First Service Residential Reviews (%countItem)
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First Service Residential Rating
Description: Property Management
Address: 11351 Random Hills Rd Ste 500, Fairfax, Virginia, United States, 22030-6081
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On two occasions (in October 2016 and October 2018), FirstService Residential negligently charged late fees totaling $50.00 to my account for payments that were received within the grace period allowed for payment. Their business practice, which I believe to be illegal, is to hold payments for several days after they receive the payment before they "process" it and then charge late fees based on their "processing" date, rather than on the date they actually "receive" the payment. On both occasions (in October 2016 and October 2018) my payment was made through an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transaction, which is a type of electronic fund transfer. The ACH transactions are made through my financial institution and specifically record as part of the transaction details the date that the funds were received. The transaction in October 2016 was received by them on October 28, 2016 (which is 2 days prior to the grace period date of October 30, 2016), but negligently not credited until 5 days later on November 2, 2016. The transaction in October 2018 was received on October 30, 2016 (which is the grace period date of October 30, 2018), but negligently not credited until 1 day later on October 31, 2018. On each occasion they charged me a late fee of $25.00. I have contacted them on several occasions, but they will not acknowledge that their business practice of not crediting payments on the date they are received is wrong.
The association has a defined collection policy for assessments (see attached) that clearly states that any payment received after the 30th day of the month is considered late. The assessment that was due on Oct. 1, 2018 was credited to the association's account on Oct. 31, 2018 - one day late.
Receipt of any assessment is credited to the association's account on THE DAY THAT THE FUNDS ARE DEPOSITED IN THE ASSOCIATION'S BANK ACCOUNT and not on the day that the owner makes the payment. All payments are processed through a bank "lock box" and are never touched by members of our company. All assessments are due on the 1st of the month. It is our suggestion that the owner make his assessment payment at the beginning of the month vs. the end of the month to avoid any future late fee penalties.
Our management company does not have the authority to waive any fees, nor can we or will we agree to waive the owner's assessment for the next nine months. This owner's Board of Directors previously waived one $25.00 late fee. If the owner has issue with the collection policy of his community, then he should petition his Board of Directors directly to seek any type of redress.
Thank you.
Date: Fri, May 24, 2019 at 8:14 AMSubject: Re: ID # ***- First Service ResidentialTo: ***@myRevdex.com.org <***@myRevdex.com.org>Good Afternoon,I just received an automated email that the company responded to my complain, but the is the first I am seeing their response. I was not notified that they responded until today. Please DO NOT close the complaint. The company's response is wholly inadequate. Specifically, for the following reasons.1. The association policy resolution they provided provides for a 30-day grace period to make payments. The policy does not specifically mention a third-party intermediary . If First Service Residential chooses to use a third-party intermediary to "process" the payments, then the payment should be considered "received" when then third-party receives the payment. 2. The payment coupons and all other documentation clearly state a 30-day grace period applies to the payments. Nowhere in any documentation is their mention of the third-party intermediary and there is no option to pay the association or First Service Residential directly.3. I firmly believe this procedure to be unethical and likely in violation of the law. In the very least, First Service Residential is providing misleading information in their payment instructions. If they know that their third-party intermediary take x days to process payments, then they should adjust the grace period to account for that fact. The prominent display of a 30-day grace period would cause any sane and reasonable person to believe that payments received at the address they provide within those 30-days would be considered as paid on time. 4. I also firmly believe, that First Service Residential (by itself) is responsible for this procedure and that they fully have the power to correct mistakes and unethical practices on their own without specific direction from the association. It is their choice to use this third-party intermediary. That is not dictated by the association. 5. First Service Residential states in their response, that I "should petition his Board of Directors directly." I have written several letters to the assoication on this matter, but as First Service Residential is the property management company, the letters must be addressed to them to be passed to the Board. Of the letters I have written, First Service Residential has failed to pass those to the Board and I have not received any response from First Service Residential.Regards
FirstService Residential continues to maintain its position that it is following the collection protocol of the Association. Our company has responded to another complaint filing that *** lodged with Fairfax County's Office of Consumer Affairs. *** must request any waiver of fees directly from his Board of Directors. We will not change our banking or collection processes.
*** can avoid any future late fees by sending his payment in earlier in the month in which it is due. The assessment is due on the 1st day of each financial quarter. *** has been told previously that the processing of his payment is not "date stamped" by his Association or our company based on the day that he transmits his funds.
*** must take into account that 3 to 4 business days are necessary to fully process his payment and credit it to his account.
Thank you.
I am the owner of *** #*** currently deployed overseas with the military and I
would like to request a credit of the 94$ legal fee my account encored for being sent to a collection law firm. I believe there has been severe mishandling by the First Service Residential (FSR) management company for our condominiums due to the lack of accountability and oversight when
taking over from the previous management company. While I did have my forwarding address on file, I never received the notice of the HOA increase from 380$ to 410$ thereby leading me to think the HOA was the same. I come to find out that my July payment of 380$ was not processed by only recently and the debt has been building ever sense. I was one of the firsts to set up the automatic bill pay with Todd T (property manager) but I was never notified that I was paying the wrong amount or that my account was delinquent. After my rejected payments for October, I finally contacted FSR only to find that my account was forwarded for collections. FSR never contacted me about the problem and I never received any mail correspondence of any issues going on. As of today November 19th 2018, I have paid all outstanding balances but there is still a 94$ legal fee.
has communicated with our management team in various methods and multiple times. His community's Board of Directors has been fully aware of ***'s request for a $94 reimbursement due to ***'s failure to make timely and full payments of his association dues. The Board made a decision not to reimburse *** for these funds.
As has been shared with *** on numerous occasions, only the Board of Directors has the authority to reimburse him and/or waive fees related to the collection of unpaid assessments. FirstService Residential has fulfilled its contractual obligation to the community and is unable to assist *** in any additional way with his concern.
This complaint to the Revdex.com is misdirected and needs to be directed to his community's Board of Directors. FirstService Residential serves at the direction of the Board.
Thank you.
This issue was addressed by the complainant's Board of Directors on a number of occasions since this claim was opened in November.
The management company has addressed this issue directly with the complainant, though the results are not to the complainant's satisfaction.
The Board of Directors of the complainant's condominium is solely responsible for the refunding of the $94.00. There is no authority that FirstService Residential has to provide this requested refund. This continues to be an issue that the complainant must address directly with his Board of Directors.
Thank you.
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: for the same reasons stated before, the property management company has the means to go back to the homeowners association or at least provide a reason for rejecting the claim.
Regards
This company handles our HOA fee and payments are made online. The problem is we have a 10 day grace period for payments. We made payments on the june 6th but the payments do not post until after the 12th causing late fees. They state we need to pay early because it does not post to their system right away. Also to have late fees waived we need to contact our HOA manager for fee waiver even though our account shows a payment on the 6th of june. Our bank statement posts the same day and I do not understand why we are responsible for their tardiness in payment posting.
The owner submitted payment by credit card to our third party billing company on Wednesday, July 6. The payment due date was July 1 with a 10 day grace. The site notes that it takes 2-3 days for payments to be processed by the site. I have emailed the complainant letting him know the association's policy and sent the waiver of fees form, the association's collection policy to which we are obligated to follow and information from the payment service provider. I noted that we have not received their July payment as of today- July 15. I offered the owner the opportunity to send us payment confirmations from the third party billing company and that we will look into the posting of the June payment. I advised him of the payment processing timing and that the grace period is intended to assist owners for delays in payment arrival connected with holidays or other unexpected delays.
Once we receive the waiver request, per the association's policy we will present it to the board and we will get back to him as to the timing of the payment posting. If needed I can provide a copy of my correspondence to him and the documents I sent to him as well.
Horrible, horrible, horrible HOA management company! Property manager never answers phone nor responds to emails.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We sincerely apologize for my inconvenience caused and we are researching into your concern. We have notified the Community Manager and respective Management team. At FirstService Residential, we strive to provide excellent customer service to all customers we serve.
I have been trying to get a billing issue resolved for over a month. The community I live in uses a third party to process the condo fees and since there was a significant delay with the payment date and posting date, I was charged late fees. I contacted the property management customer service and they advised me that I could dispute it, so I did and sent the proof of payment dates. I received a letter a week later stating the fees would be waived if I signed up for auto payments. I not only signed up for auto payments but paid a month in advance, and factored the fee removal so the auto draft could come out 15 days prior to the 1st of the month. I contacted the property management company, who contacted the property manager, Jessica K. She stated she wanted proof of the auto draft sign up, so I emailed it to her. She told me that it was not good because it was the wrong auto draft. I contacted the payment vender and the property management company who advised me that I had set it up correctly and there was nothing else to do. I gave all this information to Ms. K, who actually did not know the payment company had changed, but then she advised me she still couldn't remove the fees because she needed to bring this to "the board" at the July 25th meeting. It is August 9th, I have sent numerous emails with no response, and the fees haven’t been waived. I even told them I would file a complaint with the Bureau even though it should not have come to this. The lack of communication is not ok. I have done my part in making sure what they asked of me was done, but they have failed to keep up their part. I find this to be extremely unprofessional.
Here is response from Jessica K, General Manager for Sequoyah:
Phil,
*** made her May and June payments with a credit card through *** but received late fees since she did not initiate the payments until Saturday, May 13th and Wednesday, June 14th. She made a request to the Board to waive the late fees and was advised by the Board by letter that if she set up direct debit from her checking account, the fees would be removed. I have had several different email conversations with her (as well as in-person conversations she had with the office staff) to try to explain what she must do. I advised her in an email after the email documents she submitted to the Revdex.com that David U had advised me that Direct Debit is now called Auto Pay and can be set up to through *** to be debited from her checking account each month. I also advised that the debit would occur on the 3rd of the month based on the information provided by David. She has provided proof of a payment set up with *** but it is for a credit card payment on the 15th of the month. The Board President advised her by email again yesterday that the only method the Board would accept is direct debit (or autopay) from her checking account in order for the fees to be removed. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks, Jessica K, CMCA, AMSGeneral ManagerSequoyah Condominium***Alexandria, VA ***(P) (F) (E) [email protected](W) www.sequoyahcondos.net
[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
While they did advise me of the company autodraft on the 3rd . I had paid more than was needed for the dues in July to cover July and August dues once the fee was removed. Therefore the automated payments I made with click play to begin to be drafted on August 15th would have been paid two weeks prior to the due date in September . I do not blame Ms. K because I realize that the director of the board of condos just doesn't care about the residents of the community . He was so set on being right in his own way , that he could not see that I wanted to pay in advance because of the way my payment schedule is at my job . Nevertheless, the association has changed the whole property management company changed beginning September 1st and I am sure that the board knew that , so giving me a hard time seems a bit unnecessary.
Regards
The objection that *** has is with the Board and the onsite management at the Sequoyah condominium who are not part of FirstService Residential. She needs to take it up with them. Additionally, our contract for financial only services with Sequoyah was terminated effective 8/31/17. Please remove this complaint from our account.
Phil P
Vice President
FirstService Residential, DC Metro
FirstService Residential is the manages the HOA for the property I live in. I make their payment quarterly through automated bank payment through their 3rd party website.
The last payment was made on March 15, 2017. The account is setup and authorized to deduct the quarterly payment. The subsequent payments were not deducted from my account (April 1st and, July 1st).
I received a letter from collection stating I failed to clear my dues and my account is in collection. I told them to check my status on automated payments. The had no information as the payment is collected by an unreachable 3rd party. I tried calling them to check what is going on with the automated payment, and all I hear is a prerecorded message with no option to reach customer care.
I do not have problems in paying my dues but they have added over $500 and fines and attorney fees payment for something that First service should take responsibility.
I am in contact with the owner, Jayanta Sinha and we are looking into his complaint. He has my cell number and assurances that we will get back to him in 24 hours with a resolution to his assessment issue.
[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards
I closed my new residence at *** on June 7th2017. I am supposed to get basic free internet telephone and cable service according to First Service. I am paying 100 monthly HOA fee now to First Service. I have contacted First Service for more than one week and called more than 10 times. Nobody over there can help me out to resolve the issue. I need at least one month refund since I am paying internet service out of my own pocket now with hotspot cell phone fees.
FirstService Residential is the management company for the *** at ***. The complainant wishes to receive a $100 refund from FirstService Residential because he was told by his real estate agent that basic cable and internet was provided "free."
Neither cable nor internet is free. His HOA just recently increased the monthly assessment to $100 for the remainder of 2017. FirstService cannot legally authorize a refund of the gentleman's assessment as the assessment is legally required by ALL owners in the community. This is not a matter for the Revdex.com. The only entity that could possibly authorize such a refund is the HOA Board of Directors.
Thank you!
On April 24, 2017 I contacted First Service Residential by phone to work out a payment arrangement. I was told to email them to set up a payment arrangement. I was further informed they would respond to my email (***@fsaresidential.com) within the same day or the same week. I email and called every week and was told the same information of what to do as if the company was playing a game of going in a circle. On May 11, 2017 I receive an email, from Tiffany G, of apology of not responding to the email, and I should get a response shortly on May 16, 2017. The whole time the company can still send me emails about "Pool Passes" however they can not respond to the home owner attempting to pay their HOA Bill. On May 20, 2017, I sent via email the "Pool Passes Form" and I did not get a response until May 27, 2017, when I brought this to their attention of how the company is not communicating to other departments or employees in the company and hindering the customers for not replying to emails of the instructions the company was given.
A suspension hearing was held on May 3, 2017 by the board. The hearing results were mailed on May 4. The letter is attached. The manager did not recall the hearing when she received the complainants later emails.
The board's decision, unfortunately, is that with a payment plan of owing $905.00 the complainant would not have received pool passes until the balance was brought current. Management does not make these decisions,. They only
implement them.
I received late charges totalling $50.00 for paid September 2016 HOA fees. Accordingly, I contacted *** regarding the processing of the payment immediately and requested proof this payment went through. It did, and I recieved a copy from *** of the cleared payment and mailed it to the FirstService Residential Falls Grove HOA office.
In today's mail, I received another invoice for late charges, now totalling $100.00. I am very confused why I am receiving late charges for payments already made in full. Additionally, I made payments for wrongful late charges back on October 12, 2016. Those check numbers are #*** for $25.00 and #*** for $25.00 and still have not cleared, rightly so. I assumed FirstService Residential would follow up with me regarding this matter for clarification and resolution. Unfortunately, to date, no follow up contact has been made.
$100.00 in late fees have been removed from the account. We apologize for your inconvenience.
Mark B, Vice President
FirstService Residential