If it was possible to give this firm negative stars, I would. This firm was supposed to provide full service property management services for our HOA, which is located less than 8 blocks from their offices. Over the course of their 10 year relationship with us, there were consistently problems with responsiveness, communication, (lack of) recordkeeping, etc. but they were kept on due to the owner's personal relationship with one of the former board members.
Just some of the more serious examples:
1. Forgot to file our Secretary of State filings for more than five years. (They also apparently were out of compliance on their own filings as well until late 2013 which made them ineligible to act as our filing agent but neglected to inform us.) Took nearly two years to resolve the issue (while the owner kept making up unbelievable stories about why our paperwork was delayed or would avoid responding to requests for status updates.)
2. Failed to file our HOA tax returns for 3 years and failed to maintain copies of filed taxes for all but two years. Took nearly a year to resolve. The excuses they used for why this and item #1 were not done included a) we told the old Board that this was due but they told us not to do it; (a claim that could not be backed up by any documentation on their side. .. Their excuse for that was "we never keep emails"); b) the State agency told us there is a several month backlog (disproved when I sent them the link to the live web pages on the Secretary of State's website showing the updated processing times for filings); and a multitude of other unproven claims.
3. Despite a contractual obligation to do weekly walk throughs of our property...only visited our property twice during the first 2.5 years I was on the Board.
4. Failed to provide consistent and on time monthly financial reports to the Board.
5. Failed to keep consistent (and in most cases, any) records on collections, minutes, etc.
6. The only thing they were consistent on was paying themselves. When we confronted them with eminent termination, the owner offered to operate at no fee for six months to earn back our trust. I requested that we clearly document and lay out performance objectives, which he then agreed to in writing (these included no payment until they resolved our tax and state filing issues, weekly status reports, timely financial reports, providing us with copies of all previous HOA records). He immediately missed his own agreed to deadlines, failed to deliver on nearly everything and over 6 months we received a grand total of 4 incomplete weekly status reports. When we finally fired them (despite still not receiving all our tax files), his firm went ahead - and without our permission- wrote themselves a check.
7. When asked why the HOA was not following Davis Stirling legal requirements for certain procedures, the excuse was made that they had advised the previous Board but were told that the Board was electing to do things differently. Again no documentation from them and no recollection from any board members that they ever advised the Board on legal requirements.
These guys may underbid other vendors, but in the end, the sentiment of our HOA was that we overpaid Cadman and got nearly no value in return. read more