HOA management company charging residents for certified mailings
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- čas přidán 31. 10. 2023
- Some residents of an income-controlled HOA in Denver are bristling over the fact their HOA management company has been charging them $35 to send them certified letters notifying them of potential fines for HOA rule violations. The management company, RowCal, has also been charging residents $75 for certified letters notifying them they are behind on payments.
HOA's should never exist in the first place.
They are from Satan.
HOAs exist to take the administrative load off of local government. The problem is, local government doesn't want to be bothered.
I think the HOA idea is initiated by the builders to keep the properties in good shape so that it can benefit them as a free advertising to anone who wants to buy their properties. HOA should be banned. Congress should step in and ban this frivolous practice
Outsourcing the HOA staff, to corporate staff, seems to be the BIGGEST issue.
My mothers HOA is maintained by the actual home owners, and meetings are a pot luck dinner at the community pool every Sunday. We are a community, not a tyrannical neighborhood at all.
Not every HOA is bad, but it seems like most are
Unless the residents are lawyers or accountants, that is a dangerous choice. There is a lot of responsibility including making sure your property has the required insurance and legal representation.
That's what I thought about HOAs. Who makes or appoints the HOA? Can they fire the HOA?
Yes, if the homeowners (The HOA) are unhappy with their Board members, they can petition for their removal. You would need 51% of the residents who are willing to sign the petition and request a special meeting for a vote.
@@Chicago48the HOA is every owner. The management companies are often the problem.
The management company is supposed to be the backup to community. When homeowners don't want to get involved, these management companies just do things at will.
Thieves
This is what happens when the legislators make vague laws, they assume fees will just come out of operating costs. But what happened is another line item for up charging fees.
And an opportunity for unethical management companies to charge both the HOA and the homeowners.
Are these HOA companies acting like small governments? Some really overstep their boundaries.
Yep! That's _exactly_ what HOA's are -- small governments which then hire Nazi-like management companies to help run things. Usually, the management contracts out any work to a friend or incompetent brother or someone. Sometimes, those management companies will ignorantly/fraudulently "update" certain rules too. Get in the cross hairs of one of these management Nazi's and I hope you have a big enough bank account.
Because the HOA is a governed entity. That's why you have Decs and ByLaws, which are the governing docs of the community.
@@jenniferhernandez2877you must be one of those insufferable HOA ladies.
@@JulStar13 don't live in a HOA if you do not agree with the governing docs. It's that simple.
All a simple certified letter does is confirm the fact that you mailed something to someone on a particular date. It does NOT confirm that anyone _received_ that piece of mail. Remember, this it the US Postal System we're talking about. So if you want a more substantial piece of evidence that someone _received_ your letter you have to specifically ask for signature confirmation -- which costs more money! Simple "Certified" mail may be good enough for the IRS or some other Federal Entity but hardly worth the paper it's written on if you don't get signature confirmation that the party you sent it to actually got it. (Very simply, the USPS has to "certify" anything that needs to be tracked.)
It is so obvious that none of the people commenting or whovare a part of a HOA have not read their governing documents. People just shuffle those papers away after the closing and are clueless about what they are legally binded to do.
What people don't understand is that the "1st" letter is not a certified letter. The first letter or two or three is for you to comply or respond, most people ignore the regular mailed letters. The certified letter is required by most state laws to advise the owner that the issue still yas not been corrected and they have a right to a hearing before the board of directors. The fee for the certified letter from the management company includes the cost of sending it certified and a cost to process the letter, put it together, etc. It is not to make it easier for the homeowners who just ignore the regular mail. That is what the administrative fee is for. The other owners in the Association should not to have to pay for a non-compliant homeowners stuff. So many people just throw the letters from the management company in the trash but when they get hit with a fee then you have their attention. Most will even say they didn't get the certified letter and when you track it, they've signed for ot, refused it or just never picked it up and will take that story all the way to court. I could see you maybe not getting one letter but you got none? Cone on, heard the excuses for years. Assessments are due January 1st of each year just like property taxes and the same perpetrators each year will say " I didn't get a statement " but will never call after January 1st when they didn't get one and will be mad because they get assessed a late fee on February 1st. Even if you are having hard times, you are still responsible for paying your assessment just like everyone else; the lights, the insurance, grounds maintenance, etc still has to be paid and it's not fair for everyone else to foot the bill. If people would just puck up the phone and call and ask for a payment plan people are willing to work with you. Stop making excuses. It's not always the HOA "picking on you" which is the same sad comment repeated so often.
Let me guess, you're a Community Association Manager? So am I. We both know this is playing the victim. They do ignore the initial letters almost every single time.
They don't acknowledge that they live in an HOA and that comes with rules that need to be enforced, financial reporting, accepting and depositing monthly dues, administrating the Associations bank account and any investments, collections of delinquent dues, facilitation of maintenance and common ground upkeep. Trust that your 5-7 member VOLUNTEER board of directors are not equipped for all that, hence the existence of professional management companies.
When you are delinquent on your dues, why shouldn't the letter get sent certified? So you can lie and say you never got it, which is all too common? Why do you think court collections cases are served personally?
Then there's that other thing too, where the managers work at the direction of the board, it's not always up to us. I wish people would learn what it means to live in a condo or HOA and make sure they can live with that before making that move. They are all so ignorant.
Last time I had to send a certified letter with signature confirmation was this past June of 2023 and was like TEN BUCKS! (That was a whole other nightmare with the USPS too.) So, for a management company to charge THIRTY-FIVE BUCKS is appalling! What exactly are people paying for with all those monthly HOA dues? How do these management companies get away with that and not end up in jail for extortion?! Why is there no _advocate_ or legal complaint system for people in HOA's? Just what are city/county _ordinances_ for anyway? Like, WTF?! (HOA's yearly maximum of "fees" should not exceed $20! I mean, have any of these HOA's read the 7th Amendment?!)
It is a recipe of failed communication, unethical management companies preying on uneducated homeowners.
The HOA is the homeowners, the Board Members are suppose to be speaking on behalf of the homeowners, and the management company works for the HOA, not the Board.
Why didn’t they write that it should come from the HOA dues into the law rather than assume that’s how it would work, they wrote the bill they could have been explicit about the language to protect the homeowners
It's good that company quit. As the mgmt co. Charging triple the fee is insane.
Everyone in USA 🇺🇸 use ur voice against HOA .
Ya if you’re in an affordable home living situation the last thing you want to do is hire someone else to do the management for you.
It is actually better to have a management company to do the work for you. It is very difficult to find qualified residents with the knowledge and experience to do it right.
If you so not understand the Governing Documents and Bylaws, your actions can put you and the homeowners (the HOA) in a serious position of liability.
You just need to find an ethical management company who’s first priority is not profit.
@@MS-dk8tw pretty sure all companies prioritize profits first. Maybe you mean non-profit.
No, our new management company is ethical and gets the work done.
Stupid politicians trying to "protect" people almost always backfires
RowCal is the slimiest snake in the HOA game
Allegedly committing major fraud all over Colorado.
The council passed this based off assumptions.... Go figure there are issues with it
Always be clear who pays what in every law.
Castlewood HOA is doing the same thing
People don't understand how this works and commenting this as if they do. A certified mail often requires a person to physically go to the USPS to mail it out. The Fees for these are likely not covered under their work contract. The management of any HOA are often billed based on minimum necessity, therefore all additional things are fee for service. Imagine they have to send out millions of certified mails every year, who's picking up the tabs for all the bad homeowners? Like all things in life in the US, people don't acknowledge they have a problem themselves, and look for blames elsewhere.
$35 per a certified mail is probably too expensive for sure. however it comes with cost to operate, the person doing this is paid to go to USPS which could end up being a 1 hour thing easily depending on traffic and the crowd of the USPS. In additional to wage, there is the basic cost of sending a certified mail (probably less than $5), then reimbursement of gas/mileage to the employees. Assuming an admin's total compensation (wage+insurance+retirement) is $20 a hour, the whole trip to send 1 certified mail is about $25+mileage reimbursement. Actual cost may be lower if they manage to send multiple at once. So is $35 outrageous? probably not, but definitely expensive for sure.
It certainly does sound like RowCal HOA only work for those who are well off. There is no way a new HOA can manage under same fee with more incurred cost on their end. There are plenty of HOA management companies just sit to colllect and do near nothing for as long as they could. You could be questioning why no one talked about the weed growing in your neighbor's home for years. Yeah, sure they're not collecting fees for certified mails but are homeowners getting any notice at all? lol.
The management company RowCal was billing the HOA for the mailing service AND then the Homeowners. They did not do the adequate landscaping that caused the weeds, then blamed the homeowners in order to send warning letters and charge for it.
Everything you talk about is someone doing their job. They are already being paid for.
I'm my opinion there should be a law to ban HOA. Only if the residents in the community wants to and they can create their own HOA. It's ridiculous to charge someone $35.00-75.00 for a certified letter
I have a similar issue happening in my HOA. I was charged $50 fees for delivering mail. When i called tge HOA they refused to waive it. How do I take it to next step
This is such nonsense. It's your typical nickel and dime operation. Squeeze
If the fee for certified mail comes out of the dues, then they will ultimately raise the dues. Sounds like something the US government would do. No mercy for the small guy. So sickening.
I don't understand HOA's, for example, WHO appointments the HOA management company? Is it the residents or the developer?
In our situation the Board chooses the management company. They should be communicating with homeowners to make the right decision.
@MS-dk8tw it's the board's job to make decisions, that's why they are elected in.
Everyone's just trying to get rich.... either that or please their shareholders
This company is committing fraud all over Colorado. Allegedly.
If you have dealt with Row Cal please reach out!
HOA took advantage of the new law! Shady stuff😮
RowCal, the Management company took advantage and the HOA stopped them.
I hope these news channels and reporters read the CCRs and community guidelines of these HOAs before going after them. I hear owners cry all the time regarding fines and violations, yet they agreed to these terms once they bought into the community. The administration fee to mail a certified letter is very common. Maybe if the homeowner would respond to the emails and regular mail, they would not be getting a cert letter.
Shhh. You don't know what you're talking about. My CCR's haven't been updated since 2001. Despite what RowCal claims.
They're a very bad company and are ripping ppl off all over Colorado as well as their homeowners insurance.
All hoa's need to be investigated
HOA if they aren't for security and maintenance then it shouldn't be used to pay any board members
The Management company was charging the homeowners and paying it to themselves. They also billed the HOA, so they were double dipping.
If you read you governing documents then you'd understand that board members don't get paid. Also, there is a contract with the management company which lists a set of fees for the cost of doing business. Nothing is free.
they don't get paid in money, but they get paid in info. Info is worth more than money@@catinahunter9357
Everyone gets affordable housing! But you have to join a HOA.
Why is no one focusing on the fact she was letting weeds grow in an area she signed a contract stating she wouldn’t, and then the fact one of her neighbours, on the elected board asked the management company to send a violation 😂
Sounds like a load of people exercising their right to be socially unaccountable in an area where people pay for their neighbours to have a bit of decorum.
Nation of children.
The management company in this case was not providing adequate landscaping services, which created the weeds and overgrowth of the bushes and shrubs. They had not right to send the warning letter in the first place.
They failed at their job and created the issue they then charged the resident for.
In fact, they should reimburse all of the residents who had to do the labor of landscaping their own yard which they had already paid for in their monthly dues.
Nice! Colorado HOAs trying to get themselves on someone’s radar to get beat down and regulated at the state level. Keep it up!
This particular management company is not based in Colorado. They have been buying up local management companies and taking over their accounts. They stop providing the same services without communicating with the homeowners. Then send out notices and charge the homeowner, usually by drafting from their autopay accounts without any notice.
Most residents don’t even realize they were charged.