Complaint Review: Condominium Administration Company - Culver City California

The are totally unresponsive and plain RUDE. Zero professionalism, has no idea what they are doing. I have been unfortunate enough to have had to deal with this company over a new condo purchase. There have been a multitude of issues. So it follows.. 

Jeff, Our property manager is simply unknowledgeable about our property. I've had to speak to him on 4 separate occasions, and the information given was either wrong, incomplete or I was simply not given a response. Reading the other reviews on yelp it seems that this is a general practice with this company, they ignore you up to a point that you bring litigation against them. 

My main issue with this company: There has been a GENERAL HoA meeting last night and I have NOT received any notice / invites for this meeting. They have essentially disenfranchised us of our rights. Tried talking to them, sent a bunch of emails, a rude response from company owner. Tried calling in again (4 times so far). They are either "in a meeting", "out of the office", "on an emergency". And (yeah, you guessed it!) there is no callback.

CEO Barbara is just plain rude. dropped me a 2 liner email, and instead of apologizing she says "you've been informed already". Yes, Barbara, i've been informed that "there will be a meeting in near future" but that's as far as it goes :) That's the way CAC is, generally. If you ask them a simple question like "where are the electricity meters", your response would be like: "they are in the front, or the back of the property. Usually there are somewhere. Please look into the garage and also on the roof". Unprofessionalism at it's best. 

Spare yourself the pain and go with another company that is 1. professional 2. appreciative of your business 3. not ignoring you on multiple occasions. Others have nailed it in 3 words: They are confused, disorganized and RUDE. Don't do this.

PS: Some other people messaged me here saying that they have observed some discrepancy in financial records as well. I can't comment on it, but i'm going to audit the records soon and will post results here.

------------- someone else's report on Yelp: 

This review is for anyone who is trying to do any business interactions with this company. Not only they are irresponsible, unprofessional, rude, communicating with them or getting any help or anything is beyond impossible . Specifically Phil Hernandez their manager has a temper and issue with his job. Me and over 10 people that I know have tried contacting this management company for different issues and I can personally say that I never thought in a million years that anyone would be as messed up and rude as this person is . When people would tell me about it I did not believe it and I thought oh well they may have had a bad situation or a couple of bad interactions because no one can possibly be like that. He is beyond condescending to anyone and I was nothing but a sweetheart when I call. The first call I ever made to them was alright. They seemed to care but every other attempt has been awful. What type of a management company is this that they really cannot handle customer service? Ugh I will definitely ask my lawyer to contact them if I ever need to get in contact with them ever again, even if it is as simple as getting a contact info from them.

---------------- One more - this one's long and very detailed. 

Condominium Administration Company Inc. (CAC) has been managing our 135 unit condo complex since May 2012 and in that time, I've had the displeasure of dealing with 4 of the people there. My opinion is that the employees and management of CAC are incompetent, rude, and illiterate. They outright tell lies and give misinformation and they don't know or follow the Davis Stirling Act. They are also behind the times on technology. And they never admit to any mistakes they make.

INCOMPETENCE: 

In February 2013 Diciembre scheduled a vendor to come to my condo. She neglected to give him information on how to get in the gate or any pertinent phone numbers (including my cell or her cell), so according to him, he waited outside our gate for 30 mins. and then left, after driving all the way from Riverside. Diciembre's incompetence not only wasted his time, my time, and one of the Board member's time, but she made our complex look bad and disorganized.

In May 2013, I was sent a letter saying I needed to remove a broken down car from my parking space. The problem is, the car was in a different space and didn't belong to me.  Diciembre wrote down the wrong parking space number, and never apologized or even admitted to her mistake.

After over a year of ignoring pleas to fix our saunas, our Board finally got one of their vendors to fix it. According to their website CAC has been in the business for over 40 years managing approximately 100 HOA complex's. If that is true, how come CAC didn't know of a vendor who could fix the saunas sooner?

We are currently have a roofing project done. CAC incorrectly informed some of the residents about the parking situation (when we needed to move our cars), and failed to inform us that dirt would be blowing all over our balconies and outdoor furniture, and when I questioned Marilyn Campanelli, our main Manager, about it, she made it seem like it was no big deal.

TECHNOLOGY, RUDENESS, DAVIS STIRLING, LIES & MISINFORMATION:

Marilyn and Diciembre refuse to read or respond to emails or basically put any correspondence in writing with the residents, unless of course it is to threaten them. In this day and age, what company refuses to use email, unless they have something to hide and/or don't want things in writing (hence proof).

And President Barbara Fisher-Freeman responded to an email once, "Your e-mail is being deleted. You may not e-mail our office. Go in through our website...Everyone in our office has been instructed to block your e-mails. Do not send."  Is this seriously any way for a President to treat one of their companies clients? (All the residents of a complex are the Property Manager's clients and they need to learn to treat them that way.)

And if they have a company policy like both Diciembre and Marilyn have told me of not corresponding with Homeowners but only Board Members, then why did Lauri have no problem responding to my emails and actually trying to solve a dispute (she is the only one in the office I've encountered with any intelligence, common sense, and a resolve to try and help residents).

When you go in through CAC's website, they don't respond any better, nor does CAC's website provide any proof you've emailed them anything. Therefore, you have no documentation should you need it later for a lawsuit or simply to document your correspondence.

I had a dispute over an issue with the condo that lasted over 18 months (in which CAC was manager for about 10 months of that). Instead of dealing with the dispute, at one point Marilyn sent me a "Cease and Desist" letter telling me to stop contacting CAC. Throughout the long dispute, CAC provided no help nor guidance to our board for following the policies for dispute resolutions clearly stated in the Davis Stirling Act.

Also, at one point, CAC brought in VP Denise Bergmans as a strong arm who along with Marilyn told outright lies and misinformation to try to shut down my dispute, instead of trying to arbitrate and solve it amicably, which is what a management company should do. Because of CAC's failure to follow or even know proper Davis Stirling procedures, I believe this could potentially open both them and an HOA Board to a lawsuit. 

Therefore, as both a homeowner and an HOA Board, you don't want CAC managing your property.

ILLITERACY:

Adult illiteracy is a major problem in this country and you need to look no farther than CAC to know that's true. CAC constantly spells things wrong in the notices they hand out, which makes them look unprofessional, as well as the above mentioned mistakes.

Don't just take my word for it, make sure to look at the many 1-Star "filtered" Yelp reviews as well. CAC may not be quite as bad as Harris Properties (check out their reviews if you want a good laugh) or Property Management Solutions (Jo Ann Jelin is a nightmare), but CAC is certainly not a Property Management company you want. (The only good one I've dealt with is Horizon Management.)