About 10 years ago, our community switched from one bad management company to AVID, thinking things…read morecouldn't possibly get worse. Unfortunately, they did. Managing our HOA with AVID has been an ongoing nightmare. One thing AVID never seems to forget is raising their fees every year. Unfortunately, the quality of their management and customer service has gone from bad to significantly worse over the years.
Our community consists of only 49 homes. It is a small community with relatively little work compared to many HOAs, yet we have gone through multiple community managers, and there continues to be a lack of communication, accountability, and basic follow-through.
Our current Board has now decided that homeowners must communicate through AVID, yet our representative, Tiffany D., has repeatedly ignored homeowners' requests and follow-ups. We have even reached out directly to the owner, Avelino V., and have received no response from him either.
I am speaking from personal experience because I previously served on our HOA Board for a year. It was an absolute nightmare. Tiffany was supposed to be advising the Board, but in our experience, she made multiple mistakes and did not provide the level of guidance or management we should have been receiving from a professional HOA management company.
There are also ongoing issues involving amendments to our governing documents that previous Board members (myself and 2 other board members) worked on with an attorney. 2 years later, those documents still have not been signed by 2 appropriate Board members and recorded with Hillsborough County. We were told by the attorney that recording should take approximately 3 business days once properly submitted. Yet 2 years later, the matter remains unresolved!!
The inconsistency in enforcement is another major concern. AVID drives through the community monthly and issues violations to some homeowners for things such as brown palm fronds, while seemingly not enforcing the same standards consistently throughout the neighborhood. In our situation, we explained that the palm fronds became brown following unusually cold weather earlier in the year and that, according to the maintenance guidance we received for foxtail palms, improperly removing too much foliage at one time can damage the tree. The response we received was essentially that we would have to replace the palm tree if we did not trim it.
This is the type of experience that makes homeowners question what they are actually paying AVID for.
In 90% of homeowners' experience, the communication has been poor, follow-through has been unacceptable, and the attitude from management has often been dismissive and unprofessional. When homeowners cannot get answers from the community manager and cannot get a response from the owner of the management company, it raises serious questions about accountability. A professional HOA management company should provide guidance, communicate with homeowners and the Board, follow through on important documents and legal matters, and enforce community rules fairly and consistently. Unfortunately, that has not been our experience with AVID.
This company has been a complete nightmare for our community, and based on our experience, I would strongly recommend doing your research before hiring them to manage your HOA. 1 star only because Google requires me to give at least one. If I could give zero or negative stars, I would!!