Month: August 2021

Categories
BC BoD Property MISmanagement

The Secretary’s Spending

Many Berkley Court home owners have the same question – where is our money going? Assessments have increased, residents are being fined and billed in unprecedented manner, and yet – the property isn’t being maintained and continues to deteriorate, making it increasingly unsafe to all living here.

One home owner asked the property management company (Rise AMG) to furnish the documents supporting the June 2021 financial statement. Rise AMG did not furnish a complete set, and provided no response when asked about it, as seen below:

Good news: As of September 1, 2021, new Texas HOA laws go into effect which give home owners clearer rights in pursuing non-compliance by home owner associations with information requests such as the above.

As seen in the above email, our current (unelected) Board does not lift a finger to ensure it’s agents are responding to home owner requests in compliance with current Texas law, even when concerns are escalated to its attention.

Why not?

One may suspect it is because the current, unelected Board members are spending home owner funds intended for maintenance of the property on personal or frivolous expenses.

For example, part of the June HOA expenses included reimbursements to the (unelected) Board Secretary, including an Amazon purchase and a $100+ meal from Cajun Kitchen.

What was purchased on Amazon and Cajun Kitchen, what the validation process is for reimbursement requests, and where is this home owner association property – all questions that the current (unelected) Board and its managing agent refuses to answer.

When looking at where this spend is seen in the financial statement for June 2021, it is classed by the managing agent as a “meeting expense”, as seen below:

No other receipts provided by the Board’s managing agent can be seen as this expense, except the Cajun Kitchen receipt.

This expense looks like it was incurred on 6/14/2021. Yet, it is classed as a meeting expense by RISE, although the (unannounced) Board meeting was held only on 6/23/2021, as seen below:

Is this an example of willful misconduct by the current, unelected Board? Is the managing agent complicit with fraud since they are the ones misclassifying these statements and processing questionable reimbursements? Do you have more examples of the same? Share your view in the comments!

Categories
BC BoD Property MISmanagement

The One About the Pool

For those who don’t know, Berkley Court has a pool. It features in most real estate listing, as well as the logo and cover image on this site.

However, the sad truth is that the pool is just an illusion, representative of many of the other amenities we supposedly have, but never can access.

The pool has been closed for YEARS, (even before COVID entered the scene). Why? Can’t tell you – the Board did not make this initial decision in any documented meeting held in the last 7 years.

What they have documented is that they continue to spend significant amounts of home owner money on the pool, despite blocking access to the amenity.

Would it have made more sense to drain the pool and stop the monthly expenditures if there was no plan on reopening it?

Let’s take a closer look:

In Texas, the governor and Houston Health Department reissued guidelines for reopening shared spaces such as pools relatively early, which went into effect January 1, 2021. The pool still didn’t open.

And now, the kicker – despite all the costs and having NO ONE in the pool for years – the current, unelected Board members and property management group (Rise AMG), still couldn’t get it together to pass a Houston Health Department inspection.

Sign seen on the locked door to the pool area without any other notice from the current (unelected) Board or its managing agent as to what caused this.

Is this good stewardship of our assets?

Does this give you confidence that those responsible for maintaining the property are doing their job or know what they are doing?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

Categories
Property MISmanagement

Meet the Residents

At Berkley Court, residents who speak up are targeted for harassment via violations until the current (unelected) board members force them into foreclosure or into selling their property (before they lose their home via foreclosure).

However, a few brave souls have decided to share their experiences, despite the risk. Here are their stories:

X has been a Berkley Court resident and home owner for 15 years. Rise AMG has ignored her request to get a working lightbulb in the staircase that leads to her unit so she can ascend and descend safely – for over 6 months and counting.
Y and his family first moved into Berkley Court since the 1990s. They have been living in a unit without hot water for over 6 months, as Rise AMG selected a supplier who came into their unit, cut off the hot water, and never came back to restore what they turned off in February 2021. Months later, the home owner was billed $950 for this service he never requested, and all requests to fix the hot water in the unit has been ignored to date.
Z and his siblings own several units at Berkley Court since the 1990s and have reported serious structural issues they’ve seen in their buildings. Rise AMG and Board of directors have not adequately investigated or remediated structural issues reported by Berkley Court home owners – and instead have engaged in a literal cover-up of the situation.

More stories to come… feel free to share your own experience in the comments below.

Categories
Property MISmanagement

PSA: Do Not Use RISE AMG

Fellow Home Owner Associations –

If you are considering a new property management company, please do not hire RISE Association Management Group (aka RISE AMG). Any other company will likely serve you better. In fact, having no managing agent may be more stress-free than employing RISE.

Some tidbits to consider as to why:

  • It is not certified by the Better Business Bureau and currently has a 1 out of 5 rating. Many of the complaints listed by other HOA residents are common to all RISE-managed properties, including Berkley Court (e.g., work that is never started or completed, no follow-up or accuracy in administrative work, etc.).
  • Its employees feel that it is a terrible place to work, with a similarly poor rating. Complaints of bullying and harassment abound in the reviews, showing that RISE treats its employees similarly to the way it treats its clients.
  • It knows it has issues, and instead of fixing the root causes, it only focuses on damage control. Example seen below:
Instead of improving its service quality or staff competency, RISE focuses on removing negative reviews from major review sites so that no one sees the truth of their mismanagement.
The real RISE client philosophy is highlighted in the above former employee’s reviews – and numerous former and current clients of RISE will attest to this.

If you want your funds depleted with no corresponding services being performed, residents harassed and bullied so that they are stressed out and on edge with their neighbors, and a property value that keeps going lower every year because of the unsafe living environments proliferating on RISE’s watch – hire this company.

Otherwise, save yourself time, money, and grief and move on to a different option.

Sincerely,

An HOA In Hell

Categories
BC BoD Property MISmanagement

Ain’t Nothing But A Headache?

According to the site Texas-Homeowners-Associations.com, these are the top pros and cons for living in an HOA.

What is striking is that it seems that Berkley Court home owners may have all the cons and none of the gains of living in an HOA.

Let’s take each boon one by one:

  1. The HOA provides amenities you can enjoy without having to worry about its upkeep. However:
    1. HOAs allow you to enjoy amenities without the burden of each home owners having to maintain it – Berkley Court’s amenities such as the pool or clubhouse has been closed for YEARS, due to the current (unelected) Board’s executive decision – and yet we still pay the same/more assessment fees though we have a significant reduction in service.
    2. HOAs offer extra services like lawn maintenance – our current (unelected) Board has contracted with a property management company that utilizes vendors that do no work or destroys our property
    3. HOA’s regulate the property’s appearance, driving property value up – Our current (unelected) Board enforces regulations selectively, only for home owners it dislikes, and these unelected Board members flout violating the rules of the community themselves openly, without penalty
    4. HOAs promote a strong sense of community – the current (unelected) Board has not held a home owner’s association meeting, including the annual required meeting, since March 2019. This is despite numerous, documented requests to hold meetings openly so that home owners can attend, and other petitions and requests to open the amenities to the home owners and residents in the community.
    5. HOAs may mediate neighbor disputes – The current (unelected) Board has clearly stated that they are too busy to fulfill required HOA duties, much less actually respond to any additional request for help within the community.

What is your view? What benefits does the current management of Berkley Court Home Owner’s Association provide you?