EMB MANAGEMENT

EMB Management has been our property management company for over 10 years. A couple of years ago they were bought out by Associa (a national company) and everything went downhill from then on. The biggest problems we had were with the accounting department. The entire accounting system changed and is now done in Dallas, Texas! The mistakes were outrageous and almost impossible to fix. As an example, last year we had an assessment and I (and several other homeowners) paid the full amount up front, however they charged me monthly, taken from my checking account without authorization for months. They eventually had to reimburse me almost $800! I was not the only homeowner in this situation. When I did get the check it arrived without any explanation or apology...nothing, just a check. We had a continual problem with checks that would disappear (we have a common area unit that we rent to homeowners), they were never cashed and EMB could not account for their whereabouts. We ended up having to let the homeowners deduct the cost of stopping payment from the rental fee, which in the end meant we lost around $500 in rental income. There were plenty of other problems, and finally in October the board voted to end our contract with EMB and look for another property management company. When we notified them we found out that we had what is called in the industry a "evergreen" contract that had been signed at least 10 years ago by board members who do not even live here anymore and it meant that we can only terminate the contract in the same month it was signed (May, I believe) but they are not required and do not let you know when the contract is up, it simply automatically becomes the next year's contract. If we terminated the contract before May we were required to pay half the cost of their service until May - even though they would not be our property management company. We opted to hang on until Jan. 1st - but we are stuck paying the 50% until May. If you decide to have EMB manage your property make sure you do not have the same contract.....I am actually shocked that it is even legal. To top it off, when I sent them the termination notice I did not get any phone call or contact from anyone at EMB. What I did get was a letter from their attorney explaining how we would have to continue to pay them until May. Finally, I would not recommend EMB Management to any condominiums looking for a property manager. We were with them for so long because before they were bought out by Associa they were a decent local company and we liked our particular property manager, who they promptly fired when they took over. There are plenty of local property managers out there, this is not one I would ever recommend. I would definitely recommend that you carefully check the references of any property management company you are considering.