HAMMERSMITH MANAGEMENT

Asked BBB to help with the HOA company where I live, Hammersmith management. The HOA company is irresponsible and unresponsive to any/all homeowner needs. When a water main that feeds two buildings in the complex needed repairs, Len Kaiser from Hammersmith threatened to charge me for the repair because I was having trouble coordinating access to the crawlspace under my unit where the pipe is. The tennis court has been broken into and vandalized for over a month, no response from Hammersmith. There are violent predators in the complex, no response. The parking lot looks like downtown Kandahar. The buildings were recently painted on the outside. Hammersmith tried to get the painting company to take everyone's satellite dishes down. Yet, there are NUMEROUS units whose patios look like gypsy camps. That's against the covenants. Also against the covenants is the parking of commercial vehicles one-ton or larger. It goes on here completely unregulated. When I call to ask if I can park my little (5*10) motorcycle trailer in the lot for a few hours, some guy at Hammersmith read me the riot act and demanded why it was there and took the license plate number, and told me it'd be towed if it was there "too long". The biggest problem here is that so many units are rentals. All the condos are individually owned, but 60% are privately rented. It's in the covenants that rented units must be provided and held to the same rules as owners. No accountability at all. None. The HOA assessment is $275 a month. It was ~$140 a few years ago... They're even keeping the pool closed due to "the covid". When I inquired about a prorate reduction of the assessment since the pool is closed and the tennis court is unkempt (both have line items in their budget), I was completely ignored. The monthly HOA meetings are held at a fire station that is MILES away from the complex, during the week, during business hours. Lately, the meetings have been call-in on some conference number, but they're still during the week and work day. How could homeowners possibly have a voice when the HOA is so cowardly as to prevent anyone from attending. I called into the last meeting to inquire about introducing motions to the board for homeowners to vote on, and was told by Len Kaiser, that homeowners "can't change the rules" and that the HOA gets to act the way they do with no possible repercussion. I have been BEGGING for help with the violent neighbors, and the response I got was that the HOA "is not law enforcement". My suggestion for the HOA to contact the police area representative and create a neighborhood watch went completely ignored. There are 152 units here. At $275 each, every month, that's almost FORTY-TWO THOUSAND dollars a month. $41,800 to be exact. I'm not sure if I have unit count exactly right, but I know I'm close, because that's what is on paperwork about the complex when I bought my unit. I contacted BBB to ask for help, and after just a few messages, they dismissed me, saying that the vapid replies from Hammersmith were "good faith". No one from BBB ever contacted me. They just passed the letters I wrote to Hammersmith and didn't actually do anything. Now, I get this survey review solicitation from BBB inviting my review, and it says to be sure that I mention "BT" as the person who "helped" me. Well, I never met or heard from BT, and Hammersmith continues to be as useless as a screen door on a submarine. If I could get some homeowners organized, I've looked into class-action law, and if just 40 of us band together, we could challenge Hammersmith (and BBB) in court. I have the contract between the HOA and Hammersmith. It expires on 30 June, 2020. Like, in a little over a week. Then, it's going to go month-to-month and there's a clause that will allow, and GUARANTEE, that Hammersmith raises the "assessment".

Hammersmith Management within a day of being advised of the problem promptly contacted a roofing company who sent a man to repair the leaking roof. The roofing worker arrived and completed the work within three days. Only potential issue:Roofing worker failed to notify tenant of time they would arrive, but she arrived in time to point out a second place to repair. Otherwise he would have had to return a second time. Still very pleased with response time.