Well, the HOA/property management continues to outdo itself

"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion) 07/18/2018 at 01:51 • Filed to: None

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Back when I first bought the condo 6 years ago no work was ever done, and we just kept building up a nice HOA fund. It was great. Now... We have tons of work done, and it’s all contracted to the lowest bidder, with zero planning, atrocious management and blatant incompetence on all ends. Here’s the latest.

So. The image above is how they decided to do the new railing. There was no center rail before, now there is. Why is that bad? Because... When cars are parked in there spaces, we all have to squeeze through an 8 inch gap. Elderly people with trouble getting around? Sucks to suck, we’re in charge, it’s not like you own your place. Oh, wait... You do. Wheelchair? Nope. It would be impossible to get a standard wheelchair through even if cars weren’t parked there.

So they did that “wonderful work” four months ago. That railing setup you see above was repeated in every “pod”, for a total of 30ish similar setups with the exact same problem. This was a terrible solution in search of a problem that didn’t exist.

But hey, at least they did quality work, right?

Hello?

No, actually. They had to redo the white concrete walkway squares, and in some cases built in a step (again, a fuck you to wheelchair users who could have lived in the middle floor) and in other cases just smoothed it all over to meet with the parking lot.

Problem is, the walkway entrance is not level. What did they do to get the center handrail level when the surface it bolted to wasn’t? They used shims.

The one above is one of the better ones. Most of them are so angled that the shims are an INCH THICK. it looks absolutely terrible, and the handrails themselves wobble like crazy. I’m 100% confident I could push and pull these hard enough to remove them (and genuinely considering it).

I’ve done zero work with cement, but I imagine they could have built up a level cube-like section with same length and width as the post bottom to make for a clean, stable install. No?

Okay... Moving on. As part of that great work above, they also replaced the staircase leading down to the ground floor units in each pod. It’s been four m onths... And we’ve still got unpainted wood, that’s now beginning to rot.

Speaking of paint... Another company was hired to paint the flat walkway on the middle level. Again, it’s been four months since then. 90% of the paint has flaked off. Now—I’m no expert—but I’m pretty damn sure I could find a harder wearing coating than the “plasti-dip, single coat” I assume they used. Or maybe they just did absolutely fuck-all for prep..? Not even a cursory blow off with a backpack blower, let alone some legitimate surface prep?

See the white crap down the walkway? Yeah? That’s the paint. It’s all supposed to be white. The grey sections are bare wood, and they’re starting to sag inward because of water retention. The whole walkway was replaced two years ago if you can believe it.

But you know what really grinds my gears?

They decided to redo the entire parking lot. Not just lay down another topcoat which looks great for a week then is back to normal. Nope, they were going to hire a legit paving company to come out and redo the entire surface, put in new curbs, paint on new lines. The whole nine years.

What a cluster fuck.

Zero communication between the property manager and homeowners. When I say zero I mean zero. Nobody knew when the paving company would come in and start working. Some days it was 11am. Some days it was 7am. Some days... They didn’t show up. Some days they dropped off gear and left a single guy to watch it. But the homeowners didn’t have a clue until they heard the tow trucks outside towing their cars so the work could be completed.

Despite the overall tone here, I’m a pretty calm, laid back person. I hate confrontations. But with that said... If I had came out to my Miata being towed away at 7 in the morning, three hours before work is supposed to start according to our HOA contract... With no forewarning that I had needed to move my car... Especially after the Miata had gotten broken into... I would have thrown a punch at the manager who’s done a horrendous job these overseeing these projects for the last two years, and gladly suffered the consequences of said actions.

And you know what? That “towed away with no warning” thing may not have happened to me, but it happened to many other people living here. There are a ton of enthusiasts living at my condominiums, and if they’re anything like me I can only imagine how terrible it must have felt to walk out and see.... Nothing. Just some sweaty workers in heavy machinery at 7am where your car should have been.

My buddy with the brand new Corvette? I left for the gym last week at 8am and saw a bunch of workers crowding around his car. I c alled him up to let him know he needed to come out asap, right as a tow truck arrived. Tow truck driver didn’t want to leave without getting his tow. Workers just wanted the vehicle out, and seemed to think my buddy was to blame. The property manager was there as well and talking about “the email” which apparently had all the details on when to move vehicles, but has conveniently been seen by none of the dozens of homeowners I’ve spoken to.

So my buddy is absolutely furious. He starts yelling. The foreman working with the pavers starts yelling. Property manager tells the tow driver to take the car. Situation is escalating in a bad way. With all the shouting, my downstairs neighbor comes out to see what’s going on. I’ve mentioned him before I think. 6'6 easy, built like a goddamn tank, that “look” that stops you dead in your tracks, questioning the life decisions that led up to this point... basically as intimidating as a human can be. This is the type of guy who makes bouncers look like complete pushovers. Marine, single dad to a young girl, works from home.

Anyways, I filled him in over the rising shouts twenty feet away, and he did what he does best, which is end confrontations with nothing more than his very presence. He walked over there, charming smile in full effect, and said quietly enough that I could barely make it out, “my daughter’s having trouble sleeping through the noise, you all need to leave now.”

Into a group that had the fuse lit, seconds away from real, physical violence. I don’t know what potential futures the foreman saw in my neighbor’s smile, but he walked back to his truck without saying a word, at a quicker pace than he’d shown during any of the prior “work” over the last two weeks. The employees followed him, no longer shouting, no more bravado. Tow truck driver was still visibly pissed off, but with one large dude redfaced with anger, and another much larger man with terrifying unspoken promises radiating o ff his smiling face. .. Well. The guy make the smart choice and left. Last but not least, Mr property manager, chief of incompetence. He said “they’ll be back at 10am” and walked off.

The workers were not back at 10am. In fact, they didn’t show up for another three days after that. It was quite pleasant, and it made me wish I had the personality and looks to make people stop being such morons with nothing more than a look.

Alas, they did come back. I’ll keep this short. They finished the entire project, and it actually looked fairly decent! I mean yeah, they were two weeks behind, had numerous issues with homeowners and almost started a brawl... But the work was... Decent! Average! Mediocre!

And then I noticed the new lines painted on the parking lot. For reasons completely beyond my understanding—what would I, an operations manager know about handling operations?—they had renumbered our parking spots, thus moving us all around. Was anyone complaining about their old spots?

No.

Does it seem a bit... Strange... To switch parking spots of homeowners with absolutely no notice, let alone voting?

Yes.

And now here I am, outside, looking at my Miata which instead of being parked directly in front of my bedroom window, is now parked 80 feet further down. And to top it all off, I now have a parking spot that has an extra curb, meaning I can’t pull forward all the way anymore. 100% a first world problem, but I’m paying HOA fees to these asshats to improve our complex, and they do something like this. It’s an inconvenience to me personally, and to many others. And again, what was gained? Half the homeowners are saying they won’t change spots, and the other half have already moved. Can you say “poor planning?”

Honda element is in my old spot. My new spot is out of the picture, two spots to the left of the white Z. Has my unit # and everything.

Two curbs. As soon as my summer tires are on I’ll no longer be able to get my front lip over the curb, and will have to retrain myself to pull in much shallower. Whoo-hoo

I could go on for days, but I’ll leave you with just one more. We had 26 visitor parking spots in this particular section of the large complex. On average, 24 or so would be full every night. Second cars, friends, partners, whatever. Again, for reasons beyond me, they did away with 8 visitor parking spots. In the picture below, there used to be two more spots going towards the fire hydrant. Now, MAYBE they realized it wasn’t up to code and they needed more room to either side (there’s 45 feet from the end of the space to the hydrant now), but for the rest of the visitor parking? Gone. With no reason whatsoever.

Okay, that was my really long rant. This shit has always bothered me, but now that a huge part of my job is fixing problems, making systems work efficiently and improving all aspects of customer/employee/service interaction... Seeing how badly others do my job hurts me. Is it really that hard to organize things? Don’t these people realize that with some simple organization, they’ll be happier, the business will make more $/h, the customers (homeowners/property managers) will get better quality work, the referrals will pour in.... It’s not complicated!

Goodnight Oppo. Here’s a fence that’s had two separate painting crews out to work on it over the last year. Trying to paint it brown. Another year and they should be finished.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 02:59

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That is some seriously garbage construction. Is it just me, or is bad construction  workmanship/methods  rampant around here?

I’m glad we have so few common areas under my HOA. It seems like every HOA up here is incompetent and hires the shittiest of management companies. My current HOA is trapped in their budget from the establishment of the association because they can’t get enough houses to vote, so although we dropped the cost of the landscape maintenance about 6 months ago, we can’t change the dues. Frustratingly, out of 30 houses, only 11 voted on what to do with our blackberry problem in a common area and only 2 of those voted to spend some money having the landscaping crew tear out an acre or so of thicket, the rest voting for the zero-cost work party that will likely never happen because it sucks or fall on people that didn’t vote to do it (like me, because I’d be shocked if the other 9 voters came out to help with it). Ugh.

On the upside, me and my crew of minor dictators have successfully dictated things four times since our group was established and we’re close to standards in a couple areas.

On the downside, the board is trying to figure out how to get our easement inspected for free or near-zero, while we’re in a stalemate where everyone is threatening to lawyer up over a couple 60-tree Leland cypress hedgerows (taller than the tallest houses in the neighborhood now) that planted on top of our retaining wall/drainage system easement (which are important when you live on a terraced hillside)... Technically they’re planted on the side of the easement owned by the uphill neighbors by the downhill neighbors (the downhill ones refuse to remove them or even cut them down even though they are clearly in violation of the CCRs that state they cannot erect a fence or maintain a hedge taller than 6 feet without a variance granted by my group that would never grant one) and it’s probably just a matter of time before a windstorm after a heavy winter rain sends one or more of them into a house.

AestheticsInMotion > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/18/2018 at 03:21

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I’ve worked with 14 (I think) major construction companies through the last five years or so, and of them... I’d trust two to build me a house, assuming I had the money to be picky. And of those two, one of the owners was so abusive to his employees and contractors, I’m amazed he hasn’t been sued into bankruptcy. And that’s just the main residential construction companies, to say nothing of the myriad skilled trades. Yeah local work by and large sucks, and the good businesses either charge insane amounts or are old guys who’ve been doing it forever and have small operations.

I wish you luck, wading into all that. My thought process is “move away from it all” and find a nice rambler with decent sized property outside of an HOA’s grasp. Funny you mention trees. One of the guys I recently hired is an apprentice tree cutter, and I sent him to my bosses neighbor to potentially chop down a couple trees on the property line. Neighbor agreed, employee chopped the trees, neighbor gave him a very large tip and everyone walked away happy, with the whole thing taking about an hour. I shudder to imagine that situation with a property management team butting their heads in. I hope your home isn't one of the ones threatened by the hedgerows. 

NKato > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 03:42

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That shit is exactly why I’m looking into the possibility of buying my own land with no HOA, and building a home/garageshop duplex with the outward appearance of an industrial shed/garage.

The problem is finding affordable land in this clusterfuck of liberal "paradise".

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 05:55

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I think this means you need to join the HOA board. Or sue them. Or move.

I’ve luckily  never had to deal with a large HOA, my condo is just a fourplex so we don’t do anything without everyone’s concurrence. Good luck. 

BIGBLOCK472 - wide and bizarre > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 06:06

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My advice is to run for a position on the HOA at the next election. I wanted to see change in my neighborhood so that’s what I did. Hoo boy, did I learn some stuff.

Overall I have enjoyed the experience aside from a few very vocal homeowners who think they can do everything better than the HOA can. We, however, aren’t saddled with a property management company which makes a big difference.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 07:03

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Wow.....I have no words other than what the absolute f***! Also....the extra curbs....why do some spaces have them and others don’t for no reason? 0_o

merged-5876237249235911857-hrw8uc > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/18/2018 at 07:14

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Construction is an interesting field. Especially when you get down to the residential folks. There really aren’t a lot of prerequisites to perform construction tasks. Some places have licensing requirements and there are local municipality inspections, but those are little help for the most part. The best thing to do is get references and check their past work. The big red flags are folks that need money upfront too. If they can’t keep a decent cash flow going for their forces, then that’s problematic. I imagine that’s what happening with the authors paint woes. They got paid too much too soon.

I still see it in the commercial and heavy-civil construction trades too, but for the most part, these folks are decent, if they have been around for any good amount of time. But we struggle with the low bid folks that either missed something big in their proposal to us, or don’t understand the intricacies involved that all the other bidders did, so their number is screaming low, and our estimators used it to get us the job. Now we get stuck either using those folks, or taking a hit to the bottom line. Sometimes you roll the dice, sometimes you take the hit. And sometimes you take the hit and it still ends up that the subcontractor is you paid a premium for is not worth that premium. It’s a fun time for sure.

Ultimately it comes down to the individuals on the projects and performing the tasks. Even large companies have good and bad crews. So it all depends on what you get. I guess that’s what keeps folks like me in business. There are times when it truly pays to pay for a service that will properly manage the work for an owner. And most importantly, stick to the contract and design to give the owner what they asked for. But for the residential market, or smaller stuff like the author is referencing, you really need to find a good small general contractor that has good references and can complete all those different scopes of work. Don’t try to wade through the subcontractor market on your own, let the GC do it, and hold them accountable. That’s basically what I do, but on a larger scale.

But there are good folks out there, who will stand behind their work no matter the cost, but it’s hard to find them at times.  Or it takes legwork to verify their qualifications and quality of work.  In this day and age, there aren’t too many excuses, other than ignorance or laziness to not backcheck references for contractors, but it takes effort to do so.  

JCAlan > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 07:33

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Oh great, now you’re in one of those s pots with the idiotic railing. Enjoy everyone brushing against your car while trying to squeeze through! Wow

random001 > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 07:34

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My HOA is actually pretty decent. They bring good plans to the table. It’s the shitty neighbors who just like to be angry that have ruined most of the plans that would benefit my family.

shop-teacher > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 08:53

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“I imagine they could have built up a level cube-like section with same length and width as the post bottom to make for a clean, stable install. No?”

Yes, they absolutely can.

fintail > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 09:44

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That’s the problem with this area, there’ s so much idle money floating around, and so many people who are book smart and street stupid, that you can get away with shoddy work. This is a dream for the “skilled tradesman” who doesn’t know what they are doing, and doesn’t care.

I’d want to band together with some others and be rid of the property manager, and also remember - revenge is a dish best served cold.  Some might have it coming.

fintail > Eric @ opposite-lock.com 07/18/2018 at 09:46

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American housing quality standards in general aren’t what I could call first world. And if you think it is bad here, go to the south - Europeans laugh at this stuff.

I wouldn’t buy a local detached house with anything close to an HOA.  

fintail > NKato 07/18/2018 at 09:47

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No need to get political - plenty of conservative areas are even worse. Well, they are more affordable, but fail in many other ways.

That being said, if one wants affordable land on this side of the state, they’ll need to endure a long commute, or simply move.

Derpwagon > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 10:17

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Exhibit number nine billion, six hundred and seventy three million, four hundred twelve thousand, six hundred and twenty two why I will never, ever, ever live somewhere with a homeowners association.

I may have exaggerated the number to emphasize my point. 

Sovande > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 10:41

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My condo needed a new roof so they argued about it for two years before finally deciding that per the by laws (which they could have changed) they had to replace it with slate since that was what was used 75 years ago. So that cost is $4 million dollars (vs about half of that to do asphalt shingles) - my special assessment was $21,000. That is roughly 10% of what I paid for the condo. It is that high for me since I have one of the biggest units in the complex. My condo is also large. Last week I got a notice that my condo fees will be increasing my almost $200 a month, or double what they are now. So that’s fun too. The roof project, with the use of heavy equipment, has completely ruined the parking lot (as heavy equipment will) and now we will be on the hook for that as well. And the sidewalks. And repointing the brick. And probably other things they just never seemed to get to until I decided to move in. I had to tell the trash company not to put the dumpsters in the middle of the parking lot the other day. The driver told me it was a “Pain in the ass” to put them back against the curb, where they belong. Condo management is a joke. These people would be out of work if they had to get a real job.

Urambo Tauro > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 11:29

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Poor traffic (foot & vehicular) planning is a pet peeve of mine. I need to write up a post about certain parking lots in my area.

His Stigness > AestheticsInMotion 07/18/2018 at 11:43

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You should either file an ADA complaint about the railing, or email your property manager and tell them they need make it ADA compliant asap, lest a handicapped person see that, and sue the ever living shit out of the HOA, and they will kindly pass it onto you in the form of higher fees. 

NKato > fintail 07/18/2018 at 14:52

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The funny thing is, you don’t have to work in a metro area to get a decent salary. It makes me laugh when I see people thinking they need to live and work in Seattle.

I mean, hello. That place’s been going to pot for years now, why would you want to stay there?

fintail > NKato 07/18/2018 at 16:02

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Depends on the industry. It’s much easier to get a career going in many IT/telecom or STEM sectors in this region compared to most others. There’s a reason so many younger educated people continue to flock to this area , and it isn’t because of gridlock, insane housing prices, or regressive taxation. There’s not much appeal for me to live in the city of Seattle proper either (and I don’t) , but the region as a whole is a regional and national employment center depending on the specific skill set.

I have a friend who moved to Georgia, lured by a supposed good job and lower cost of living. He loathed it, didn’t last 5 years. Low cost, but low amenity, and just as many problems as here, just different problems.

For people who complain about it (in my anecotal experience, much of it is from Californians who brought their problems with them and don’t realize it , or the lucky generations who bought when housing was affordable for normal people and now don’t want to support the system that gives them a winning lottery ticket), I just use a favorite old saying “the roads go both ways” :) It’ll be a long time yet before there’s a real exodus.

NKato > fintail 07/18/2018 at 17:09

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When that exodus happens, Seattle will become the next Detroit, because IT will become a decentralized industry, if it hasn’t already.

fintail > NKato 07/18/2018 at 17:23

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I won’t hold my breath on that. Enough residency purchasers (so much for “vetting” lol) have speculated in this real estate market now to make Seattle the next Vancouver, so a legit real estate crash is unlikely, only a plateau or only minor deflation at best. IT support is indeed decentralized, but so many firms and sectors have spun off it, which is a big reason for the local economy. As long as the talent demands to stay here, there will be a job market. If educated under 40-somethings start hating the area as a whole, then yes, there will be a movement out. I don’t see them trading this area for BFE with its developing world HDIs just yet, however. For many people, there’s more to life than a cardboard tract house on an acre, and a 40 mile commute.

For all of the issues here, there are just as many issues elsewhere. There is no perfect place.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > AestheticsInMotion 07/20/2018 at 10:47

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Thank you for another reminder to never ever ever buy a home in an HOA. I will gladly continue renting forever until I can afford a home away from their grasp. At least my apartment allows all the car maintenance I could ever want to do in my garage and until that changes I will be as happy as could be. Although, I could definitely go for some power outlets down there to have even more options.

Those center railings seem asinine as hell. I can’t imagine why you would even need that. It seems like a fire hazard to make ingress/egress more difficult anyways. But the communication issues seem like the most damaging to the residents. If they are just going to tow people without warning, that is obnoxious. Especially since I doubt they are going to flatbed things so I could see many ruined diffs in that scenario. Certainly always worries me about the Subaru. I could care less if I get towed for parking like an asshat, that is my fault. But that doesnt mean I deserve a broken car!