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Homeowners Beware!
This is another one of these organizations which, driven by attorney's seeking fees, harasses home owners supposedly to enforce homeowners association covenants which you were likely forced to sign (or were completely unaware of) at the time you purchased your home in a subdivision.
They apparently are unable to pay a living wage so they resort to hiring toothless trailer trash ("TTT") to come around and `inspect' (tresspass?) on your property. If you do not comply with their ridiculous demands to remove or change something, you will get a letter from them and/or your homeowners association informing you that you need to ask for and receive permission before you relieve yourself, etc. If you still do not comply, the matter will be referred to an attorney (which is the real purpose in the first place since your homeowners association gets a kickback as does CCM). Eventually, continued refusal may result in a suit, lien, etc. You can litigate the matter but they know you don't likely have the resources to do that.
Bear in mind that the covenants are subject to the interpretation of these third grade drop outs and/or your HOA and/or CCM, and even though the covenants (and the unconscionable circumstances under which you were forced to agree to them assuming you knew about them), and the attempt to enforce them, are a violation of your civil and constitutional rights, they could care less. To CCM, your homeowners association (yes, your board members are in on the scam too...remember how bad they wanted to become board members? There was a reason) and the attorney's they are shells for, you are nothing but sheep which exist soley to have your rights violated as they extort money from you (where are all those liberals now...probably the attorneys trying to sue you?).
In additional to complaining in writing to the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, the attorney General's Office, the FTC, etc, potential home buyers should refuse to purchase any home in any subdivision which engages CCM or any organization like them. Insert a statement in the purchase agreement (or have your attorney do it) effectively voiding the contract if the developer or builder or anyone else, engages their services. Also, write to the presidents of each developer and builder indicating that you will never consider purchasing a home from any bulider or developer who engages the services of CCM or anyone like them and that you will actively discourage everyone else from buying in such a subdivision. If you already own, write explaining you will never purchase from them again as a result of their poor judgment in engaging CCM. Eventually, they should get the idea that home buyers will not tolerate such absurd attempts at extortion, and that they have violated numerous laws and regulations designed for the protection of consumers.
I don't usually post to these things, but feel like the initial "complaint" is misleading. I hope the person is just "venting" his or her frustrations. I am a private citizen who has worked with CCM. I think a response is needed because the initial post might confuse or anger someone without good reason. I'm not trying to put down the complainant or show off. I don't really care, but just wanted to do this as a public service announcement. These comments should be read as a general statement. Perhaps, the initial complainant's Board is participating in some bad behavior. If so, then I feel sorry for that community. Anyways, here we go.
First, CCM is a property management company that is hired by your HOA to help the Board manage the property. In general, Board members are volunteers and have other commitments (e.g., family, friends, jobs, church, etc.) besides making sure that HOA bills are paid, HOA fees are collected, and inspecting the property. The elves do not come out to make sure that your community is in good health. Your Board makes decisions and CCM simply helps the Board manage the community.
Second, if you have a HOA community, then you likely agreed to follow certain covenants and restrictions. The initial complainant claims that it was forced on him or her. That is simply incorrect. He or she probably just didn't carefully read the purchase agreement. In the alternative, he or she could have hired an attorney to review the purchase agreement. You always have the option to walk away. Hollow consolation after the fact, but worth pointing out. BTW, you can't just strike out the line and expect the Developer to say A-OK! The complainant should not have purchased the home. There is the remote possibility that the complainant was misled by the Developer. If so, the complainant may want to consider hiring an attorney to pursue the Developer for fraud.
Third, an HOA does not get a kick-back from the attorneys. I think the complainant is referring to the Board. If so, then the community has bigger problems. But to make an accusation regarding kickbacks in general is simply incorrect. Also, attorneys can lose their licenses over fee sharing with non-attorneys, so it's a highly risky way of doing business.
Fourth, enforcement of covenants is a benefit to the community and your property values. Imagine if your neighbor just decided to put a 50-ft flagpole in his or her yard. Try selling your house with a neighbor with a 50-ft flagpole. "Oh, I love the house, but what's up with your neighbor?" True, covenants are drafted and interpreted by people. Hopefully, your Board has the wisdom to approve/deny certain changes. That's why you should pay attention to who is on your board. BTW, it is not a violation of your civil or constitutional rights to enforce a contractual relationship between the homeowner and the HOA. Interestingly, you give up a lot of rights when you become a homeowner in a HOA-operated community, including constitutional rights depending on the jurisdiction.
This person has probably violated a covenant and is upset. Just knock it off and then the letters and fines will stop. It's as simple as that.
In conclusion, read the fine print. If you can't, then get an attorney (if the attorney misses something, at least you could go after the attorney for malpractice). Determine if you want to be in a HOA-operated community. HOAs are very powerful organizations and most homeowners don't have the resources to combat the HOA (the complainant is correct regarding this point). Some HOA communities are good; some HOA communities are bad. It just depends on who is on your Board. If it's bad, then get involved. It's your home and money.
I hope this helps...
In conclusion,
I agree that Community Club Management (CCM), Rosewell GA are out there to harass homeowners. They have harassed me as well. I cannot even plant flowers outside my OWN home...they keep stating that roses are in violation of their declaration of protective covenants and conditions. They also like to threaten homeowners with lawsuits and legal fees. They are ridiculous. They are the reason why I need to sell my home and go elsewhere. I will NEVER purchase a home in a subdivision managed by CCM. They have no respect for homeowners.
Moreover, I strongly feel that some of the members on the HOA board are affiliated with CCM. That's why they are around for so long yet their service is not good.
I hope my comment helps someone...
I too agree that Community Club Management (CCM), Rosewell GA are not a good management company and are there to cause problems for the homeowner. They have billed me incorrectly and it has been going on for almost a year. They have stated during the several phone conversations that I've had with them that they understand that the fees/fines are incorrect but they won't remove them. So they bill residents without having any reason to, they just expect you to pay. I'm having to now schedule a hearing and may have to go to small claims court just because they billed me incorrectly AND they are allowing the board to continue to bill me for something they never asked me to do. Did I say this has been going on for a year and I have been in constant contact with them and still no resolution.
I agree completely that Community Club Management harasses their owners. They pick and choose which homeowners to harass and give others a pass. I live in the Pulte Avonley Creek development in Sugar Hill, GA and the letters they send are over some tiny little thing that other neighbors are getting away with. And then there are the neighbors who get no notice on the hugeitems that go on and on. Pulte is still the only ones who can make the rules. I will never again purchase a new Pulte Home or live in a subdivision managed by CCM. I am convinced CCM plays favorites.
They claim to have mailed annual assessments to our community for the last two years but I have never received anything other than from their attorneys claiming past due balances and penalties and interest. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the HOA bylaws that state when the dues are due, how much they are, how they are calculated or where to mail them.
They actual bylaws state that all correspondence from them or to them must be via certified mail.
They are unable to provide me with copies of any invoices they have allegedly mailed me and the only ones they can provide are addressed to my neighbors.
In the meantime, they refuse to allow me and my family access to the community pool (even after paying the $260 in fines and penalties under protest) and actually have teenage lifeguards on the payroll threatening to call the police if we use the facilities we have paid for.
When I called them, I was told that the Board of Directors would be notified of my complaint but that they could not provide me with any contact information for the board!
CCM is a bunch of ### and I, for one, am not going to take it from them.
Join me.
Mark Deal
4455 Hedgewood Drive
Cumming, Georgia 30041
markadeal@gmail.com
LIke duh, people. If you don't speed, you won't get a speeding ticket. If you don't kill/murder, you won't serve time on deathrow for such. If you don't have sex, you won't get pregnant. If you don't breath, you won't live. The choice is yours... live in a convenant community, pay the required fees, and follow the rules or MOVE OUT! Management companies can only enforce what is the the documents legally drafted and recorded for your community; they did not write them, nor did members on the board. I live in a community and I hate when one neighbor wastes my time by calling or stopping me while out to ask if I got the same letter they got... NO, i cut my grass, pay my assessment, park in my driveway or garage, pick up behind my pet, etc. When you start doing the same, you will no longer be "harrassed" by persons that are only trying to preserve and maintain our largest investment!
I knew my subdivision was covenant restricted when I bought.
I support the covenants and understand the importance in protecting my property value.
I've had a lot of experience with HOAs and management companies.
I'm on my HOAs board.
CCM is just a lousy management company. We really want to get rid of them.
Although some of the comments may be griping about rules that weren't followed, CCM is just plain bad.
They can't even follow the documents legally drafted and recorded for our community.
Thank you every one for your feedback and sharing your frustration with CCM. I was planning to buy a home in your subdivision...Now i have decided to exit ...I will not even buy any home managed by CCM. Thank you so much for sharing your insight...There is no shortage of properties in Cumming/Alpharetta etc.
I understand the need for rules and regulations...without them there would be chaos. But like the original poster and some other commenters have mentioned, CCM seems to single out certain individuals while allowing others to carry on with the exact same violation, or even ones that are far worse. Of course a violation is a violation...but the legal threats they are issuing are beyond ludicrous. What they don't seem to understand is that the "legal action" that they are threatening is going to cost them more in fees and bad press than whatever they are hoping to accomplish. If you're going to enforce the rules, do so equally or prepare to face the consequences.
as of january, 2010, my community (sun city peachtree) transferred from wentworth mgmt to ccm. with wentworth, i had had automatic withdrawal of monthly hoa fees. when the transfer took place, i got no notification letter. so i had no idea that my monthly dues were not being paid as usual. on may 3, 2010, i received an assessment through the mail for $756. there was no contact information - phone number, email - associated with this paperwork. i googled ccm, found a phone number, and called. the lady with whom i spoke explained that my hoa dues were five months past due. i told her that i had automatic withdrawal. she informed me that wentworth was no longer my mgmt company... ccm was. she asked if i had received a letter & payment book. i told her i had not. she told me to pay the $756 immediately to avoid penalty. she also said that she would mail a payment book to my residence (which she did). i mailed a check the following day & have paid in advance every month since.
yesterday (9/24/10), i received an "assessment" letter from ccm. the notice claimed that i had a balance AND that my hoa dues were past due! again, there was no contact info on this paper. so i got phone number from website & called. the woman...her name is raina... with whom i spoke was incredibly rude. i asked her the purpose of the assessment letter. she said that i had a balance due from april of 2010. i assured her that that was not the case & that i had complied with all financial requirements. at no time did i lose my temper or say anything discourteous. i did ask why there was no phone number included in the assessment letter. i also told her that, rather than having past due hoa payments, mine were made each month at least 2 weeks in advance of due date. she said she could not help me, & that i would have to call my local hoa rep. i told her that the assessment letters should include a reason for the assessment & not just "balance forward" and an amount. i also said to her that, when i googled community club management, i found a list of complaints about similar matters. she asked me who had written them. i said i had no idea; but that she could do a google search to find out. she became extremely agitated & told me she didn't CARE who had written the complaints. i asked her then why she had asked me. she retorted that i had brought it up. i found this exchange to be unprofessional & inappropriate... just like the assessment letter with no purpose and no contact number.
my hoa is headed by a man who is a pulte employee. the rules are ridiculous. i have been cited for having a yellow garden hose, for leaving my trash container out overnight, for having the wrong hue of window tint on my GARAGE window, and on and on.
had i realized that this community is more of a stepford community than a homeplace, i would never have moved here. sure i read the covenants. but i had no idea the scope of the restrictions. we at scp have a restriction against any sort of ornamentation on our MAILBOXES!
i mean... REALLY?
At least some of you are getting details about why CCM is trying to collect fines from you. I keep getting statements from them about fines they claim I owe with no explanation about what the fines are for. We are well over $1, 000 at this point and appears an attorney is in our future. This is my first, and will be my last, home in a community that has an HOA, which ours does not.
In case anyone wants additional information about CCM, the Georgia Secretary of State's office lists the following as officers:
CEO
ALICE L RICHARDSON
11735 POINTE PLACE
ROSWELL GA 30076
CFO
DANIEL D. RICHARDSON
11735 POINTE PLACE
ROSWELL GA 30076
Secretary
COLLEEN M EVERS
11735 POINTE PLACE
ROSWELL GA 30076
It appears someone has started an anti-CCM blog. Check out www.stopccm.blogspot.com
I recently bought my first home in a CCM community. I thought my mortgage payment was supposed to be taking care of my HOA dues (it was my first home and the dues were mentioned in the mortgage papers- I didn't know!) so when I got a letter from an attorney's office I was shocked. With zero notification about my balance, a lien had been placed on my property. I immediately paid what I owed plus interest because I did owe them money, but I refused to pay the collection costs because all they had to do was send me a letter saying I hadn't paid, but they didn't. From reading these posts- they apparently do this a lot. I will admit that I was in the wrong for not paying, but they need to admit that they were in the wrong for not notifying me. After denying to pay the fees I received a letter from the lawyers office with documents showing that they did notify me, but all of the copies say "sample" and do not have any information on them except that the dues cost $X. Nowhere on any of them did it say that my account was past due. If I did get these letters- which I do not remember- then I probably thought 'my mortgage is taking care of it and this is just a reminder notice' and threw them away. Does CCM go out of their way to make life difficult for us? Or is it ignorance on how to properly run a property management group? Either way, something needs to change if they do not want to go bankrupt from the class action lawsuit which is undoubtedly coming their way. I am still holding my ground that I do not owe them collection costs and I can't wait to be heard by the board and confront them face-to-face with my lawyer present. Maybe this is the only way they will listen.
Sun City Peachtree - rules are ridiculous. I was given and signed the covenants in the sales cycle, I read it and it is half of ream of useless paper. Nothing useful for a potential homebuyer, like what can I do to personalize my home, the short answer is very little. The document keeps referring to Design Guidelines. I requested a copy of this and after many weeks of trying, finally was given a copy. A copy that should have been marked obsolete, by the way.
Reading this poorly written document really started to scare me. It is full of contradictions and clearly has never been edited or customized for Georgia. I was so concerned, I chose to met with the person who is supposed to be in charge of the Review Committee (a management company employee). They had some of the answers, but not all. I came away from that meeting less convinced than ever that moving forward is the thing to do. But now, I will lose too much money to walk away. I am 2 weeks from closing and still don't have the answer to what should be an easy question? Can I have a fence or not? I was told I could in the sales cycle, but then I was told a lot of things in the sales cycle.
"The Committee" is reviewing my plans, although there is no need to have plans as there is only 1 way it can be done, if it can be done at all. So it is a reading comprehension test for the Design Guidelines. You must fill out a form and get approval to do anything. Case in point, you have to submit a form (after the fact, why?) to get post-approval to plant a begonia in your own yard, including your "private area". It's like a sex offender registry for plants. The design guidelines read that you can plant in your private area as long as it no higher than 36", yet on another page about landscaping, the minimum plant size is stated as 3'. Which is it? Are the plant police going to come by with a yardstick?
Unless you want to live in Stepford and have to kiss someone's ring to do anything, I would take my money elsewhere.
I have problems with ccm just like everybody else. I have asked them to plant some bushes in the back of my town house so that the entire community looks the same. I send them pictures with how many bushes were planted 10 feet away from me and none in the back of my house. Their response was that the sun was hitting the ground different and from a different angle. Seriously the sun is different 10 feet away from my house.
Anyway after numerous emails answered I decided to go by their office. Once there ( after driving one hour) they said that they can only see me by appointment only. I wrote down my name and number and they said that the Vice President herself was gonna contact me that day. That was 3 weeks ago.
So I decided to sue them before they are doing it to me.
If there are people out there disappointed with their services please contact me and maybe we can form a class action lawsuit. ( strength in numbers)
My email is cbolcos@yahoo.com. Hope to hear from you soon.
I agree with all of the negative comments listed. I found it interesting how CCM pieces different parts of our covenant together to give them authority wherever they see fit. Apparently a secretary in their office can also be deemed an architect when it suits their fancy. What I wonder, is if they really take the time to send out inspectors or if they are going off the complaints of one unhappy neighbor with nothing better to do than cause unnecessary trouble. I appreciate the time and effort my board puts into my community. I appreciate that my community has a covenant. The covenant that we have isn't unreasonable, but CCM tries to play off semantics and they like to argue that since other neighborhoods have this rule then mine should have it too. They need to mind their own business and stop trying to force new rules and make trouble. The issue that I and several neighbors have are with the demanding and rudely written correspondance we receive from CCM. When I recently requested a copy of our covenants, I was told to look on my neighborhoods website; we don't have a website. After searching the web, no where were my communities covenants published. They sent out a letter saying that they were going to start fining us without sending a warning because of the cost associated with stamps, but I ask, what is so expensive about picking up the phone and making a phone call or sending an email? I am sure they have a file going on me and to no fault of my own. For instance, I received a notice for parking a car in the street in front of my house, but there were no cars parked in my driveway at that time. Normal reasoning would suggest that my driveway is getting blocked by someone else...perhaps the neighbor next door with all of the cars is responsible? And yet nothing is said to deal with the real problem. I am aggravated and, on top of that, I get a nasty gram from them! CCM has little class in my book and it would benefit us all if they would just close down. I too am looking for a new home; before I will consider a neighborhood, I ask if CCM is managing the HOA; sadly that is one of my determining factors. I feel for everyone who writes their complaints here. For those that can't help but toss their daggers at the concerned citizens venting on this board, I encourage you to move into a neighborhood managed by CCM. It won't be long before you too are singing these tunes.