Every so often we homeowners pay our association dues late, and we incur a $5 late fee. We pay that late fee partly because we are responsible citizens, and partly because CAMS, our management company holds us accountable. CAMS makes sure to collect those late fees from the Crickentree owners — $700.18 thus far in our fiscal year.
But when CAMS pays our association’s electric bills late, causing late fees from Fairfield Electric, they work hard to avoid reimbursing our association for those fees.
What I discovered last August was that once again, Crickentree was put on the cut-off list because our power bills (we have 4 meters) were not paid on time. Fairfield Electric was planning to cut power off before Labor Day, which meant our pool would be out of commission during the holiday. A few emails and phone conversations to our Board president, Fairfield Electric, and to CAMS ensued revealing a glitch in the CAMS payment process was the root cause of the problem. An assurance was made to pay up, and the crisis was averted — Good teamwork!
So, everything is all square now? Well, not really. After the fray I asked to see how many times CAMS had paid Crickentree electric bills late. Since April 2019 there were 7 other instances of late payments, all of which resulted in late fees to our association – luckily only 2 times where Crickentree was put on the cut-off list. For those counting, that’s 4 meters times 8 instances equals 32 late fees paid. What did CAMS say during and after the crisis? He repeated said “I have NEVER paid any late fees ever.” And he bullied me for bringing it to the Board’s attention. Seeing how he did not understand the Fairfield Electric process I sent him simple instructions of how to read a power bill to tell if late fees have been charged. But what surprised me even more was that CAMS refused to reimburse our association for the cost incurred due to CAMS faulty payment process. During a Board meeting, I complained about CAMS not repaying this $200-300 cost. Our CAMS representative flip-flopped on doing so by threatening to bill us for other efforts previously done for free – a very unprofessional tactic. To this day CAMS has not repaid our association for the costs they caused. Who paid this $200-300 cost? All of us Crickentree owners did, of course!
Doesn’t it strike you as odd that CAMS collects $700.18 of late fees from us owners, but refuses to pay $200-300 of late fees that they caused themselves? CAMS holds Crickentree owners accountable, but who holds CAMS accountable?
Marvin DuBois
Who is your CAMS Representative