Condo Management nightmare in Edmonton

[Rickson9]

[quote user=Sherilynn]I agree, Thomas.



I apologized to the manager for infuriating her with my email and I stated that it is okay if we disagree and it's okay if she doesn't like me, but it is not okay for us to stop communicating. If we disagree or are annoyed, then let's communicate and resolve it.



Pretty sad that I have to explain this to her though.




You're not sure why a person you've "infuriated" over email doesn't want to communicate with you?



Shocking.

 

[Sherilynn]

[quote user=Rickson9]



You're not sure why a person you've "infuriated" over email doesn't want to communicate with you?



Shocking.




If you had bothered reading my other posts, you may have gathered that this excuse was simply an attempt to shift blame for the service failure.



If your only contribution to a conversation is to be rude, then please join a different thread.

 

[Rickson9]

Perhaps communication and diplomacy isn't our forte.

 

[Sherilynn]

[quote user=Rickson9]Perhaps communication and diplomacy isn't our forte.




Speak for yourself! (Just kidding.)



I assure you I am very careful about how I write business communications. Whenever possible, I skip the tedious details in my posts. Perhaps this time I skipped too many.



As for diplomacy, you may have a point. This is a business and I expect to deal with business people (especially when she is the owner of the business). I am not here to hold hands and sing.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

First seek to understand, then to be understood.

 

[Sherilynn]

[quote user=ThomasBeyer]First seek to understand, then to be understood.




Yes. However in this case my email wasn't the source of the problem. She had stopped communicating weeks before that, and not only with me. I had three different contractors plus our auditor call me because they were getting no response from her company.



As I mentioned, she used my email as a smokescreen to shift blame.



If you all want to assume that this situation is my own fault, that's fine. I have no further interest in rehashing the gory details of the past 3 months.



The point of this thread was to ask for recommendations for a new company, and with the exception of a phone call from Chris Davies (thanks again, btw) I don't recall receiving a single recommendation from anyone.



If anyone actually has a referral, I'd be happy to receive it.

 

[Thomas Beyer]

[quote user=Sherilynn]The point of this thread was to ask
for recommendations for a new company, and with the exception of a
phone call from Chris Davies (thanks again, btw) I don't recall
receiving a single recommendation from anyone.



If anyone actually has a referral, I'd be happy to receive it.


try Keith McMullen at www.firesidepropertygroup.com or 403-228-4303 that manages 1600+ units including condo conversions in the Edmonton area along the afore mentioned fee structure. This multiple award winning firm manages all W-Canada based PrestProp assets as well as a few hundred third party buildings with efficiency, excellent low vacancies and consistently increasing market rents.

 

[Sherilynn]

Thanks, Thomas.



Perhaps the service will turn around during the 60-days' notice, but I must be prepared if it doesn't.

 

[Sherilynn]

Greetings, all.



Just to be sure I hadn't stepped over the diplomacy line, I reread the email that supposedly caused all the trouble. Here is the most offensive part:




Greetings J---.


I have several concerns about your disbursements. Your rates for disbursements are substantially higher than anything we have paid before. We agreed in the contract to reimburse you for out of pocket disbursements, and there was no mention in the contract of cost plus a markup.


...(the middle section addressed specific disbursements)...



Perhaps other condo boards are happy to pay whatever bill is presented to them. Unfortunately we have a small building with a very limited budget, and paying $100 more a month than we were expecting is something that we must question.



Regards,

Sherilynn



Sure, I can see someone being annoyed that I am questioning her $75 monthly cell phone charge (over $500/month if you add her other properties), but to the board it looked like an additional income stream, so we were a bit annoyed that this was slipped in, especially because her management proposal specifically states that there would be no markup on administrative costs.



I hardly think the above email justifies her cutting off all comminication because she was "too furious and insulted to respond." Am I mistaken?



And trust me, I would love to just pay whatever anyone feels like charging us because it isn't worth me fighting over. However, in the past the unit owners have taken issue with the "bend over and take it" strategy of financial management.

 

[Alvaro Sanchez]

I don't think the email is too harsh (once you explain it) Yet, I find that people come a lot stronger in written conversations and that is why I try to discuss it over the phone or in person (when possible). I do follow up with a summary of the conversation by email just to have it in writing.



Something similar happen to me a few years ago with a property manager as we went back and forth with an issue via email....we both got frustrated and you can see the conversation was getting really bad... one day, I just decided to show up at her office to hear it from the horse's mouth! (got my boxing gloves too).. she was soo sweet and caring!..I got free coffee, cookies and my problem solved.


so my point is that while email is convenient sometimes you have to change your methods...

 

[Thomas Beyer]

[quote user=asanchez]while email is convenient sometimes you have to change your methods...
Absolutely .. my emails (or written posts) tend to be much harsher than I am in the real world.



Email is so one or MAYBE TWO dimensional. The spoken word on the phone has another 3 or 4 nuances (laughter, intonation, accent, mood, shared experiences or people ..) and in a face-to-face conversation add another 3-4 dimensions such as gestures, facial expression, environment & dress.



So, a face-to-face conversation has maybe 10 dimensions and a blog post or email only 2.

 

[kfort]

[quote user=Sherilynn]However, in the past the unit owners have taken issue with the "bend over and take it" strategy of financial management.





Be thankful.. I just got done working for over a year to get our "manager" fired because for the last ten years that was the exact method employed by the Board (and unit owners didn't seem to care!) to keep things running.... I would rather have a Board who holds managers accountable than one who ignores giant red flags. Glad you've got some suggestions here.

 

[Sherilynn]

I agree with you both.



I tend to email when the issue is something I would like to have in writing (either my email, or the response, or the delivery receipt).



In this case the issue was technical because there were a bunch of numbers involved plus it related to our contract. Plus, she already hadn't responded to any of my phone calls since mid-December. Come to think of it, I did try calling her first but just got her voicemail, and since she hadn't responded to any of my other voicemails I went straight to email. Of course, she also hadn't responded any of my emails since mid-December, with the exception of the ones relating to the audit in progress. That's why we held the meeting.



I just received a message from another board member. She agrees that my email was not insulting and now sees that the managers is "full of hot air."



I am going to try to forget about this whole issue while I'm on holidays. It will be interested to discover what happens while I'm away.

 

[Sherilynn]

I have caught her in a lie.



She claimed that $75 was her actual cost for our portion of her cell phone bill (over $500 in total), but she refused to show us the bill due to "confidentiality issues" for her other clients. I had only asked for the summary page, so I know that's a load of crap.



Today I called Rogers to see what unlimited plans they had. Turns out she is already on one...for $85 all in.



Lovely.