I'd like to start by saying that if zero stars was an option, even that would be too many for this property management company. My family bought a condo in a development where the HOA Board hired Pelican as the property manager, with Lea Ann Jones as the on-site representative. Over the past two years, we have had a horrifying experience with Lea Ann, and by extension Pelican management. We are not a family with sky-high expectations, but it is reasonable to expect that a property manager would make it a top priority to review and respond to requests, concerns, and inquiries from association members timely, to provide requested information related to HOA operations and spending, and monitor spending patterns to ensure the association budget is met. Pelican has failed on all three accounts.
First and foremost, Lea Ann, as well as other company representatives, are extremely inaccessible. Simply put, requests generally go unanswered and ignored for weeks at a time, requiring several follow ups to elicit a response. If and when a response is provided, it is habitually dismissive and does not address the issue. Commonly, it will be a single line stating that the management company is unable to assist as it is the homeowner's responsibility and not a common element. For example, one of the vents on the outside wall of our condo building (each building has at least 12 to 18 condo units) broke such that birds and other critters found their way inside the walls. Lea Ann repeatedly told us that these exterior vents are not a common element and it is up to us as unit owners to fix them. It took several weeks of back and forth just to prove that a vent which is part of the exterior structure of the building housing 12 to 18 individual units, and neither servicing nor related to any particular unit is indeed a common element and should be fixed by property management. In another instance, the management company changed the locks on the exterior doors of the condo buildings leading to the common stairwell. No notice was provided and as a result plenty of owners found themselves locked out on the street. When they requested a new key, Pelican, represented by Lea Ann, demanded that homeowners pay for the new set of keys. When contacted to request keys for the n'th time, Lea Ann simply ignored the requests failing to respond or acknowledge them.
In reviewing the 2022 budget, the homeowners were shocked to discover that in 2021 spending on snow removal exceeded the budgeted amount by nearly 100%, to the tune of $150,000, depleting association's cash reserves and requiring a substantial increase in condo dues. When questioned about how that could be possible and asked for specifics, Lea Ann, with the support of the HOA Board President simply three the disagreeable homeowners out of the public Board meeting conducted via zoom under the pretense that they were creating a disturbance. When we requested copies of all snow removal vendor contracts and receipts for the year, Lea Ann agreed to provide them upon written request. Yet, after nearly a year and several written requests we have yet to see any documentation.
Subsequently, my family attempted to resolve a persistent concern in our condo. We went as far as hiring a professional consulting company to assess the issue and suggest a solution. An analysis performed by the company concluded that the building has some structural deficiencies which are causing issues for our unit and made specific suggestions of how the issue could be addressed. We sent Lea Ann, as the sole liaison between the residents and HOA Board, an official letter in detail outlining our concerns and the findings of the company we hired, requesting their assistance to resolve the issue. After nearly 3 weeks of radio silence, we followed up with Lea Ann, at which point she replied with one line that our concerns we raised are a "non-issue". There was a single line in response to a very detailed list of specific concerns and an expert report supporting our claims. There was no detail on whether any due diligence was done regarding our concerns, not a single word to help us understand how any of them are a "non-issue", just a single line the gist of which was - "f*ck off".
To address Lea Ann's failure to provide adequate property management services, I attempted to contact senior management at Pelican, specifically the two founders of the company, Jordan and Joe. Jordan was on his yacht, so unable to discuss; while Joe proceeded to ignore all attempts I made to get in touch both via phone and email. Clearly, this company cares only about providing the minimum level of service necessary so as to collect its fees while investing the least amount of resources possible into actually servicing the communities it is hired to manage. read more
