| My townhouse is in a community called Winding Brook. Although it is a pretty nice neighborhood, it isn't without fault or imperfections. Our Home Owner's Associtation has a Board of Directors, as well as Koger Management's Paulette Heiderman, who is in charge of replacing community-owned property, distributing parking tags, scheduling maintenance work, etc. |
First email was sent on Friday, August 27 at noon...
Hi Paulette,
I was out of town from Thursday, August 12 until Tuesday morning,
August 24. When I came home from the airport, I discovered that
Pleasant Meadow had been blocked off due to paving. Consequently, my
car was towed. After getting a ride to Henry's Towing, which has
already made $180 off of me wrongfully in the past year, I was told
that Henry's no longer tows for Winding Brook. I went to the new
towing company to retrieve my car (the people of Henry's were kind
enough to give me a ride), and had to pay another $90 to retrieve my
car, and had I waited another half an hour, the cost would have jumped
to $115. After taking a sleepless red-eye flight, I was looking
forward to my bed, not a costly headache. After doing some research
and going through my mail that had piled up while I was out of town, I
found the notice from Koger Management that they would be doing
maintenance on Pleasant Meadow on August 16 and August 23. The post
mark on the envelope was August 11. Whether it arrived on August 12 or
13 doesn't matter, I was already out of town. I find it highly
unreasonable to expect all residents to get such an important message
in such a short amount of time--especially in August when several
people take vacations. My neighbor Max Brummels even informed me that
she called you to let you know that I as well as another neighbor were
out of town and would most likely get our cars towed. Her message
might not have deterred the towers, but at least it can serve as
validation that I was not given fair warning and that Koger Management
should reimburse me $90 for towing costs in a reasonable amount of
time.
In addition, I find it ridiculous that notices are sent to homeowners
rather than the people who actually reside in the townhouses. I have
a roommate, and while I was away, there was no way for her to know
about the road work being done until it was too late. She doesn't
open mail that is addressed to me (it is a federal offense after all),
and therefore was simply lucky to have left for work early on both
days all road and sidewalk work was done. Had there been any kind of
additional notice, such as fliers put on everyone's front door, she
would have known to move my car. For an enormous project as big as
repaving all courts, I can't believe there was no money budgeted to
provide proper notice to all residents in a reasonable amount of time.
Please call me so we can resolve this quickly: 703-XXX-XXXX. If I
don't hear from you soon, expect a phone call from me this afternoon.
Thank you,
Kamala Hirsch
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At 1:00 PM on Friday, Paulette responded:
Ms. Hirsch,
I will certainly forward your e-mail to the Board of Directors for
their input. They will review this and let me know what action they
would like for me to take on this.
Thank you,
Paulette Heiderman
Association Manager
Winding Brook UOA |
| I then forwarded both my letter and Paulette's response to Winding Brook's Board of Directors:
Dear Winding Brook Board,
[Above] you will find an email that I sent to Paulette Heiderman at
Koger and her response. As I understand her response, this is not up
to her to decide, but up to you. Was the Board made aware of the
paving projects and the specific dates prior to everyone else? Would
it have been impossible to put notices on each condo's door the day
prior to the paving?
Perhaps you were on vacation during the paving (as I was), and didn't
have time to make sure everyone knew. Or maybe Paulette's efforts to
notify everyone via mail was sufficient in your opinion. I realize
that running the community takes a lot of time and effort on your
parts, and I appreciate it. I was even considering helping out with
Winding Brook's website, and do my part.
I think it is interesting that the Board put together a community pool
party, and made sure everyone knew about it in every way possible:
flyers, newsletters, on the sign at the front of the community, and by
going door to door. Why should something as major as repaving all the
streets get nowhere near the kind of attention that the pool party
recieved?
Last time I checked, the sign still said something about a yard
contest from July, implying that the Board, like most people in the
community, was taking it easy during August.
As I explain [above], I feel that my car was wrongfully towed, and that
I should be reimbursed in a reasonable amount of time (I think
by next Friday, September 3 is enough time) for the $90 it cost to
retrieve my car.
If you would like to discuss anything with me, feel free to reply to
this email or call me, 703-XXX-XXXX.
Thank you,
Kamala Hirsch
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