Complaint Review: Howe Real Estate Services in Woodstock IL

All facts - (per Howe's own paperwork) My monthly fee includes: Snow Removal, maintenance of ponds, mowing of grass, maintenance of plants, shrubs and trees, house maintenance (painting, roof repair, street resurfacing, etc).
Snow Removal - This does not happen in a timely fashion and I end up calling Howe to ask when removal will occur. Sometimes snow removal does not happen, and the snow ends up being packed down from residents driving in and out of the subdivision until it turns to ice. My driveway has a significant incline, so I have to scatter salt all over the ice in order to walk around safely.

Maintenance of landscaping - My front landscaping is a joke. All sorts of wild plants growing out of control, weeds higher than 10 inches, just a mess. Yet none of the landscaping staff ever seemed to notice this. I was sent a note in the mail asking me whether I would like to be in charge of my own landscaping, or if I would like the associate to be in charge. I chose to have Howe maintain my landscape. I waited 2 years, and finally got fed up. I called the ordinance control department of my local city and advised them that I had some healthy, tall weeds. So the city wrote up tickets about the height of the weeds in my "landscaping" and sent the tickets to Howe. I had no other way to get a hold of Howe's attention.

Painting - The company hired to paint the porch areas is terrible. They managed to get paint all over my flowers, the ground, the bushes, the outside light fixtures, door handles and the siding. When a request was made to Howe to have the paint company call back to remove the paint, the finish was completely rubbed off the door handles and light fixtures, and the leaves and petals with paint on them had been ripped off the plants.

Sound ordinance - according to the association by-laws (and I paraphrase), no loud noises shall occur before 8am on weekdays. So this summer, numerous driveways were torn apart and redone and started at 6:30am on a week day. This violates not only city sound ordinance, but howe's own self defined sound ordinance. And the landscapers start their mowers before 7am. Sound ordinances seem to apply to everyone else except if it's howe or one of their contractors.

Meetings are funny to me, as it's just a way for local residents to get together and act as members of a mock senate who listed to concern and dismiss them with the wave of a hand. I'm floored at the way people who rent properties in the area are treated. I've been at the pool with my child, and overheard numerous conversations by a group of ladies who always dominate the same corner in the pool area on how renter's are always causing problems. And if someone new shows up to the pool, "who are they? Oh....they're just renter's". I'm surprised there haven't been any law suits for discrimination that I have also seen.

With the lack of snow removal, and other maintenance that has not been fixed, Howe is going to get slapped with a law suit; and I'm shocked that it hasn't happened yet.

Avoid this company at all costs! Buy a home that does not have Howe as the management company. There are many bad reviews from numerous properties (not just Spring Point in Carpentersville). Read up and make a good desicion.