As a business owner myself I want to be as objective as possible. I bought a condo in Beaverton, Oregon back in 2007 with one other business partner. I was a legal owner the whole time. In 2016 I refinanced the condo and the other owners name was removed from the condo as he didn't want to remain an owner on this particular property. Fast forward 4 years and Kappes Miller charged me $109.00 for a transfer fee they said was never applied to my account from a transaction that had happened 4 years prior. They also said that $480.88 needed to be paid as well because "working capital" is added everytime the condo sells.
If you fail to bill someone can you just send them an invoice 4 years later? I know in my line of work I would be laughed at if I tried. Keep in mind, I was the owner the whole time. I never missed 1 HOA payment. The HOA's grew continuously from $158.00 to $289.86 over the 13 years of ownership. I chalked that aspect up as costs rising as I understand that, although seeing HOA's almost double in the time I owned it did seem a bit outrageous.
All owners that I spoke with were always told as I was that we own the condo from the sheetrock in. Everything outside is supposed to be maintained and dealt with by Kappes Miller. Oddly enough everytime we brought anything to their attention regarding the exterior of the building we were told that is our responsibility or they just disregarded it. There were and still are trim boards outside that were falling off and rotting, but they didn't repair them. Screens were broken by the window cleaners and we were just told that it was our responsibility to remove screens or they won't clean the windows. I suppose that is a fair response, but then why did the window cleaners remove and break the screens? That is a pretty small detail to me as I repaired a couple of screens for $40, but just another lost opportunity for them to do something respectful for their tenants or owners.
The biggest scam came back when there was a construction defect law suit against the builder, Arbor. Allegedly Kappes Miller wasn't able to win enough money to cover the defects so they gave every owner an option. Pay a 1 time payment or monthy payments. This one time payment cost me over $3K, but the monthly payment option added up to more so I bit the bullet on that. So I bought a condo and there were alleged defects and we all had to pay again? You can see an ongoing pattern here with Kappes Miller. The owners of the properties they manage get raked over the coals time and time again. The customer service is brutal as well. The week my father passed away in Seattle I was up there spending the final days with him.
I sent my HOA check in as soon as I got home. It was the 1 time it was later in 13 years of ownership. They made it clear that this is the only time we will ever wave your late fee. Holy cow, I was in the hospital watching my father die, but thanks for the solid favor. But to be clear, they did waive that one late fee albeit with a little Kappes Miller flavor added to it. I honestly feel a little bad for the new owners buying my condo because they now will have to deal with the HOA's probably doubling during their tenure there and they won't ever receive any decent responses to anything outside the buildings.
Today I said goodbye to the condo. The first thing I noticed was how dirty the outside of the buildings are. There is very little detailed cleanup outside. The bushes have grown up so big around the outside that is looks really bad, but we aren't supposed to touch anything outside the building. Owners have had to ask permission to have pumpkins outside their doors during halloween, I can't say whether that is normal or not but it seems a bit extreme. The list goes on and on. I developed some friendships with other owners and they all expressed their disgust with Kappes Miller's management. A quote from one of my friends there today after I told him about these latest charges that were from 2016, "I will never live in another HOA". That is sad because I am sure there are some decent management companies out there.
Kappes Miller Management Reviews
As a business owner myself I want to be as objective as possible. I bought a condo in Beaverton, Oregon back in 2007 with one other business partner. I was a legal owner the whole time. In 2016 I refinanced the condo and the other owners name was removed from the condo as he didn't want to remain an owner on this particular property. Fast forward 4 years and Kappes Miller charged me $109.00 for a transfer fee they said was never applied to my account from a transaction that had happened 4 years prior. They also said that $480.88 needed to be paid as well because "working capital" is added everytime the condo sells.
If you fail to bill someone can you just send them an invoice 4 years later? I know in my line of work I would be laughed at if I tried. Keep in mind, I was the owner the whole time. I never missed 1 HOA payment. The HOA's grew continuously from $158.00 to $289.86 over the 13 years of ownership. I chalked that aspect up as costs rising as I understand that, although seeing HOA's almost double in the time I owned it did seem a bit outrageous.
All owners that I spoke with were always told as I was that we own the condo from the sheetrock in. Everything outside is supposed to be maintained and dealt with by Kappes Miller. Oddly enough everytime we brought anything to their attention regarding the exterior of the building we were told that is our responsibility or they just disregarded it. There were and still are trim boards outside that were falling off and rotting, but they didn't repair them. Screens were broken by the window cleaners and we were just told that it was our responsibility to remove screens or they won't clean the windows. I suppose that is a fair response, but then why did the window cleaners remove and break the screens? That is a pretty small detail to me as I repaired a couple of screens for $40, but just another lost opportunity for them to do something respectful for their tenants or owners.
The biggest scam came back when there was a construction defect law suit against the builder, Arbor. Allegedly Kappes Miller wasn't able to win enough money to cover the defects so they gave every owner an option. Pay a 1 time payment or monthy payments. This one time payment cost me over $3K, but the monthly payment option added up to more so I bit the bullet on that. So I bought a condo and there were alleged defects and we all had to pay again? You can see an ongoing pattern here with Kappes Miller. The owners of the properties they manage get raked over the coals time and time again. The customer service is brutal as well. The week my father passed away in Seattle I was up there spending the final days with him.
I sent my HOA check in as soon as I got home. It was the 1 time it was later in 13 years of ownership. They made it clear that this is the only time we will ever wave your late fee. Holy cow, I was in the hospital watching my father die, but thanks for the solid favor. But to be clear, they did waive that one late fee albeit with a little Kappes Miller flavor added to it. I honestly feel a little bad for the new owners buying my condo because they now will have to deal with the HOA's probably doubling during their tenure there and they won't ever receive any decent responses to anything outside the buildings.
Today I said goodbye to the condo. The first thing I noticed was how dirty the outside of the buildings are. There is very little detailed cleanup outside. The bushes have grown up so big around the outside that is looks really bad, but we aren't supposed to touch anything outside the building. Owners have had to ask permission to have pumpkins outside their doors during halloween, I can't say whether that is normal or not but it seems a bit extreme. The list goes on and on. I developed some friendships with other owners and they all expressed their disgust with Kappes Miller's management. A quote from one of my friends there today after I told him about these latest charges that were from 2016, "I will never live in another HOA". That is sad because I am sure there are some decent management companies out there.