Kocal Management Group

I am sympathetic to Mr.*** situation. It appears that there is a misunderstanding based on the statement in his desired settlement that he would like Kocal Management to stop foreclosure, buy back debt and arrange for a payment plan. Kocal Management is not the holder of
Mr***’s debt and is not executing a foreclosure. Sunrise Homeowners Association is the entity that holds the debt and is executing the foreclosure Sunrise Homeowners Association is the only entity with the authority to take action in this matter. Each year, the members of that community elect a board of homeowners to govern the homeowners association. My firm acts as the financial managing agent for the Sunrise Homeowners Association board. As such, we are contractually permitted to act only upon direction from the board. To get the resolution Mr*** desires, my suggestion would be for him to attend a Sunrise Homeowners Association board of directors meeting as those directors are the people who have decision making authority over this issue. If we are subsequently directed by the board to take a different action, we will do so immediately.
One additional clarification, homeowners associations are indeed accountable to the court system. The residential common interest development act is comprised of California State Statutes governing homeowners associations. If an owner believes a homeowners association has broken one of these laws, he or she has the right to file a suit and have their case heard by a court

Review: Hello, we have made several complaints with our property management as we are tenets who reside at the location and we live down stairs and our up stairs neighbors have squeaky floors every time they walk it makes noise and it's normally at times when we are sleeping and it wakes me and my husband up. It normally happens from 10pm to about 4am or longer. We both work and have to wake upAt 530am but we can't sleep for the past 4 months as the floors make noise and it's an everyday thing. I have complained to [redacted] Property whom I pay rent to and I was told there Maintenance dept has forwarded the letter to Kocal Management whom never took cadre of the problem of the floors. My husband has sent numerous emails to [redacted] property manager and her response every time is to KEEP A LOG we have told her several times what kind of log do I want when it's a everyday thing which starts at night till morning and can't seem to sleep and at times we have to go sleep in our sons room but I can't keep doing this. She tells me just keep logging it and I think she is not taken care of it but just trying to avoid us. She tells me to call the police and I told her why I don't have problems with my up stairs neighbors it's there floor not them and told her u need to contact the owner for the house and have her fix the issue and she tells me I need s log of what time they make noise what kind of noise is it and who makes it, I need this to be taken care of ASAPDesired Settlement: Fix the floors so it won't make the squicky noise

Business

Response:

Hello,I'm am sorry you are dealing with this problem. I would be equally frustrated at an upstairs neighbor keeping me awake. Unfortunately, The Management Trust (TMT) does not posses the power to resolve this issue for you. TMT is not the property manager for the unit above you. Rather, TMT manages the condominium association, the governing documents of which do not provide it with jurisdiction over the interior of condominium units. In other words, the condominium association does not have the authority to enter an individual unit to repair or alter flooring. I am sorry, but I would suggest resolving this issue directly with your upstairs neighbor.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:I do understand what you mean but we were told by the Kocal Management rep [redacted] or [redacted] her name that they have a meeting scheduled with the owner to discuss the flooring issues. It's not the upstairs neighbors fault they are just renting but the owner needs to resolve the issue.

Review: I live at my current address in a gated community for 7 years and I always park 2 vehicles on the street. The Management Trust Company started harassing me last week because they do not want me to park my vehicles on the street. I have explained that I have 4 cars; I park 2 cars on my driveway and 1 boat in the garage. All of our cars are late model vehicle and, by no stretch of the imagination, do they make the neighborhood look bad. I made every effort to park off the street but my driveway is small and only holds 2 cars. I have asked and I was denied a variance to park in the street despite the fact that my neighbors request was approved. I dont know why I am treated different from my neighbors especially since I dont have any complaints against me. My home has six bedrooms and I should be able to have my extended family live with me without being harassed.Desired Settlement: I would like to continue to park 2 cars in the street which were there for the last 7 years

Business

Response:

I'm sorry you are having difficulties, but we are unable to resolve this issue for you because it is not our decision to make. It appears this address is in the Lakeside Community Association, which has published parking rules. These rules are adopted by the Lakeside Community Association's board of directors, a group of five people who own homes within the community who are elected by the rest of the homeowners in the community. The Management Trust serves as the agent for the board of directors, meaning our duty is to enforce their policy. If you feel as though a rules variance should be granted, please send a written request to the Lakeside Community Association at the following address: Lakeside Community AssociationAttn: [redacted]

Review: We were behind on our HOA dues and when we tried to pay [redacted] and they had already sent to collections and would not take any payment or settlement offer(2)so now the collection agency is forclosing on our proprty after inflating the amount owed. This all sterted with a balance of less than $300 and is now at $5,200 to pay in full or our home will be sold at auction on Oct. 16th.I beleive that the Homeowners associations are taking advantage of homeowners because they are not accountable to the court systems.This whole thing is causing serious stress for our family to the point of possible health issues.Desired Settlement: Kocal Managment stop forclosure and buy back the debt and set up an arrangement to pay.

Business

Response:

I am sympathetic to Mr.[redacted] situation. It appears that there is a misunderstanding based on the statement in his desired settlement that he would like Kocal Management to stop foreclosure, buy back debt and arrange for a payment plan. Kocal Management is not the holder of Mr. [redacted]’s debt and is not executing a foreclosure. Sunrise Homeowners Association is the entity that holds the debt and is executing the foreclosure. Sunrise Homeowners Association is the only entity with the authority to take action in this matter. Each year, the members of that community elect a board of homeowners to govern the homeowners association. My firm acts as the financial managing agent for the Sunrise Homeowners Association board. As such, we are contractually permitted to act only upon direction from the board. To get the resolution Mr. [redacted] desires, my suggestion would be for him to attend a Sunrise Homeowners Association board of directors meeting as those directors are the people who have decision making authority over this issue. If we are subsequently directed by the board to take a different action, we will do so immediately.

One additional clarification, homeowners associations are indeed accountable to the court system. The residential common interest development act is comprised of California State Statutes governing homeowners associations. If an owner believes a homeowners association has broken one of these laws, he or she has the right to file a suit and have their case heard by a court.

Review: I have owned my home for around 3 years and have never missed a payment with any of my service providers. Ever since my HOA transferred to the Kocal Divison, I have missed 2 payments because they don't provide enough time from when you receive the bill to when it's due. My latest bill showed up on 5/22 or 5/23 (I didn't grab the mail yesterday, but I did the day before) and the bill is due on 5/28. All of my other bills give me 15 to 30 days from the time the bill shows up until the due date.None of my other bills are like this and they always provide a few weeks for payments. Assuming that this bill showed up today (23rd) that is 5 days that I have to make the payment. I go on vacation next week, so what would happen if the bill showed up right when I left?Also, when I try to call the number listed on the bill it doesn't ring. They don't have their hours listed anywhere on the bill so I assume 24/7 service. Once other thing...if you look up their rating as a company, it's atrocious. Apparently I'm not the only person who has had issues with these folks.Thank you for your consideration,[redacted]Desired Settlement: I want the company to be forced to send out their bills earlier to give us approximately 20 days before the due date instead of 5 or 6.Additionally it would be nice if they changed "Current Month Assessment Due By" to simply "Due by".

Business

Response:

The homeowner that filed this complaint lives in [redacted] Homeowners Association. My firm was hired by the Association’s board of directors to manage the association beginning March 1, 2014. On February 20, 2014, our firm mailed all homeowners in that community a “welcome” package as an introduction to our firm and to provide them with an invoice for March 2014 homeowners association dues. The cover letter from that package is attached. On March 17, 2014, our firm mailed all homeowners in that community invoices for April through December of 2014 in the form of payment coupons along with instructions on how and where to make payment. Pursuant to the Association’s governing documents, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to make timely payments.

Mr. [redacted] was sent the invoice for his referenced May payment on March 17, 2014. I believe the correspondence he referenced as a bill is actually correspondence informing him that his May payment was not received on time. In accordance with the Association’s Delinquent Assessment Collection Policy that was adopted by the Board and the Association’s governing documents, payments are due on the first of each month and considered delinquent if they are not received by the 15th day of the month. It appears that Mr. [redacted]’ May payment was not received by May 15, triggering a late notice reminding him of his obligation to pay and instructions to make his remittance by the 28th day of the month.

In sum, payment coupons were sent to Mr. [redacted] 44 days before his referenced May payment became due and 59 days before it would be considered delinquent. I am sorry there was apparent miscommunication on this issue.

If Mr. [redacted] no longer has his payment coupons, he can request new ones by calling [redacted]. He may also want to consider setting up recurring Electronic Funds Transfers with his bank or calling the number referenced in the previous sentence to set up Automatic Clearing House transactions for recurring assessment payments. Either of these options will ensure timely payment to his homeowners association.

I am sympathetic to Mr. [redacted]’ difficulty in calling our office as we recently upgraded our phone system and were down for two days longer than anticipated. I am sorry for any inconvenience we caused him or any of our other clients.

Finally, I was concerned to read Mr. [redacted]’ statement about our ratings being atrocious. I was unable to find any ratings on the Revdex.com’s website, so I visited our page on Yelp’s website. I found that indeed 0.0003% of our homeowners provided negative ratings on my firm there. While I believe it was a lack of clarity on policy by those who wrote negative comments and want to help them, I recognize that we simply cannot please everyone in our business regardless of how hard the staff works or how good their intentions are.

Please let me know if you need any more detail.

Consumer

Response:

I appreciate the in-depth response, but before this case is closed I'd like to make a final comment:

I accept that the missed payments are my fault for misunderstanding the bill details. However, the action I would like the company to take, as a homeowner, is to send out their bills earlier in the cycle. I'm not asking for them to refund me on any of these late fees.

On my bill last month, the very day I received it in the mail was too late to make an on-time payment using my bank ([redacted]). The only way I could make an e-payment on time was to pay an expedition fee.

It is ridiculous that in the year 2014, I should be required to send in a physical check in order to avoid being late. Again, to restate what I just said...the day I got the bill in the mail was too late to make an on-time e-payment. This was due to there being a Monday holiday. I ended up writing a phyiscal check and mailing it as the respondant suggested to avoid the late fee.

I also set up an automatic payment, as was suggested, that should be auto-payed this month. Again, I can't stress this enough, I know there are ways to make the payment on time. The issue is instead about how long the window is from the time bills show up to when they are due. I don't anticipate Kocal will increase this window, but it would sure make this homeowner happier as well as many others, I'm sure.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.