Have a townhome property that has an HOA / HOA management company. Was my Dad's place before he passed and we kept it since rents were up and prices slightly down at the time and we had to put a bunch of money into it after his death. Have lots of historical knowledge since my Dad lived there for 35+ years.
Historically the water bill was covered by the HOA dues. Around the time he passed they got it approved to bill each unit individually by installing submeters. Reasonable idea. Took them over a year to implement that change, but it started Jan 1 of this year. Payment is made to the HOA management company in a separate payment from the dues.
This management company regularly misplaces or "does not receive" checks in the mail. More than any other services I pay combined.
When I received the March water bill it showed that Feb had not been paid. I had sent a check through my bank's bill pay service. As I had at least three occurrences like this last year, I assumed they they did not get the check and changed my payment method to the newly activated Zelle payment option. I paid the outstanding Feb bill and the March bill in separate payments through Zelle. I contacted my bank to cancel the check. No big deal. As, unlike the dues checks they "did not get" the previous year, they were not charging penalties yet on the water bill payments.
Bank reaches out a week or so later and informs me that the check was deposited by the HOA Management company and sends me a copy of the check. Okay, still not that big of a deal. Accounting error. Sent the HOA Management company an email with the cleared check copy from the bank and requested that they verify and apply to my water bill account.
Crickets......(Which is normal customer service for this company.)
Follow up. They respond they will look into it.
April bill comes and nothing has changed other than it shows the two Zelle payments. Email again. Crickets again.....Email again with stronger wording.... They respond they will look into it.
Repeat the above again in May.
And June......Send a more strongly worded email asking why this is so hard. They have the copy of the check. It has a deposit date. How hard is it to verify they did deposit it and actually apply it to my account? They respond with an email saying see the attached. The attached is the statement for my account that I had just received in the mail before paying the bill which shows all the payments except the missing check in question.
Get pissed and decide that I will file a complaint with TREC. They regulate property managers, right. Learned something in my search do this after neither the company nor the Principal show up on TREC. Apparently, much like HOAs, HOA management companies don't have to actually be Property Managers and are, as far as I can tell, completely unregulated and there are no channels for recourse. Despite the very large sums of money they are handling.
That was last week. So I sent an email to the company owner and the email for the HOA board again explaining the problem and asking for resolution. With the loose and totally ineffective threat of pursuing it further if needed. No response yet, and I really do not expect one. I truly believe they have no intention to look into it and to resolve the problem and maybe knowingly stole the money.
We are talking about a check for $114.61. It isn't that big of a deal moneywise. But it is a big deal that they are completely ignoring their mistake, refuse to communicate about it, and are effectively stealing money. I just don't get it.
I am not a "sue people" person. I cannot begin to imagine how it would be worth it to sue over $144.61. But I am NOT okay with them stealing money and not doing their job.
Seems insane that HOA and apparently HOA management companies have so much fiduciary power and no oversight.
What should I do? Any Texags attorneys around that hate HOA's as much as I do, that want to send a strongly worded letter and take anything we can get from them?
Oh and in the same manner as their fiduciary competence, they also do not answer the phone or return calls. Honestly not sure what they do.
Historically the water bill was covered by the HOA dues. Around the time he passed they got it approved to bill each unit individually by installing submeters. Reasonable idea. Took them over a year to implement that change, but it started Jan 1 of this year. Payment is made to the HOA management company in a separate payment from the dues.
This management company regularly misplaces or "does not receive" checks in the mail. More than any other services I pay combined.
When I received the March water bill it showed that Feb had not been paid. I had sent a check through my bank's bill pay service. As I had at least three occurrences like this last year, I assumed they they did not get the check and changed my payment method to the newly activated Zelle payment option. I paid the outstanding Feb bill and the March bill in separate payments through Zelle. I contacted my bank to cancel the check. No big deal. As, unlike the dues checks they "did not get" the previous year, they were not charging penalties yet on the water bill payments.
Bank reaches out a week or so later and informs me that the check was deposited by the HOA Management company and sends me a copy of the check. Okay, still not that big of a deal. Accounting error. Sent the HOA Management company an email with the cleared check copy from the bank and requested that they verify and apply to my water bill account.
Crickets......(Which is normal customer service for this company.)
Follow up. They respond they will look into it.
April bill comes and nothing has changed other than it shows the two Zelle payments. Email again. Crickets again.....Email again with stronger wording.... They respond they will look into it.
Repeat the above again in May.
And June......Send a more strongly worded email asking why this is so hard. They have the copy of the check. It has a deposit date. How hard is it to verify they did deposit it and actually apply it to my account? They respond with an email saying see the attached. The attached is the statement for my account that I had just received in the mail before paying the bill which shows all the payments except the missing check in question.
Get pissed and decide that I will file a complaint with TREC. They regulate property managers, right. Learned something in my search do this after neither the company nor the Principal show up on TREC. Apparently, much like HOAs, HOA management companies don't have to actually be Property Managers and are, as far as I can tell, completely unregulated and there are no channels for recourse. Despite the very large sums of money they are handling.
That was last week. So I sent an email to the company owner and the email for the HOA board again explaining the problem and asking for resolution. With the loose and totally ineffective threat of pursuing it further if needed. No response yet, and I really do not expect one. I truly believe they have no intention to look into it and to resolve the problem and maybe knowingly stole the money.
We are talking about a check for $114.61. It isn't that big of a deal moneywise. But it is a big deal that they are completely ignoring their mistake, refuse to communicate about it, and are effectively stealing money. I just don't get it.
I am not a "sue people" person. I cannot begin to imagine how it would be worth it to sue over $144.61. But I am NOT okay with them stealing money and not doing their job.
Seems insane that HOA and apparently HOA management companies have so much fiduciary power and no oversight.
What should I do? Any Texags attorneys around that hate HOA's as much as I do, that want to send a strongly worded letter and take anything we can get from them?
Oh and in the same manner as their fiduciary competence, they also do not answer the phone or return calls. Honestly not sure what they do.