My Homeowners are Dumber Than Your Homeowners

That's the game my boss was playing today via e-mail with a colleague who also owns a property management business. My boss won this round. Yes, it was one of my homeowners.

I got a call last week from a homeowner who wanted to make a couple of landscaping requests. One was for some new landscaping in the beds in the front of her 4 unit condo and one for some sod on a dead patch in the rear of the building.

I told her what I tell all homeowners this time of year. "We will put you on the list and when we do the landscape inspection in about a month, we will check it out. Depending on how much work needs to be done throughout the property and how much money is available, we will get to as much of it as we can."

So, I suggested she send me an e-mail with a description of what she would like to see done with the front of the building so we would have an idea of the scope of the project. She offered to send pictures. I told her that was even better. So, today, I got the pictures and a reminder about her requests. Without looking at the pictures, I responded back that I would place it in the file for review at the walk through. I got a few minutes later in the day and decided to look at the pictures. This is where the boss got involved. I sent them to her for an opinion. She came running out of the office doubled over laughing.

"Is this picture right outside her unit?" She asked me. I had to look it up because I was pretty sure it wouldn't be. But yep it was. She sent us a picture of a large area of dead grass and a bunch of piles of "landmines" from her dog. And she didn't understand why the grass wouldn't grow there.

For those of you who don't do property management, when we identify that someone has damaged common area, we charge them for all the costs to repair it. This in many cases is a damaged garage door or carpet stains, but probably most often it is dog damage on the lawn. So, this woman was kind enough to report herself for damaging the lawn and I get to send her a bill for the damages. It will probably be around a $100 bill because it is a rather large spot. If she doesn't keep the sod watered, or she continues to let her dog use that area to relieve itself, she will still not have good turf and may be charged to have it done again. Also in the picture was a dog leash tied to a post which is also a violation, so now she has reported herself on two different violations. Gotta love cooperative homeowners! I bet I won't be hearing from her again any time soon, even if she does have an association responsibility request.