Question 1. I reside part-time in Gateway with my family. When we arrived in Fort Myers the other day to start our summer vacation I found a letter from Alliant Property Management in the mailbox advising of the intention to create a lien as a result of late payment of association dues for July.
As was the case with the former management company, I prefer to pay our fees through automatic debit of our bank account. On May 5th Alliant received my paperwork and void check to commence the automatic withdrawal of Association Dues from my bank account. I understood and was told that this would be in place for the July payment. As it turns out my auto debit paperwork was not sent to my bank until June 24 which I am advised by Alliant was too late to accommodate the July payment.
I received no notice by phone or mail of this fact. Instead, I received a terse ( and totally inappropriate ) letter advising of the intention to create a lien. I spoke with Alliant this morning and said that I would immediately send a check for the July fees and they assured me that my October payment will come out of my bank account automatically. I also told Alliant that I will not be paying the late fee or collection fee as I had done what I was told to do in order to have the July payment come out of my bank account. I received no notice that the auto debit was not ready for July. I am told that only the Board of Gateway can waive the levy of the late fee and collection fee.
Please consider this as my request for such waiver.
Lastly, I would like to comment that a lot of bad judgment has gone into a decision to issue a letter like the one I received from Alliant. I don't know how the decision was made by Alliant but as a proud resident of Gateway, I am disappointed that such a terse letter would go out, particularly after a recent change in the property managers and the attendant transition issues that ordinarily accompany such changes. I did my part to ensure timely payment of dues but instead of receiving the courtesy of a call saying my auto payment is not yet ready, I received the lien letter. Very unimpressive. See Answer
Question 2. I'm aware after attending the August GGCA board of directors meeting that there is a large amount of Quarterly dues ($80k plus) that remain for collection. Is it true that these homeowners are still receiving their Comcast service and will all other members could be liable to make up the shortfall ? Who is looking out for the good of the majority here? See Response
Question 3. Recently, I received a "Notice of Intention to Create a Lien." I received this letter from Alliant because they received my quarterly payment 3 days late. I strongly object to the tone of the letter, not that a letter is sent but to the tone. In addition, there was a late fee charge (okay, that is standard) but not the collection fee of $45.00, just because they sent me a letter and used a . 42 cent stamp. When I called, Colin Jenkins of Alliant Property informed me I was lucky it wasn't for $140.00.
Question 4. Two weeks ago I sent both the
property manager and Board a letter relating to the quarterly assessment and late
collection policy and how it differs from the process on the web.
The property manager responded that she was going to forward my e-mail onto the
accounting department. I am still awaiting an answer to my e mail. Who is
going to follow up with me
on my request? See Response
Question 5: July 2009: Are members who selected the automatic pay(June 2008)for the quarterly association fees no longer mailed the quarterly statement? I emailed Alliant asking this question but never received a response concerning the last quarter payment. I only see the automatic debit in my checking account for $330. The last quarterly statement received was from Kramer Triad Oct 2007. Thanks. See Response
Question 6: August 09: Hello Board members, HELP!!!!! Back in June 2009, I was summond with papers from a law firm that I have not paid our association fee that they were charging some amounts of ~$350 LAWYERS'FEE to notify me and to collect the funds. I immediately noticed/realized that indeed I did forget to set up an automatic payment from my on-line banking menu(where I pay all my bills through my bank's online banking system). So I immediately paid 3 quarter's payment ($990) to cover till September,1st--Whew I thought. And then I heard nothing until last week, I received another letter from the lawyer's company that now I still owe a part of 2nd quarter's ($~43) and 3rd qtr's ($330), 4th qtr's ($330) and then ANOTHER 532.42 OF LAWYERS FEES AGAIN!!! I do not mind paying for my association fees in advance at all but because a completely honest mistake was made to forget to pay the 2 quarters' fee, that now I am summoned to pay ~$1000 of LAWYERS'FEES and that the lien is put against our property??? Who approved this kind of severe actions to be taken against the our Gateway residents? And how could this be done to the residents of Gateway???--does this spelled out in the By-Laws? How can I get a copy of the By-laws so I can have our attorny take a look and see if what they are doing is lawful. Where is the bill that shows ~$1000 of LAWYERS' FEE has been billed and paid? Needless to say I am dusgusted and feel unfairly punished. Please let me know what my options are. See Response