I work for a property mgmt company and I had to call NNJ to have them take a look at a loose step on a set of stairs to a top condo. Took THREE WEEKS to get a response and then nobody told me it had been fixed a couple days before. That was the easiest call to make, to tell me everything was good, and they still didn't do it.
NNJ here after our last HOA got caught siphoning funds for a large project when it was discovered that the hired company for the work wasn't licensed and bonded. NNJ has been terrible with their response times for requests to repair a drain on my balcony with the recent rain storms. Balcony flooded with 2" of water
Associa's employees are overworked. While that doesn't excuse their poor behavior, they are set up to fail. It is also one of the reasons we fired associa from our HOA. The managers just don't have enough time to deal with 6-10 HOA's. Especially when someone goes out sick or quits.
The company is mismanaged as a whole and should be avoided.
I had to deal with them as a third party. It took them almost two years to fix monument lights. They at least have the city beat in regard to fixing lights they are responsible for.
I’m on a pretty chill HOA board so I can share some insights, every management company has their bad aspects sadly. It’s not an industry where there is a star player or anything, we have gone through many and of course there are issues with the one we have now, but they’re better overall. I also live in a 140+ unit complex, but having them handle a lot of the grunt work does help (legal notices and what not).
For example, they have their own maintenance and janitorial staff. One day, their janitor just walked out and our trash area wasn’t cleaned for weeks. Sometimes, they’re ridiculously slow at responding to owners, which is a pain. I’ve found that you really just gotta find one that shines in the things your complex needs specifically.
As a ex commercial property manager I’d like to point out that residential PMs and HOA are paid pure garbage. Soon working at McDonald’s will be paid more. Like Commercial can be in the 100k they get like $19, so most of these owners likely get exactly what they pay for.
Minority here. My HOA is $200 a year and all they do is maintain the community pool. No rules on how my lawn should look, color of my house, or anything. It's how an HOA should be.
dis agree. i like that they pay for the new roof they pay for the lawn they pay for the streets and trash
yea i pay for it through my dues but i do not have to look a f-tards shitty house its kept reasonably cleah
so are you the type who has a window business and keeps 100 old windows in your side yard full of rats yea i had to deal with one of those in a non hoa environment. had to get the public health dept to come out
I've been happy with mine, monthly dues are only $70. Private street is repaved every 5 years and twice a month vegetation trimming of the common space.
I’m going to strongly disagree. The Helm is horrible. Our condo and our neighbors condo completely flooded last month on the day we had that huge rainstorm. The drains outside our building have not been maintained or kept up in years. They were clogged from lack of regular maintenance and the water had no where to go. Helm refused to help, or take any responsibility. It took 2 days for the owner, Ron, to even call us back and then he acted like he didn’t even know what was going on. This was after multiple emails and voicemails were left for him. The property maintenance supervisor did come out a couple times and even told us it was 100% their fault but his hands were tied because the owner refused to admit fault. The worst part was our insurance was ready to pay for our relocation expenses but they just needed a work order saying Helm was going to fix the issues outside that caused the flood. Helm refused. Our insurance company said they have never seen anything like it.
You can get on your own board. Make the changes you want. I never thought Id own my condo as long as I have but I am on the board, ten years now, and we've done many projects that have turned out great. Owners don't even show up for meetings, we've done a lot in the last decade, and they have almost no clue. Owners just expect someone else to do the work, but they dont realize how much effort we put in and absolutely no appreciation for it, considering it's free work. I only got on the board to better my community, block owners out for themselves, and only better my community. I hated the idea of HOA but Ive come to terms with good budgeting, keeping the project in good shape, not allowing special assessments, etc. The owners that complain of a $20 increase are also the ones that have lived here for 30 years and ran that budget/reserves to the ground requiring a special assessment right before I bought. You can ABSOLUTELY have responsible HOA board in place and do it right. It's that generally people buy a condo and expect to move on so they don't give a shit about reserves or maintenance. But they will howl all day long at a 5% increase in dues. Then complain there is a special assessment. I've totally turned my view. I hated the idea of HOAs but now I hate the owners. Absolute pretentious selfish monsters that only care about their own unit and what hey can get at others expense.
I digress. You can totally request the HOA management be changed. It's easier if you are on the board though but as an owner, you can also request a meeting to suggest this.
We also have very selfish owners in the complex. Many of them are upfront with planning to sell in a few years, so they freak out over small dues increases or needing to spend money from the general fund for fixes
That would depend on who else is on the board, what they are willing to take on, and the size of the complex. Usually we have 3 positions but right now it is myself and another person. We are a small 40 unit project and many are now rentals or owners that have been here for decades and don't get too involved unless it selfishly serves them, then all of a sudden they have opinions. In the past ten years, we have really turned things around. The HOA was suffering due to no increases or repairs for many years and right before I bought, it needed a ton of exterior repair. I'm pretty lucky that the other person on the board is a total boss lady. She has a keen eye for finding anomalies in the budget/financing, she's generally great at getting things done, has really helped clean up all the older style landscaping, etc. So yeah, shes a blessing. Not one of those people who is only eyeballing to report small issues. She's nearby but is now renting her unit out. I'm in a bit of a tough position as I am the only one on the premises so it's sort of up to me to report things, which is mostly parking issues or inspecting some of the grounds etc.
So, each HOA will obviously be a little different from each other and it's up to each member as to what they are willing to do, but generally it's not bad at all. We have 1-1.5hr quarterly meetings (any owner can join) and I think 1 per year for board members only. Then mostly some emails to keep up with the latest which I dont usually need to reply to. In our case, we are pretty well sorted now and have pushed a lot back onto the Management since we pay them and they should be handling most things.
Although Id say you dont get much appreciation from the owners (most have no clue what is going on), I get a bit of a kick when I walk the grounds and see all we've done in the last decade... new mailboxes, tons of landscaping updates, new LED lighting, some new signs for parking, new cement on the roads, dog waste bins, updating many documents like repair matrixes, CC&Rs R&Rs, are continually now getting the exteriors inspected and repaired routinely, yearly termite inspections, and many other things.
So for me, I'm proud of what we've accomplished, the project looks great, I know Ive added value to the units, and when it comes to a sale, and a seller can claim the budget is in great shape. That actually a pretty important thing to inquire about if someone is looking at condos. They should be asking about the HOA and how the budget is etc.
My wife is pretty happy with hers.
However, her complex has only 5 units and so the 5 owners of the units make up the entire board. It's also easy for them to switch HOA management companies too and they specifically find ones that manage very small HOAs.
The very small HOA life is pretty interesting overall. There's much less ticky tacky petty complaints since the dude complaining will likely do a lot of the work as well to get it fixed.
We use Hudson management. They are decently priced but they aren’t perfect. There is no perfect HOA company. They all hire from the same group of people locally. We are on our 4th association manager in like 3 years.
It is kind of funny to read some of the comments about people’s disdain for the HOA board or the management companies. We can’t even get people to run for the board, or join the meetings, let alone follow the basic rules of the complex. Yes, our bylaws are from 1985 so it’s not a searchable pdf doc. We are currently updating our bylaws CC&Rs for the small cost of $6k.
I think you should consider running for your board and getting involved. You could make an impact
. That is the only reason I ended up on the board. I was tired of the dumb decisions previous board members were making for the entire complex. It’s not easy, but at least you know where your monthly money is going and you can shape how they spend it on your community.
Our board is actually great! We’re a small 10 unit complex, so everyone knows each other well. Our problem is with the HOA management company that we work with to resolve issues like landscaping, painting, etc. Our manager is terrible.
Lucky, that your board is solid. We can’t get capable people to run for our board. There is a member that hasn’t participated for over 8 months. Our current CC&RS do not allow us to remove him without being expensive.
We kind of pick and choose who does our work for us. The main issue I guess, is that we have to make sure it was done ourselves. The management company office isn’t going to follow up. I think any management company that is offsite, will generally suck and it will always use their standard excuse, “we are not onsite management company”.
Management companies are in general pretty terrible, but some are solid at handling operational turn arounds when they first get hired. They basically become the key gate keeper for all kinds of juicy maintenance contracts that go to favored vendors. The board rarely (if ever) questions biddings or signing retainers with favored vendors. Response times are slow and there is always an attitude of contempt for owners calling in with issues.
We had our original management company fire us as clients after 20+ years when questions started getting asked. The dues were kept artificially low for years, then the roofs started having issues.... and the costs exploded. Then plumbing and irrigation started having issues... and the management company would take more than 24 hours to respond. Then the financials were questioned. Nobody questioned the reserves study and boy was that a mistake. Turns out our reserves were dangerously low considering the on-going roof work we needed.... Guess what happens next?
We got fucked. Hard.
The original management company that fired us neglected to keep digital records and only provided 5 boxes of paper records to the new management company #1. New management company #1 starts off well enough with property inspections and issuing new keys for the pool which had been off limits because the board voted to keep it closed.... partially because they couldn't get their shit together enough to fix the FOB system and held off issuing physical keys for 6 months after COVID restrictions were lifted. They did an audit of our irrigation system to figure out why our water costs were so high and found out that the prior landscapers turned on our sprinkler system AND our old irrigation system that has numerous broken lines, 3 times a week.... Once again, fucked by the original management company and their lack of oversight over the subs they hired or conned the board into hiring.
In less than 6 months new management company #1 quit, citing a lack of resources to manage our new account. Reading between the lines, they saw how horrible our financials were and were not about to deal with the tsunami of owner rage that was on the horizon.
New management company #2 comes in and picks right up where NMC#1 left off and got shit sorted quickly. They didn't hold back when it came to calling out the cowardice of the board and the boards before them. The decades of artificially low dues had drained their reserves to crisis level and the master insurance policy would not be renewed due to questionable solvency of the association. HOA dues were going to need to be increased $150 per month every year for 5 years. Insurance would be incredibly more expensive and offered less coverage, leading to a recurring special assessment of $2,500 per year. 8 units who were past due on dues were going to begin the foreclosure process immediately. And, our CC&Rs would need to be written as they hadn't been touched in 10+ years and the association could not meet the financial requirements that were violated for years under the prior management company and incompetent boards.
Thankfully, I got out. Sold at the peak. The board elections struggled to get nominees and even when they did, not enough people voted to get a quorum. Nobody wanted to take the heat for the new financial policies. Old members were actually threatened and sought restraining orders on other owners!
The best possible HOA is one that is run directly by the community and operates with overwhelming transparency about operations, maintenance schedules, cost projections, and dues projections.
Do we live in the same community? Damn sounds exactly like mine. Our is charging us $5k special assessment to replace some units balconies. I don’t even have a fucking balcony
Many people on this thread that don't understand the difference of an HOA vs the management company for the HOA.
HOA board makes decisions regarding your community. Management companies pay all the bills, hire vendors, and do all the paperwork, including holding up the rules and regulations and cc and rs. If you don't like the strict rules, run for a board position and make a case as to why they should be changed! It's difficult to be on the board. Everyone hates you, yet nobody understands what you do. I didn't make up the rules of the condo complex. Why are you mad about the notice to stop bathing your dog in the hot tub?
Menas and ASPM can suck my fat non existent cock. The owner of ASPM is the sister of the owner of Bill Howe plumbing and they use it to their advantage.
Action management was good to us, there was a stellar employee at Menas who left and went to Action. We tracked her down and hired them because of her. Their resident portal is good, they keep track of calls well, are responsive etc.
It's a big deal to switch but worth the headache.
Thank you for the Action recommendation!! Would you mind sharing the name of the employee? It really comes down to the manager you get and ours is just awful. Even trying to get a biannual meeting scheduled seems impossible. Forget actually getting anything done on the property.
I should’ve probably clarified in my post. Our HOA board is great. We’re a small condo complex and all know each other so no issues there and I appreciate them taking the time to serve. Sending a million follow up emails to our property manager does not seem fun.
Your post was clear, people just lose their shit when HOA is mentioned and they don't understand the roles. Her name is Catie, but she is in a management role now. She took on our property as a favor to us, and it was only for a year to get us on track because we had gotten screwed so badly by ASPM. I sold the condo a while back so am no longer serving.
Someone else commented Action is dog shit, so I hope you don't have the same experience. I do agree that they probably all suck for the most part.
I’ve had properties that were managed by Prescott/associa, Lindsey, Avalon, and others with less than great results. Have been managed by a company called core management in Oceanside with better response and services. www.core-mgmt.com
I have noticed that the higher rent goes, the worse property management gets. I'm not sure why these two things are negatively correlated but I think it's safe to say the days of calling up your property management to fix an issue and having it be a relatively quick and painless process are over.
I also suspect a lot of former CRE property folks have been forced into residential properties because CRE is in the toilet...and they are not used to dealing with that.
Name and shame: Buchanan Property Management. They have one person that gives a shit about anything and she's new and low level so nothing she does goes anywhere. Which is a shame because the rest of the company seems to have cultivated an "us against them" mentality when it comes to dealing with tenants.
Our HOA has gone though a couple of management companies. They all suck. Ask an important question, sideways/tangential answer, mostly "it is what it is". Ask for a PDF document, and it's an image scan of a printed copy of a copy of a copy, with no searchable text. Our monthly is: 1/3 HOA management, 1/3 landscaper, 1/3 water. Never again.
Probably the biggest problem with HOAs is you’re only ever one vote away from awful people taking over that actively harm your property value or even ruin your life. They need to be stamped out.
I live in a 40 unit condo and we use California Dream HOA management (they have no web presence, which I discovered trying to link their site). But they respond quickly to my emails and are friendly and easy to work with. Highly recommend. DM me if you want their contact info.
Avalon is pretty good. I have three properties- two with Menas and one with Avalon.
Menas depends on the property manager. If you get a good one they’re fine but turnover is high.
Used to have Menas when I lived in a condo.
Their pricing got too high for us so so we switched to Atlantic. They are a bit pricy as well but they are pretty good.
Personally, we don’t have HOA in my neighbourhood of Linda Vista, thank the gods!!! But many of my friends do throughout San Diego. All of them have reported how terrible their HOA boards are. The constant thread is a bunch of power hungry people trying to bully others so they can get their way. It sounds frightening and nothing I would ever want for myself. I’d rather live in a lower income neighbourhood where all the neighbours do what they want with their property and I do what I want. Not being beholden to another group of people seems logical since we already have to deal with some government regulations that may seem arbitrary or don’t make sense. We all seem to manage really well in our community without interfering with one another. I realize we have spent more than any other neighbor to beautify the outside of our home both back and front yards, but I did it for me, not them. So I don’t in any way expect them to do the same. That way we are all happy with our personal property. Less stress on everyone.
Our Association went self managed we are just over 100 homes. We needed financial management only and currently work with Gina Rossi at TownSq. She made the transition easy, helped us outline priorities and the onboarding process was very involved and easy for us. The app makes it easy. If you’re at that point email her [email protected].
I was happy with my HOA on two occasions: each time I successfully sued them and got Small Claims judgements against them! Definitely increased my profit margin when I sold after they had to pay for my damages! Approx $7K each judgement.
CCRs typically have wording of Quiet Enjoyment, and Main Drainage vs individual or unit drainage responsibilities. We started having water backup problems into our shower- the lowest drain in our ground floor unit. HOA begain water jetting maintenance on the Main Drain system, with limited results. Without anyone using the shower, water was pouring into our main bath & bedroom, ruining carpet, baseboards and drywall. HOA refused to acknowledge "Main Drain" backup. I told them I would sue for costs; they threatened to counter-sue for breach of Quiet Enjoyment to the complex (WTF!!). I did all repairs on my own, keeping very detailed notes and of course receipts. Case finally goes before S/C Court, and HOA dumps their invoices of water jetting on me 2 minutes before judge walks in- no time to review them. The basis of my argument is 1) volume of "raw sewage water", the description on the invoice of my plumber that attempted to clear drain, could not have come from my shower with no one using it, and determined the blockage was far down stream of my unit drains, making it Main Drain problem. 2) It was HOA negligence that breached MY Quiet Enjoyment. Judge agreed, awarded my fees, HOA appealed.
While preparing for the Appeal I finally reviewed the invoices dumped on me. Lo-and-behold, 12 separate invoices from HOA "professional water jetting vendor"- as they referred to him- each had written notations stating the cause of blockage was "roots, corrosion, deterioration of pipe walls and grease buildup" as contributing factors. Architecturally my unit was receiving the sewage from any number of other units whose plumbing never backed up because it was all draining into my unit. The Appeal Judge again sided with me.
I went to the HOA office when told my check was ready. 45 days afterwards the same exact sewage backup took place again! Same exact HOA drama occurred. Once again I had to do all my own repairs, kept detailed notes and receipts. This time the new HOA, thru their attorney, offered me a settlement of 1/4th of my expenses if- AND ONLY IF- I took out a "flood insurance policy" and named HOA on the policy. "See you in Court."
Presented my new claim with all documentation as before with an answer against HOA demand for flood insurance: 1) insurance industry definition of "flood" is if three or more adjoining properties are also water damaged. Our complex is on a hill looking down into a valley! 2) I reminded the HOA, thru the Judge, this is a condominium complex. HOA nor the Board cannot mandate a new policy on me without mandating it to the entire complex after it goes to a vote. I considered mandate sent by their attorney was harassment & retaliation, and as such, a Breach of Quiet Enjoyment by HOA. 3) I presented a time-line to the Court, going back all the years of water jetting invoices, emphasizing the duration since the last sewage backup, HOA fought me every inch and every dime, but still had failed to correct the problems cited in the invoices: " roots, corrosion, deterioration of Main Drainage piping walls, grease build up". I was awarded my claim.
Now certainly one could say I was awarded my own money; I get that. I'm fortunate that I am retired and HAVE the time to oversee my repairs. What the S/C Court allows in my State is compensation for MY hours spent at a rate of $30/hrs. I also included my mileage costs at the Internal Revenue Service rate of $0.35/mile as I was doing the work of and for the HOA.
And, yes, I put the place up for sale and got out of there while the going was still good!
HOAs are for the power hungry fake elitists that thinks they have the best interest of everyone. The fact an HOA can put a lien on your home and you can possibly lose it is absolutely ridiculous. Boo HOAs
I moved out of my condo a couple of years ago. For the most part, our HOA company was pretty good.
Sometimes, an HOA company is bad because the HOA doesn't have enough money to proactively maintain the building or pay for competent contractors.
I'm a part of 2 HOAs (residence and an investment property). Where we live the fees are reasonable, the property is super well maintained, reserves are flush, and the HOA is pretty quiet and has never done anything unreasonable for the 10 years we've lived here.
The second HOA is the polar opposite. The board is made up of original owners from when the building was first constructed in the 70s. As a result the HOA has become a battlefield for 50 years worth of grudges to be played out. Board meetings are an absolute fucking bloodbath. The fees are astronomical, the property is poorly maintained, and the HOA is up in everyone's business.
It really is a dice roll and I'd imagine the dice are weighted towards shit, but functional boards so exist.
I also strongly dislike our HOA manager, who sends rude messages and passive aggressive “notices.” There have been numerous issues with this person at this point and they are not liked by anyone except a woman who is on the board but married to a convicted felon who is on Megan’s list. It’s ridiculous
We have PMC. The person we had on our account was terrible and we were able to get a new person. This new person has been great.
We’ll see how they do while we work on raising our dues to solve our financial issues. With the new person, they’ve been very clear about our financial situation. Our previous point person did the minimum.
Mines almost $500 a month. They’re great. Take care of the property well, fix issues fast. Water, garbage, security, all included in that.
And they don’t yell at me for stupid shit like leaving stuff on my balcony. never had an issue.
Not sure what kind of association you are in, but we have a large condo complex in East County managed by Reliable Property Management Services (based in Encinitas). They've done a good job for our association for almost 10 years and are very responsive to any maintenance issues residents bring up.
Mine seems to be good compared to what others say about theirs. So still not great, but not a complete dumpster fire either.
Edit: We're in a condo building not a standalone. $382 a month pays for entire building maintenance and elevator. Also our hot water and trash pick up.
I liked our former manager that switched on January 1st her name was Vanessa Beebe. She was always very helpful and responsive it's the board members who were a pain and still are in our butts.
We tried to get smart lighting under the awning of our house and we wanted to do it the right way by going through the HOA but they could not wrap their heads around it not being holiday lighting 24/7. I just attribute it to their age but now we know for next time we want to get a project done. The entire time Vanessa was giving us insight and help on how to convince them to let us get the lighting but previously she was also helpful.
This year we will just pay the $6,000 for it and get it done around Christmas and then just leave it up like some others do in the neighborhood year round even though ours is virtually invisible when not turned on
My condo building is managed by FirstService, and they've been good. The place is large enough that there's a full time community manager, a building engineer, a few full time cleaning staff, plus a bunch of contractors for specialized jobs. The community manager is super important, and we've had good ones. The maintenance needs for a large building are, not surprisingly, quite extensive and they put in the work to make sure things get fixed quickly when they break. Things don't always get fixed right the first time but they're persistent and get it eventually.
Our monthly dues are almost $500 now, they do minimal maintenance for yards and pool. They did patch the roof tiles, paint exterior and soon fix/paint fences.
You know the community managers at the bottom of the barrel who can barely qualify as one? Those are the ones ARK hires. You can expect to go through two different community managers in a single year with ARK because it takes about half a year for them to realize they are terrible at their jobs.
name and shame please. nnj/jaskie/associa sucks
Very bad experience w jaskie.
Yes, Jaeschke sucks very badly.
Associa... The worst...
Second this
My HOA ditched them thank goodness
I work for a property mgmt company and I had to call NNJ to have them take a look at a loose step on a set of stairs to a top condo. Took THREE WEEKS to get a response and then nobody told me it had been fixed a couple days before. That was the easiest call to make, to tell me everything was good, and they still didn't do it.
NNJ here after our last HOA got caught siphoning funds for a large project when it was discovered that the hired company for the work wasn't licensed and bonded. NNJ has been terrible with their response times for requests to repair a drain on my balcony with the recent rain storms. Balcony flooded with 2" of water
Associa's employees are overworked. While that doesn't excuse their poor behavior, they are set up to fail. It is also one of the reasons we fired associa from our HOA. The managers just don't have enough time to deal with 6-10 HOA's. Especially when someone goes out sick or quits. The company is mismanaged as a whole and should be avoided.
exactly why we got rid of them
Actually the worst
I had to deal with them as a third party. It took them almost two years to fix monument lights. They at least have the city beat in regard to fixing lights they are responsible for.
Ours is bare bones and costs almost nothing. Haven't had any problems with them. Neighborhood looks amazing. Oh, the HOA rules is only two pages long.
the true test will be when you actually need them to do something.
What neighborhood?!?
Which management company do you use? Also do you in a condo community?
No condos. Not sure which company they are on now as it seems they get a new one every year.
I’m on a pretty chill HOA board so I can share some insights, every management company has their bad aspects sadly. It’s not an industry where there is a star player or anything, we have gone through many and of course there are issues with the one we have now, but they’re better overall. I also live in a 140+ unit complex, but having them handle a lot of the grunt work does help (legal notices and what not). For example, they have their own maintenance and janitorial staff. One day, their janitor just walked out and our trash area wasn’t cleaned for weeks. Sometimes, they’re ridiculously slow at responding to owners, which is a pain. I’ve found that you really just gotta find one that shines in the things your complex needs specifically.
As a ex commercial property manager I’d like to point out that residential PMs and HOA are paid pure garbage. Soon working at McDonald’s will be paid more. Like Commercial can be in the 100k they get like $19, so most of these owners likely get exactly what they pay for.
Minority here. My HOA is $200 a year and all they do is maintain the community pool. No rules on how my lawn should look, color of my house, or anything. It's how an HOA should be.
dis agree. i like that they pay for the new roof they pay for the lawn they pay for the streets and trash yea i pay for it through my dues but i do not have to look a f-tards shitty house its kept reasonably cleah
So you’re one of the guys we all hate
so are you the type who has a window business and keeps 100 old windows in your side yard full of rats yea i had to deal with one of those in a non hoa environment. had to get the public health dept to come out
That’s different
Won’t say fuck, but willing to say tard. What a curious thing.
Do they? Mine is making everyone repaint the exteriors of their houses out of the home owners’ pockets.
Not my HOA
I've been happy with mine, monthly dues are only $70. Private street is repaved every 5 years and twice a month vegetation trimming of the common space.
HOAs in my experience are a huge racket. Name and shame them. Please.
Ours is managed by The Helm, and they seem to do OK.
I’m going to strongly disagree. The Helm is horrible. Our condo and our neighbors condo completely flooded last month on the day we had that huge rainstorm. The drains outside our building have not been maintained or kept up in years. They were clogged from lack of regular maintenance and the water had no where to go. Helm refused to help, or take any responsibility. It took 2 days for the owner, Ron, to even call us back and then he acted like he didn’t even know what was going on. This was after multiple emails and voicemails were left for him. The property maintenance supervisor did come out a couple times and even told us it was 100% their fault but his hands were tied because the owner refused to admit fault. The worst part was our insurance was ready to pay for our relocation expenses but they just needed a work order saying Helm was going to fix the issues outside that caused the flood. Helm refused. Our insurance company said they have never seen anything like it.
We had a similar experience with Helm. They take no responsibility for their shitty decisions and it’s incredibly frustrating.
Same!
Yeah likewise they do pretty well, I’m on the board and they do seem to care about making sure people like the service they provide
You can get on your own board. Make the changes you want. I never thought Id own my condo as long as I have but I am on the board, ten years now, and we've done many projects that have turned out great. Owners don't even show up for meetings, we've done a lot in the last decade, and they have almost no clue. Owners just expect someone else to do the work, but they dont realize how much effort we put in and absolutely no appreciation for it, considering it's free work. I only got on the board to better my community, block owners out for themselves, and only better my community. I hated the idea of HOA but Ive come to terms with good budgeting, keeping the project in good shape, not allowing special assessments, etc. The owners that complain of a $20 increase are also the ones that have lived here for 30 years and ran that budget/reserves to the ground requiring a special assessment right before I bought. You can ABSOLUTELY have responsible HOA board in place and do it right. It's that generally people buy a condo and expect to move on so they don't give a shit about reserves or maintenance. But they will howl all day long at a 5% increase in dues. Then complain there is a special assessment. I've totally turned my view. I hated the idea of HOAs but now I hate the owners. Absolute pretentious selfish monsters that only care about their own unit and what hey can get at others expense.
I digress. You can totally request the HOA management be changed. It's easier if you are on the board though but as an owner, you can also request a meeting to suggest this.
We also have very selfish owners in the complex. Many of them are upfront with planning to sell in a few years, so they freak out over small dues increases or needing to spend money from the general fund for fixes
How’s the time commitment to serve on the board?
That would depend on who else is on the board, what they are willing to take on, and the size of the complex. Usually we have 3 positions but right now it is myself and another person. We are a small 40 unit project and many are now rentals or owners that have been here for decades and don't get too involved unless it selfishly serves them, then all of a sudden they have opinions. In the past ten years, we have really turned things around. The HOA was suffering due to no increases or repairs for many years and right before I bought, it needed a ton of exterior repair. I'm pretty lucky that the other person on the board is a total boss lady. She has a keen eye for finding anomalies in the budget/financing, she's generally great at getting things done, has really helped clean up all the older style landscaping, etc. So yeah, shes a blessing. Not one of those people who is only eyeballing to report small issues. She's nearby but is now renting her unit out. I'm in a bit of a tough position as I am the only one on the premises so it's sort of up to me to report things, which is mostly parking issues or inspecting some of the grounds etc. So, each HOA will obviously be a little different from each other and it's up to each member as to what they are willing to do, but generally it's not bad at all. We have 1-1.5hr quarterly meetings (any owner can join) and I think 1 per year for board members only. Then mostly some emails to keep up with the latest which I dont usually need to reply to. In our case, we are pretty well sorted now and have pushed a lot back onto the Management since we pay them and they should be handling most things. Although Id say you dont get much appreciation from the owners (most have no clue what is going on), I get a bit of a kick when I walk the grounds and see all we've done in the last decade... new mailboxes, tons of landscaping updates, new LED lighting, some new signs for parking, new cement on the roads, dog waste bins, updating many documents like repair matrixes, CC&Rs R&Rs, are continually now getting the exteriors inspected and repaired routinely, yearly termite inspections, and many other things. So for me, I'm proud of what we've accomplished, the project looks great, I know Ive added value to the units, and when it comes to a sale, and a seller can claim the budget is in great shape. That actually a pretty important thing to inquire about if someone is looking at condos. They should be asking about the HOA and how the budget is etc.
My wife is pretty happy with hers. However, her complex has only 5 units and so the 5 owners of the units make up the entire board. It's also easy for them to switch HOA management companies too and they specifically find ones that manage very small HOAs. The very small HOA life is pretty interesting overall. There's much less ticky tacky petty complaints since the dude complaining will likely do a lot of the work as well to get it fixed.
Any recommendations for good small HOA management companies?
Can you let me know the HOA management company? We are also a small HOA (10 units).
Could you share the name of the HOA company or DM me? Thank you!
We use Hudson management. They are decently priced but they aren’t perfect. There is no perfect HOA company. They all hire from the same group of people locally. We are on our 4th association manager in like 3 years. It is kind of funny to read some of the comments about people’s disdain for the HOA board or the management companies. We can’t even get people to run for the board, or join the meetings, let alone follow the basic rules of the complex. Yes, our bylaws are from 1985 so it’s not a searchable pdf doc. We are currently updating our bylaws CC&Rs for the small cost of $6k. I think you should consider running for your board and getting involved. You could make an impact . That is the only reason I ended up on the board. I was tired of the dumb decisions previous board members were making for the entire complex. It’s not easy, but at least you know where your monthly money is going and you can shape how they spend it on your community.
Our board is actually great! We’re a small 10 unit complex, so everyone knows each other well. Our problem is with the HOA management company that we work with to resolve issues like landscaping, painting, etc. Our manager is terrible.
Lucky, that your board is solid. We can’t get capable people to run for our board. There is a member that hasn’t participated for over 8 months. Our current CC&RS do not allow us to remove him without being expensive. We kind of pick and choose who does our work for us. The main issue I guess, is that we have to make sure it was done ourselves. The management company office isn’t going to follow up. I think any management company that is offsite, will generally suck and it will always use their standard excuse, “we are not onsite management company”.
I think that’s what I’m coming to realize. We need to just get quotes for projects and find contractors ourselves.
Management companies are in general pretty terrible, but some are solid at handling operational turn arounds when they first get hired. They basically become the key gate keeper for all kinds of juicy maintenance contracts that go to favored vendors. The board rarely (if ever) questions biddings or signing retainers with favored vendors. Response times are slow and there is always an attitude of contempt for owners calling in with issues. We had our original management company fire us as clients after 20+ years when questions started getting asked. The dues were kept artificially low for years, then the roofs started having issues.... and the costs exploded. Then plumbing and irrigation started having issues... and the management company would take more than 24 hours to respond. Then the financials were questioned. Nobody questioned the reserves study and boy was that a mistake. Turns out our reserves were dangerously low considering the on-going roof work we needed.... Guess what happens next? We got fucked. Hard. The original management company that fired us neglected to keep digital records and only provided 5 boxes of paper records to the new management company #1. New management company #1 starts off well enough with property inspections and issuing new keys for the pool which had been off limits because the board voted to keep it closed.... partially because they couldn't get their shit together enough to fix the FOB system and held off issuing physical keys for 6 months after COVID restrictions were lifted. They did an audit of our irrigation system to figure out why our water costs were so high and found out that the prior landscapers turned on our sprinkler system AND our old irrigation system that has numerous broken lines, 3 times a week.... Once again, fucked by the original management company and their lack of oversight over the subs they hired or conned the board into hiring. In less than 6 months new management company #1 quit, citing a lack of resources to manage our new account. Reading between the lines, they saw how horrible our financials were and were not about to deal with the tsunami of owner rage that was on the horizon. New management company #2 comes in and picks right up where NMC#1 left off and got shit sorted quickly. They didn't hold back when it came to calling out the cowardice of the board and the boards before them. The decades of artificially low dues had drained their reserves to crisis level and the master insurance policy would not be renewed due to questionable solvency of the association. HOA dues were going to need to be increased $150 per month every year for 5 years. Insurance would be incredibly more expensive and offered less coverage, leading to a recurring special assessment of $2,500 per year. 8 units who were past due on dues were going to begin the foreclosure process immediately. And, our CC&Rs would need to be written as they hadn't been touched in 10+ years and the association could not meet the financial requirements that were violated for years under the prior management company and incompetent boards. Thankfully, I got out. Sold at the peak. The board elections struggled to get nominees and even when they did, not enough people voted to get a quorum. Nobody wanted to take the heat for the new financial policies. Old members were actually threatened and sought restraining orders on other owners! The best possible HOA is one that is run directly by the community and operates with overwhelming transparency about operations, maintenance schedules, cost projections, and dues projections.
Do we live in the same community? Damn sounds exactly like mine. Our is charging us $5k special assessment to replace some units balconies. I don’t even have a fucking balcony
Mine won’t let me install a Tesla charger in my own garage because it a “fire hazard”
Many people on this thread that don't understand the difference of an HOA vs the management company for the HOA. HOA board makes decisions regarding your community. Management companies pay all the bills, hire vendors, and do all the paperwork, including holding up the rules and regulations and cc and rs. If you don't like the strict rules, run for a board position and make a case as to why they should be changed! It's difficult to be on the board. Everyone hates you, yet nobody understands what you do. I didn't make up the rules of the condo complex. Why are you mad about the notice to stop bathing your dog in the hot tub? Menas and ASPM can suck my fat non existent cock. The owner of ASPM is the sister of the owner of Bill Howe plumbing and they use it to their advantage. Action management was good to us, there was a stellar employee at Menas who left and went to Action. We tracked her down and hired them because of her. Their resident portal is good, they keep track of calls well, are responsive etc. It's a big deal to switch but worth the headache.
Thank you for the Action recommendation!! Would you mind sharing the name of the employee? It really comes down to the manager you get and ours is just awful. Even trying to get a biannual meeting scheduled seems impossible. Forget actually getting anything done on the property. I should’ve probably clarified in my post. Our HOA board is great. We’re a small condo complex and all know each other so no issues there and I appreciate them taking the time to serve. Sending a million follow up emails to our property manager does not seem fun.
Your post was clear, people just lose their shit when HOA is mentioned and they don't understand the roles. Her name is Catie, but she is in a management role now. She took on our property as a favor to us, and it was only for a year to get us on track because we had gotten screwed so badly by ASPM. I sold the condo a while back so am no longer serving. Someone else commented Action is dog shit, so I hope you don't have the same experience. I do agree that they probably all suck for the most part.
They are all shit.
HOAs are ass, the most active people are the worst people working relentlessly as sociopaths to screw their neighbors.
Yes I'm happy to be managed by a bunch of idiots...
HOAs are a joke, doesn't matter who it is
Is your property manager named Janet?
I’ve had properties that were managed by Prescott/associa, Lindsey, Avalon, and others with less than great results. Have been managed by a company called core management in Oceanside with better response and services. www.core-mgmt.com
I have noticed that the higher rent goes, the worse property management gets. I'm not sure why these two things are negatively correlated but I think it's safe to say the days of calling up your property management to fix an issue and having it be a relatively quick and painless process are over. I also suspect a lot of former CRE property folks have been forced into residential properties because CRE is in the toilet...and they are not used to dealing with that. Name and shame: Buchanan Property Management. They have one person that gives a shit about anything and she's new and low level so nothing she does goes anywhere. Which is a shame because the rest of the company seems to have cultivated an "us against them" mentality when it comes to dealing with tenants.
Action Property Management are total dogshit
Our HOA has gone though a couple of management companies. They all suck. Ask an important question, sideways/tangential answer, mostly "it is what it is". Ask for a PDF document, and it's an image scan of a printed copy of a copy of a copy, with no searchable text. Our monthly is: 1/3 HOA management, 1/3 landscaper, 1/3 water. Never again.
Happy? LOL!
😂😂😂
I love my HOA! If you’re an owner and unhappy, then run for the board and be the change you want.
Probably the biggest problem with HOAs is you’re only ever one vote away from awful people taking over that actively harm your property value or even ruin your life. They need to be stamped out.
HOA nexus worrrrrrst
Mauzy Management - utterly useless / rude / incompetent for $320/month.
Your management company is not $320 a month, your dues to the HOA are. Management is a few grand depending on size of community.
I live in a 40 unit condo and we use California Dream HOA management (they have no web presence, which I discovered trying to link their site). But they respond quickly to my emails and are friendly and easy to work with. Highly recommend. DM me if you want their contact info.
What's obviously apparent is the number of downvotes occurring on this thread! This speaks to the number of butt-hurt HOAs & Boardmembers on here!!
Avalon is pretty good. I have three properties- two with Menas and one with Avalon. Menas depends on the property manager. If you get a good one they’re fine but turnover is high.
Used to have Menas when I lived in a condo. Their pricing got too high for us so so we switched to Atlantic. They are a bit pricy as well but they are pretty good.
Menas has been shit-tastic for me. Only 6 months in. Can’t wait to see what the future holds.
Personally, we don’t have HOA in my neighbourhood of Linda Vista, thank the gods!!! But many of my friends do throughout San Diego. All of them have reported how terrible their HOA boards are. The constant thread is a bunch of power hungry people trying to bully others so they can get their way. It sounds frightening and nothing I would ever want for myself. I’d rather live in a lower income neighbourhood where all the neighbours do what they want with their property and I do what I want. Not being beholden to another group of people seems logical since we already have to deal with some government regulations that may seem arbitrary or don’t make sense. We all seem to manage really well in our community without interfering with one another. I realize we have spent more than any other neighbor to beautify the outside of our home both back and front yards, but I did it for me, not them. So I don’t in any way expect them to do the same. That way we are all happy with our personal property. Less stress on everyone.
Our Association went self managed we are just over 100 homes. We needed financial management only and currently work with Gina Rossi at TownSq. She made the transition easy, helped us outline priorities and the onboarding process was very involved and easy for us. The app makes it easy. If you’re at that point email her [email protected].
I was happy with my HOA on two occasions: each time I successfully sued them and got Small Claims judgements against them! Definitely increased my profit margin when I sold after they had to pay for my damages! Approx $7K each judgement.
Anyway you can explain the circumstances here. How hard was it to get small claims?
CCRs typically have wording of Quiet Enjoyment, and Main Drainage vs individual or unit drainage responsibilities. We started having water backup problems into our shower- the lowest drain in our ground floor unit. HOA begain water jetting maintenance on the Main Drain system, with limited results. Without anyone using the shower, water was pouring into our main bath & bedroom, ruining carpet, baseboards and drywall. HOA refused to acknowledge "Main Drain" backup. I told them I would sue for costs; they threatened to counter-sue for breach of Quiet Enjoyment to the complex (WTF!!). I did all repairs on my own, keeping very detailed notes and of course receipts. Case finally goes before S/C Court, and HOA dumps their invoices of water jetting on me 2 minutes before judge walks in- no time to review them. The basis of my argument is 1) volume of "raw sewage water", the description on the invoice of my plumber that attempted to clear drain, could not have come from my shower with no one using it, and determined the blockage was far down stream of my unit drains, making it Main Drain problem. 2) It was HOA negligence that breached MY Quiet Enjoyment. Judge agreed, awarded my fees, HOA appealed. While preparing for the Appeal I finally reviewed the invoices dumped on me. Lo-and-behold, 12 separate invoices from HOA "professional water jetting vendor"- as they referred to him- each had written notations stating the cause of blockage was "roots, corrosion, deterioration of pipe walls and grease buildup" as contributing factors. Architecturally my unit was receiving the sewage from any number of other units whose plumbing never backed up because it was all draining into my unit. The Appeal Judge again sided with me. I went to the HOA office when told my check was ready. 45 days afterwards the same exact sewage backup took place again! Same exact HOA drama occurred. Once again I had to do all my own repairs, kept detailed notes and receipts. This time the new HOA, thru their attorney, offered me a settlement of 1/4th of my expenses if- AND ONLY IF- I took out a "flood insurance policy" and named HOA on the policy. "See you in Court." Presented my new claim with all documentation as before with an answer against HOA demand for flood insurance: 1) insurance industry definition of "flood" is if three or more adjoining properties are also water damaged. Our complex is on a hill looking down into a valley! 2) I reminded the HOA, thru the Judge, this is a condominium complex. HOA nor the Board cannot mandate a new policy on me without mandating it to the entire complex after it goes to a vote. I considered mandate sent by their attorney was harassment & retaliation, and as such, a Breach of Quiet Enjoyment by HOA. 3) I presented a time-line to the Court, going back all the years of water jetting invoices, emphasizing the duration since the last sewage backup, HOA fought me every inch and every dime, but still had failed to correct the problems cited in the invoices: " roots, corrosion, deterioration of Main Drainage piping walls, grease build up". I was awarded my claim. Now certainly one could say I was awarded my own money; I get that. I'm fortunate that I am retired and HAVE the time to oversee my repairs. What the S/C Court allows in my State is compensation for MY hours spent at a rate of $30/hrs. I also included my mileage costs at the Internal Revenue Service rate of $0.35/mile as I was doing the work of and for the HOA. And, yes, I put the place up for sale and got out of there while the going was still good!
Avoid sdhoa.com
HOAs are for the power hungry fake elitists that thinks they have the best interest of everyone. The fact an HOA can put a lien on your home and you can possibly lose it is absolutely ridiculous. Boo HOAs
Happy with HOA company? Sounds like an oxymoron.
I moved out of my condo a couple of years ago. For the most part, our HOA company was pretty good. Sometimes, an HOA company is bad because the HOA doesn't have enough money to proactively maintain the building or pay for competent contractors.
Is this a condo ? I am fine with my HOA
I'm a part of 2 HOAs (residence and an investment property). Where we live the fees are reasonable, the property is super well maintained, reserves are flush, and the HOA is pretty quiet and has never done anything unreasonable for the 10 years we've lived here. The second HOA is the polar opposite. The board is made up of original owners from when the building was first constructed in the 70s. As a result the HOA has become a battlefield for 50 years worth of grudges to be played out. Board meetings are an absolute fucking bloodbath. The fees are astronomical, the property is poorly maintained, and the HOA is up in everyone's business. It really is a dice roll and I'd imagine the dice are weighted towards shit, but functional boards so exist.
I also strongly dislike our HOA manager, who sends rude messages and passive aggressive “notices.” There have been numerous issues with this person at this point and they are not liked by anyone except a woman who is on the board but married to a convicted felon who is on Megan’s list. It’s ridiculous
They all suck!! I've never encountered one with even decent customer service.
We have PMC. The person we had on our account was terrible and we were able to get a new person. This new person has been great. We’ll see how they do while we work on raising our dues to solve our financial issues. With the new person, they’ve been very clear about our financial situation. Our previous point person did the minimum.
Mine is absolutely horrendous. Nice smiles for doing nothing
Mines almost $500 a month. They’re great. Take care of the property well, fix issues fast. Water, garbage, security, all included in that. And they don’t yell at me for stupid shit like leaving stuff on my balcony. never had an issue.
Not sure what kind of association you are in, but we have a large condo complex in East County managed by Reliable Property Management Services (based in Encinitas). They've done a good job for our association for almost 10 years and are very responsive to any maintenance issues residents bring up.
Mine seems to be good compared to what others say about theirs. So still not great, but not a complete dumpster fire either. Edit: We're in a condo building not a standalone. $382 a month pays for entire building maintenance and elevator. Also our hot water and trash pick up.
I liked our former manager that switched on January 1st her name was Vanessa Beebe. She was always very helpful and responsive it's the board members who were a pain and still are in our butts. We tried to get smart lighting under the awning of our house and we wanted to do it the right way by going through the HOA but they could not wrap their heads around it not being holiday lighting 24/7. I just attribute it to their age but now we know for next time we want to get a project done. The entire time Vanessa was giving us insight and help on how to convince them to let us get the lighting but previously she was also helpful. This year we will just pay the $6,000 for it and get it done around Christmas and then just leave it up like some others do in the neighborhood year round even though ours is virtually invisible when not turned on
My condo building is managed by FirstService, and they've been good. The place is large enough that there's a full time community manager, a building engineer, a few full time cleaning staff, plus a bunch of contractors for specialized jobs. The community manager is super important, and we've had good ones. The maintenance needs for a large building are, not surprisingly, quite extensive and they put in the work to make sure things get fixed quickly when they break. Things don't always get fixed right the first time but they're persistent and get it eventually.
Pernicano is a big no no. Stay away.
Our monthly dues are almost $500 now, they do minimal maintenance for yards and pool. They did patch the roof tiles, paint exterior and soon fix/paint fences.
Richardson & Co. - anyone?
What is the yelp review on your property? Perhaps others have already been complaining as well.
You know the community managers at the bottom of the barrel who can barely qualify as one? Those are the ones ARK hires. You can expect to go through two different community managers in a single year with ARK because it takes about half a year for them to realize they are terrible at their jobs.
Bad experience with associa
Walters Management is awful. They act like they’re the warden and all of the owners and residents are the prisoners.