melchi
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- Joined
- May 2, 2021
- Messages
- 2,877
- Points
- 153
Yours truly is on the board of a small HOA. About a year ago, the former board officer effectively swatted one of the people who lived here. He of course sewed. This was to be expected because he is one of those people who are spring loaded to lawyer up. Some time later, in one of the meetings our management company brought up that we settled and had to pay out thousands of dollars. This was after the fact, and one of the other owners asked me about what was up with that why did we waste so much money. My answer to her was, "This is the first I heard about it too."
That made me really nervous about the integrity of this company. Years ago, the owner of the company got to be hauled off to jail for making false charges to his clients. Apparently the FTC audited his book and the company had to change their name to try to dodge the bad press. (The guy even made the local newspaper) So, I talked to some people and figured out what it would take to switch companies. I poked around and got some quotes. But when I talked to the other board member about switching she got really defensive about the idea. (we should have 3 but only had two for a while because someone sold their place and we were still trying to find someone to agree to take her place)
Things have gotten really annoying over the past few months. Last year we had to raise our dues 10% (The biggest jump ever) because we went over budget so badly. So this year I've been trying to keep our costs down as much as possible. The parking lot has lots of cracks so looked into saving some costs by buying a torch and some tar strips to seal the cracks. I wanted to avoid the thousands of dollars an asphalt company would require for their services.
She pushed back and said we should get an asphalt company. I told her that I didn't want to spend so much money. Then she started pushing the management company with a lot of things that would require us paying contractor. I pushed back saying that some of this stuff can be deferred or if we could just do some of the labor ourselves we could save a lot of money.
Then I got a few quotes for a new management company, figured out the process for canceling the contract and switching to a new company. My counterpart sent a nasty email about how the guy on the new management company was my friend (not true) and that she will always vote for bridgetown as our company (that isn't even the company's proper name. She got the name wrong...)
Then I decided to be the better man and give in to the parking lot thing. HOA lady then starts not mildly suggesting that I do this and that to prepare for the parking lot. Then she texts me while I'm at work saying the date for the work is on a trash day (Again, how is this my problem? The is something she was pushing for) Today I was trying to grind down a stump and her sister was being all snippy with me for making noise. Later, I put some chip clips into the wall by everyone's door with a screw driver and print out a document reminding people to clear the parking lot that day. Then the same sister comes knocking at my door complaining about date being on trash day and she's not going to skip trash for a week or push everyone's garbage cans out of the way.
I told her I really really don't want to deal with this because it was not something I wanted in the first place. After she finished ranting I said, "Let me tell you a story"
She just threw up her hand and said, "I don't want to hear it," and walked off.
That made me really nervous about the integrity of this company. Years ago, the owner of the company got to be hauled off to jail for making false charges to his clients. Apparently the FTC audited his book and the company had to change their name to try to dodge the bad press. (The guy even made the local newspaper) So, I talked to some people and figured out what it would take to switch companies. I poked around and got some quotes. But when I talked to the other board member about switching she got really defensive about the idea. (we should have 3 but only had two for a while because someone sold their place and we were still trying to find someone to agree to take her place)
Things have gotten really annoying over the past few months. Last year we had to raise our dues 10% (The biggest jump ever) because we went over budget so badly. So this year I've been trying to keep our costs down as much as possible. The parking lot has lots of cracks so looked into saving some costs by buying a torch and some tar strips to seal the cracks. I wanted to avoid the thousands of dollars an asphalt company would require for their services.
She pushed back and said we should get an asphalt company. I told her that I didn't want to spend so much money. Then she started pushing the management company with a lot of things that would require us paying contractor. I pushed back saying that some of this stuff can be deferred or if we could just do some of the labor ourselves we could save a lot of money.
Then I got a few quotes for a new management company, figured out the process for canceling the contract and switching to a new company. My counterpart sent a nasty email about how the guy on the new management company was my friend (not true) and that she will always vote for bridgetown as our company (that isn't even the company's proper name. She got the name wrong...)
Then I decided to be the better man and give in to the parking lot thing. HOA lady then starts not mildly suggesting that I do this and that to prepare for the parking lot. Then she texts me while I'm at work saying the date for the work is on a trash day (Again, how is this my problem? The is something she was pushing for) Today I was trying to grind down a stump and her sister was being all snippy with me for making noise. Later, I put some chip clips into the wall by everyone's door with a screw driver and print out a document reminding people to clear the parking lot that day. Then the same sister comes knocking at my door complaining about date being on trash day and she's not going to skip trash for a week or push everyone's garbage cans out of the way.
I told her I really really don't want to deal with this because it was not something I wanted in the first place. After she finished ranting I said, "Let me tell you a story"
She just threw up her hand and said, "I don't want to hear it," and walked off.
