Complaint Review: OMNI Community Association Managers - Grove City Ohio

Like the previous user who's filed a complaint about this particular HOA, OMNI is an association that is all about the money and offers no customer support or homeowner backing.

OMNI recently became the community management provider for the housing development that I live in. Upon taking over management they sent a "welcome letter" and a cost breakdown as the previous complaint mentioned which stating various legal fees and maintenance costs. Shortly after sending the cost breakdown a statement followed with an associating due that was $40 more than the previous management group.

As any sane homeowner would do, I started a little research campaign. I first started off on their website (www.omnihoa.com), great looking site that speaks to their greatness. Mentioned several places on this site are the addition of an option that my previous management association didn't have the ability to pay your bill online. This I was extremely grateful for, as I pay all of my bills online. I also noticed on their website the addition of a $500 referral fee. That kind of stood out to me, and upon further inspection of their website I noticed the extreme presence of "used car salesmen" terminology (see below copy and paste, including their typos). As you will notice there are plenty of questionable terminology, and very ridiculous "services", like maintaining a website, this is the 21st century right? Secondly, you will notice many references to "collections, legal and bills". It is very obvious that they care only for money, and collection of that money.

Additional research includes this company to be a non-accredited organization with the BBB! In addition to their lack of accreditation with a very well-known organization like the Better Business Bureau, where they have a "C" rating out of A+; the majority of their complaints are due to billing. This leads me to my experience.

Upon receiving my statement by mail, there was a bold section at the top that stated the payment was due in 30 day of the date the statement was created. Admittedly, I paid the bill less that 2 week late. However, in my defense, as you can see above, I was doing my research! I did pay my $160 bill online as mentioned on their website, only to receive an additional bill about a week later for the $160 with a $25 late fee. Obviously, I ignored the statement as it said that the bottom of the bill, if you have paid the amount above please disregard this statement. Since I had paid the bill I did as instructed; only to receive an additional bill a couple weeks later with the $25 late fee, AND an additional $10 "statement fee".

The first thing I did was file a ticket on their website, to which Dorothy replied in more or less terms you are SOL and you will have to pay the fee. When I called the company and spoke with Lisa regarding the fees to my account her reply was that we treat all residents the same, and if I was to lift the fee for you, I would have to do it for all of the residents. I can respect the fairness; however what I couldn't understand was the next statement regarding the $10 statement fee. As I mentioned above technically I did pay the $160 late. So an extra $25 isn't a big deal, policy is policy; however when I mentioned removing the $10 statement fee, she again stated the same corporate (if you can call OMNI a corporation, or even a business) line about fairness. I very professionally replied to her, "If I can, and did pay my bill online...why you are charging $10 for a statement that obviously isn't applicable to me as an online consumer?" Her response is that it is a processing fee! Multimillion dollar credit card companies don't even charge a $10 processing fee, what gives low life money greedy "organization" the right to disrespect their residents like that?

Warning to all, DO NOT refer OMNI, and fight your current management company if they decide to go with this undercutting, low life, so called "community managers"!

Omni provides a full-service solution to the management needs of homeowners associations and condominium associations in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Don’t be fool ed by the fact that our management services are offered at one of the lowest rates you’ll ever see – we do it all! (*some services are provided at reasonable, additional charges)

Personal, prompt, informal property managers

Precise budgeting preparation

Invoicing

In-house legal counsel and collections staff

Contracting for maintenance

Financial record keeping and reporting

Site inspections

Homeowner communications via our state of the art Help Desk

Design Review Board reviews

Prompt, responsive, careful deed restriction / condominium declaration enforcement

Meeting attendance

Legal reviews and advice

Compliance documents for re-sales and refinances

Website creation, maintenance, and hosting

Handy-Man type maintenance (to avoid contractors' "trip charges")

Legal representation in collections and enforcement cases

Newsletter and correspondence generation and distribution

Work order driven maintenance response

Banking with one of the nation's leadingr association specific banks

Fully integrated banking and accounting software

Timely bill payment