are up. Most companies will notify you immediately when you miss you due date, you could *unintelligiblehad an accident or other problems you must solve. I have enclosed a copy of the First Service payment coupon when paying by mail. I have returned every coupon with my payment for the past two years and have had nothing but trouble with coupons and checks being received on time or at all Its all a scam to beat the elderly out of their pensions. Enclosed are monthly payment records.
Regards
On two occasions (in October 2016 and October 2018), FirstService Residential negligently charged late fees totaling $50.00 to my account for payments that were received within the grace period allowed for payment. Their business practice, which I believe to be illegal, is to hold payments for several days after they receive the payment before they "process" it and then charge late fees based on their "processing" date, rather than on the date they actually "receive" the payment. On both occasions (in October 2016 and October 2018) my payment was made through an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transaction, which is a type of electronic fund transfer. The ACH transactions are made through my financial institution and specifically record as part of the transaction details the date that the funds were received. The transaction in October 2016 was received by them on October 28, 2016 (which is 2 days prior to the grace period date of October 30, 2016), but negligently not credited until 5 days later on November 2, 2016. The transaction in October 2018 was received on October 30, 2016 (which is the grace period date of October 30, 2018), but negligently not credited until 1 day later on October 31, 2018. On each occasion they charged me a late fee of $25.00. I have contacted them on several occasions, but they will not acknowledge that their business practice of not crediting payments on the date they are received is wrong.
The association has a defined collection policy for assessments (see attached) that clearly states that any payment received after the 30th day of the month is considered late. The assessment that was due on Oct. 1, 2018 was credited to the association's account on Oct. 31, 2018 - one day late.
Receipt of any assessment is credited to the association's account on THE DAY THAT THE FUNDS ARE DEPOSITED IN THE ASSOCIATION'S BANK ACCOUNT and not on the day that the owner makes the payment. All payments are processed through a bank "lock box" and are never touched by members of our company. All assessments are due on the 1st of the month. It is our suggestion that the owner make his assessment payment at the beginning of the month vs. the end of the month to avoid any future late fee penalties.
Our management company does not have the authority to waive any fees, nor can we or will we agree to waive the owner's assessment for the next nine months. This owner's Board of Directors previously waived one $25.00 late fee. If the owner has issue with the collection policy of his community, then he should petition his Board of Directors directly to seek any type of redress.
Thank you.
Date: Fri, May 24, 2019 at 8:14 AMSubject: Re: ID # ***- First Service ResidentialTo: ***@myRevdex.com.org <***@myRevdex.com.org>Good Afternoon,I just received an automated email that the company responded to my complain, but the is the first I am seeing their response. I was not notified that they responded until today. Please DO NOT close the complaint. The company's response is wholly inadequate. Specifically, for the following reasons.1. The association policy resolution they provided provides for a 30-day grace period to make payments. The policy does not specifically mention a third-party intermediary . If First Service Residential chooses to use a third-party intermediary to "process" the payments, then the payment should be considered "received" when then third-party receives the payment. 2. The payment coupons and all other documentation clearly state a 30-day grace period applies to the payments. Nowhere in any documentation is their mention of the third-party intermediary and there is no option to pay the association or First Service Residential directly.3. I firmly believe this procedure to be unethical and likely in violation of the law. In the very least, First Service Residential is providing misleading information in their payment instructions. If they know that their third-party intermediary take x days to process payments, then they should adjust the grace period to account for that fact. The prominent display of a 30-day grace period would cause any sane and reasonable person to believe that payments received at the address they provide within those 30-days would be considered as paid on time. 4. I also firmly believe, that First Service Residential (by itself) is responsible for this procedure and that they fully have the power to correct mistakes and unethical practices on their own without specific direction from the association. It is their choice to use this third-party intermediary. That is not dictated by the association. 5. First Service Residential states in their response, that I "should petition his Board of Directors directly." I have written several letters to the assoication on this matter, but as First Service Residential is the property management company, the letters must be addressed to them to be passed to the Board. Of the letters I have written, First Service Residential has failed to pass those to the Board and I have not received any response from First Service Residential.Regards
FirstService Residential continues to maintain its position that it is following the collection protocol of the Association. Our company has responded to another complaint filing that *** lodged with Fairfax County's Office of Consumer Affairs. *** must request any waiver of fees directly from his Board of Directors. We will not change our banking or collection processes.
*** can avoid any future late fees by sending his payment in earlier in the month in which it is due. The assessment is due on the 1st day of each financial quarter. *** has been told previously that the processing of his payment is not "date stamped" by his Association or our company based on the day that he transmits his funds.
*** must take into account that 3 to 4 business days are necessary to fully process his payment and credit it to his account.
Thank you.
I am the owner of *** #*** currently deployed overseas with the military and I
would like to request a credit of the 94$ legal fee my account encored for being sent to a collection law firm. I believe there has been severe mishandling by the First Service Residential (FSR) management company for our condominiums due to the lack of accountability and oversight when
taking over from the previous management company. While I did have my forwarding address on file, I never received the notice of the HOA increase from 380$ to 410$ thereby leading me to think the HOA was the same. I come to find out that my July payment of 380$ was not processed by only recently and the debt has been building ever sense. I was one of the firsts to set up the automatic bill pay with Todd T (property manager) but I was never notified that I was paying the wrong amount or that my account was delinquent. After my rejected payments for October, I finally contacted FSR only to find that my account was forwarded for collections. FSR never contacted me about the problem and I never received any mail correspondence of any issues going on. As of today November 19th 2018, I have paid all outstanding balances but there is still a 94$ legal fee.
has communicated with our management team in various methods and multiple times. His community's Board of Directors has been fully aware of ***'s request for a $94 reimbursement due to ***'s failure to make timely and full payments of his association dues. The Board made a decision not to reimburse *** for these funds.
As has been shared with *** on numerous occasions, only the Board of Directors has the authority to reimburse him and/or waive fees related to the collection of unpaid assessments. FirstService Residential has fulfilled its contractual obligation to the community and is unable to assist *** in any additional way with his concern.
This complaint to the Revdex.com is misdirected and needs to be directed to his community's Board of Directors. FirstService Residential serves at the direction of the Board.
Thank you.
This issue was addressed by the complainant's Board of Directors on a number of occasions since this claim was opened in November.
The management company has addressed this issue directly with the complainant, though the results are not to the complainant's satisfaction.
The Board of Directors of the complainant's condominium is solely responsible for the refunding of the $94.00. There is no authority that FirstService Residential has to provide this requested refund. This continues to be an issue that the complainant must address directly with his Board of Directors.
Thank you.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: for the same reasons stated before, the property management company has the means to go back to the homeowners association or at least provide a reason for rejecting the claim.
Regards
This company handles our HOA fee and payments are made online. The problem is we have a 10 day grace period for payments. We made payments on the june 6th but the payments do not post until after the 12th causing late fees. They state we need to pay early because it does not post to their system right away. Also to have late fees waived we need to contact our HOA manager for fee waiver even though our account shows a payment on the 6th of june. Our bank statement posts the same day and I do not understand why we are responsible for their tardiness in payment posting.
The owner submitted payment by credit card to our third party billing company on Wednesday, July 6. The payment due date was July 1 with a 10 day grace. The site notes that it takes 2-3 days for payments to be processed by the site. I have emailed the complainant letting him know the association's policy and sent the waiver of fees form, the association's collection policy to which we are obligated to follow and information from the payment service provider. I noted that we have not received their July payment as of today- July 15. I offered the owner the opportunity to send us payment confirmations from the third party billing company and that we will look into the posting of the June payment. I advised him of the payment processing timing and that the grace period is intended to assist owners for delays in payment arrival connected with holidays or other unexpected delays.
Once we receive the waiver request, per the association's policy we will present it to the board and we will get back to him as to the timing of the payment posting. If needed I can provide a copy of my correspondence to him and the documents I sent to him as well.
Horrible, horrible, horrible HOA management company! Property manager never answers phone nor responds to emails.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We sincerely apologize for my inconvenience caused and we are researching into your concern. We have notified the Community Manager and respective Management team. At FirstService Residential, we strive to provide excellent customer service to all customers we serve.
FirstService Residential is the manages the HOA for the property I live in. I make their payment quarterly through automated bank payment through their 3rd party website.
The last payment was made on March 15, 2017. The account is setup and authorized to deduct the quarterly payment. The subsequent payments were not deducted from my account (April 1st and, July 1st).
I received a letter from collection stating I failed to clear my dues and my account is in collection. I told them to check my status on automated payments. The had no information as the payment is collected by an unreachable 3rd party. I tried calling them to check what is going on with the automated payment, and all I hear is a prerecorded message with no option to reach customer care.
I do not have problems in paying my dues but they have added over $500 and fines and attorney fees payment for something that First service should take responsibility.
I am in contact with the owner, Jayanta Sinha and we are looking into his complaint. He has my cell number and assurances that we will get back to him in 24 hours with a resolution to his assessment issue.
[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards
I have been trying to get a billing issue resolved for over a month. The community I live in uses a third party to process the condo fees and since there was a significant delay with the payment date and posting date, I was charged late fees. I contacted the property management customer service and they advised me that I could dispute it, so I did and sent the proof of payment dates. I received a letter a week later stating the fees would be waived if I signed up for auto payments. I not only signed up for auto payments but paid a month in advance, and factored the fee removal so the auto draft could come out 15 days prior to the 1st of the month. I contacted the property management company, who contacted the property manager, Jessica K. She stated she wanted proof of the auto draft sign up, so I emailed it to her. She told me that it was not good because it was the wrong auto draft. I contacted the payment vender and the property management company who advised me that I had set it up correctly and there was nothing else to do. I gave all this information to Ms. K, who actually did not know the payment company had changed, but then she advised me she still couldn't remove the fees because she needed to bring this to "the board" at the July 25th meeting. It is August 9th, I have sent numerous emails with no response, and the fees haven’t been waived. I even told them I would file a complaint with the Bureau even though it should not have come to this. The lack of communication is not ok. I have done my part in making sure what they asked of me was done, but they have failed to keep up their part. I find this to be extremely unprofessional.
Here is response from Jessica K, General Manager for Sequoyah:
Phil,
*** made her May and June payments with a credit card through *** but received late fees since she did not initiate the payments until Saturday, May 13th and Wednesday, June 14th. She made a request to the Board to waive the late fees and was advised by the Board by letter that if she set up direct debit from her checking account, the fees would be removed. I have had several different email conversations with her (as well as in-person conversations she had with the office staff) to try to explain what she must do. I advised her in an email after the email documents she submitted to the Revdex.com that David U had advised me that Direct Debit is now called Auto Pay and can be set up to through *** to be debited from her checking account each month. I also advised that the debit would occur on the 3rd of the month based on the information provided by David. She has provided proof of a payment set up with *** but it is for a credit card payment on the 15th of the month. The Board President advised her by email again yesterday that the only method the Board would accept is direct debit (or autopay) from her checking account in order for the fees to be removed. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Jessica K, CMCA, AMSGeneral ManagerSequoyah Condominium***Alexandria, VA ***(P) (F) (E) [email protected](W) www.sequoyahcondos.net
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
While they did advise me of the company autodraft on the 3rd . I had paid more than was needed for the dues in July to cover July and August dues once the fee was removed. Therefore the automated payments I made with click play to begin to be drafted on August 15th would have been paid two weeks prior to the due date in September . I do not blame Ms. K because I realize that the director of the board of condos just doesn't care about the residents of the community . He was so set on being right in his own way , that he could not see that I wanted to pay in advance because of the way my payment schedule is at my job . Nevertheless, the association has changed the whole property management company changed beginning September 1st and I am sure that the board knew that , so giving me a hard time seems a bit unnecessary.
Regards
The objection that *** has is with the Board and the onsite management at the Sequoyah condominium who are not part of FirstService Residential. She needs to take it up with them. Additionally, our contract for financial only services with Sequoyah was terminated effective 8/31/17. Please remove this complaint from our account.
Phil P
Vice President
FirstService Residential, DC Metro
I closed my new residence at *** on June 7th2017. I am supposed to get basic free internet telephone and cable service according to First Service. I am paying 100 monthly HOA fee now to First Service. I have contacted First Service for more than one week and called more than 10 times. Nobody over there can help me out to resolve the issue. I need at least one month refund since I am paying internet service out of my own pocket now with hotspot cell phone fees.
FirstService Residential is the management company for the *** at ***. The complainant wishes to receive a $100 refund from FirstService Residential because he was told by his real estate agent that basic cable and internet was provided "free."
Neither cable nor internet is free. His HOA just recently increased the monthly assessment to $100 for the remainder of 2017. FirstService cannot legally authorize a refund of the gentleman's assessment as the assessment is legally required by ALL owners in the community. This is not a matter for the Revdex.com. The only entity that could possibly authorize such a refund is the HOA Board of Directors.
Thank you!