Common Interest Management Services

If I could give negative stars I would. I am not sure how a company could operate in a worse manner than Common Interest. I have lived in my building for over 2 years and have made 6 – 7 requests over that time. Not only is there near zero communication or updates provided by Sabrina Leglu, our community POC, but only two issues have been resolved. One of which took nearly 18 months. Overall, it is quite amazing that a company in this day and age still has customers. Since I have requested a formal review of Common Interest, they have literally stopped replying to all emails sent to them. Does anyone have experience escalating a change of management companies to their HOA board?

Whenever I needed a quick response to my problems at my home at the village at Abella, Natasha and Rhiannon came to my aid. I did not have to go through all the loopholes as I thought I would. I know I can count on them to make my home a comfortable and safe place to live. Thank you. Sheldon Coulon, 114 arcangel way. San Pablo ca.

I continue to not recommend Common Interest Management («CIMS»). The problems I had with them back in 2013 are still prevalent today, with the only difference being that there are new group of employees. Mark Capestany and his assistant Jenni Taylor are difficult to get a hold of, don’t communicate anything unless asked directly multiple times, and disregard requests from homeowners.
In September the Board of my HOA ruled on how to deal with my termite remediation request. I emailed Jenni asking for the decision of the Board and she didn’t know. I sent 2 more emails before she finally asked someone (1 week). So instead of trying to get the info I requested, she did nothing until she probably got sick of my emails. Once I finally found out their decision, I began communicating with Mark on when the termites were going to be remediated. It is now over a months since the Board met and decided to move forward with the remediation and the remediation is just going to be done today. Keep in mind Mark didn’t even bother to submit a request to the termite company until 1 week ago. So he sat around and did nothing with my termite problem for almost a month, which is completely unacceptable! Also, it has been 2 months since I initially submitted my termite remediation claim. Completely unacceptable!
At the same time as above I requested dry rot to be looked at and repaired. I was originally told by Jenni that the dry rot wouldn’t be looked at until the termites were looked at, which is ridiculous, but I waited. After I found out that the Board ruled on the termites I began bugging Mark about the dry rot. After multiple emails that led to nothing being done, I finally requested to speak to his manager. After that request he finally scheduled someone to come out and look at the dry rot. Unfortunately, he never checked with me (as I requested multiple times) because I also wanted to be at the inspection. Instead he booked it in the middle of the day on a work week and told me about it 2 days before. He then told me that he had been a part of these inspections many times and that he knew how to deal with them. Well that is great, but it’s MY home not his and if I request to be a part of an inspection of my own home then he should make sure I am included.
As a management company I would expect CIMS to have great customer service. This doesn’t mean they need to respond immediately and know all the answer to my questions immediately, but it does mean they need to respond timely and keep me updated on progress. I think a detailed response in 48 hours is reasonable when there is a significant amount of info they need to look into and 24 hours for a basic request is also reasonable. Even a quick email to say «hey, I am still looking into it and I expect to get more info to you…» would be great. Unfortunately, they do not do that in any way. Calling them on the phone is a horrible idea because you then have no support for anything you requested and they said. So the only means of communication with them in via email.
If anyone is considering using this company for their HOA, I suggest you look elsewhere.

We just moved into our townhome and we got a notice for parking in the visitor spaces 2 days ago. We spoke with Jenni Taylor who said she would forward our request for a one-​week exemption as we would have to move out the moving boxes from our garage to make space for the car. Well, our car got towed last night (Friday).
Not only that: it was towed by a different company from what is listed in the parking sign.
This is not a good sign for this HOA
Edited to add that the HOA emergency contact person just hung up on me while I was still talking.

I live in Cambridge of Belmont. Common Interest Management Services is worthless. Especially Carolyn Poti.

Personally and professionally offended by there lack of interest in implementing HOA policies in an unbiased manner. Fines and inspections on some, ignoring on going violations for years. Delayed response and a lot of I don’t know ‘why’ this didn’t happen. Finally disliked like attitude and ‘inability’ to schedule or communicate in a reasonable manner.

Guess what happens when you hire Common Interest? NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! They take your money then never do what they are supposed to do.
For example, I reported a roof leak three months ago, and it has not been fixed! Mark Borson gives excuse after excuse for not having fixed the roof leak by now.
Another example: Mark Borson promised me in December 2014 to have received three estimates on window washing for our building to present at the February 2015 HOA meeting, and he did NOT do it. Then, at the February meeting, the Board decided that Mark was supposed to get three estimates for the window washing and proceed with it if it came in under budget, prior to the next HOA meeting. Guess what? It’s now May, and the window washing has not happened yet!
Stay far, far away from Common Interest. You do not want them managing your property.

Take all the worst attributes of FEMA and DMV, and you have a good idea what it’s like to have to deal with Common Interest.
They don’t seem to have any interest in returning phone calls or responding to emails. What little information you are able to get when they pick up the phone seems to have about a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance of being correct, and from my experience they don’t have a clue about how to manage a repair project.
When buying a condo, look carefully in the disclosures for what company the HOA has chosen to work with. If it’s CIMS, be sure to factor in the inevitable aggravation into your offer.
If you’re on an HOA board, shame on you for even considering working with them. Keep in mind your personal reputation is at stake. You don’t want to be «that» board member who thought selecting CIMS was a good idea. It will come back to you. Trust me on this. Do your homework – talk to other boards in your neighborhood.
There are plenty of solid, reputable management companies I’ve worked with in the past. Pick one of those.
Avoid working with these folks at all costs.

Absolutely WORST management group. Laurayne Gluck in particular deserves negative 10 stars. She is rude, unprofessional, has no idea what is going on with our condo complex. I have no idea why anybody would employ them. I left several
Messages during normal business hours with no response. Had they been knowledgable and had adequate communications I would not be a victim of the chaos that occurred which cost me thousands of dollars. They are still non-​responsive to my needs after numerous attempted contacts with them. BY ALL MEANS AVOID THIS SO-​CALLED MANAGEMENT company. There are many options out there so why settle for a company who obviously has hundreds of complains from real clients. Based on the many negative reviews I am absolutely sure that this is the ABSOLUTELY INCOMPETENT GROUP.
DO NOT UTILIZE THIS COMPANY!!! Avoid it like the plague!!!

Poor service, almost feels like they are here just to collect money. Email correspondence takes days to get replies and they are not proactive.

This management company is terrible. I have lived here for 17 years and had interactions maybe five times. I own two parking spaces that I pay dearly for, $ 500.00 a month, and they threatened me because my second parking space had an older Minivan with «expired dates» on it. I had it moved. Meanwhile, obviously someone who worked for the company had much older plates parking free in my building. I complained about the double standard and nothing was done. The truck was there for another six months. Then I had an issue with a «carryover balance» on my HOA fees, which I asked for an explanation for, and got no response AT ALL. Also, I don’t have a landline anymore, which a lot of people don’t, and so a delivery person downstairs gets a disconnected reply. So I had to drive to South San Francisco today to pick up my package. I emailed «Menalyn» to say, is there a way to connect to the lobby without a landline, and of course got no response at all. I hate it here and can’t wait to move. All new buyers should see this.

If I could give negative stars I would totally do so. I have dealt with the employees at this firm many times. I am almost certain they are illiterate. They do not keep contact records of who I am so I need to give my address every time? Which is OFTEN! How difficult is it to have your customer list updated? They never know what is going on nor do they properly provide information in a timely manner. I believe our HOA board to be an aging group of followers that allow them to be bamboozled by this organization. The person in charge changes frequently? Their idea of information is often a poorly taped note on the mailboxes which often stays for months after??? Ironically I just received an email from one of the EMPLOYEES that stated sorry for the inconvenience but your HOA does not have a web site with us yet however you can make your payment in one of the following ways… which was in response to me trying to sign up to make my payment in one of the listed ways… and yes we do have a web access for our HOA!!! I was writing to them because they charge 18+ dollars to use the auto pay? Does this make sense? Our HOA newsletter is always complaining about nonpayment so why would they want to charge to get the money on time and securely? I strongly advise against buying in a HOA but if you must do not allow your board to choose this group!!! I have worked for a PM company and customer service was a key ingredient. This group has no clue what the term means.

If you’re looking for a property management company, think again, and do your homework and find another. If you’re a resident at one of the properties, I pity, you and feel your pain.
I’ve been a resident at one of their properties for 22 years. The customer service rep assigned to our property is lazy and non responsive, but protected by her employer. They don’t care about the «hands that feed them», unless of course, you are a board member.
It took me 3 years for a violation of the CC&Rs to get resolved. Even with all the emails I sent, clearly outlining my complaint and the CC&R violation, I kept getting the runaround or an email with possible resolutions to the problem. None that were acceptable to me or what was required by the CC&Rs.
Although they offered to assist me in finding a solution, when asked to find a company to help with this issue, it took them 3 months to finally get me the names of a couple of companies. Because they took so long, I finally found one on my own. Forwarded the CC&Rs to them. and they did an evaluation that «I» paid for. The boards decision was I would have to pay for the service if it was determined sound levels were normal. This testing was very expensive (thousands of dollars) and that «I» would have to find a company to do the testing. Everything was on ME, even though I wasn’t the one in violation of the CC&Rs.
When I received an «expert’s» evaluation that stated that this was a violation not only of the CC&Rs, but some of the city’s building codes. CIM finally stafted to do something. They asked for the evaluation. After another 3+ months, the main part of this issue has been resolved, but there is still more to this that is a violation of the House Rules, but they don’t want to deal with it.
In 2011, at the start of all this, I received a letter saying, I was inundating the Customer Service Rep with emails and I could no longer use this method of communication and that letters by US mail was the only way I could communicate with them. It was signed by the board’s president and I was told this was a board’s decision and not their’s. A couple months later the rep left the company, and we were assigned another rep. Unfortunately, the former rep returned after only a couple of months, and we were reassigned to her. A couple of weeks ago, she forwarded an email to me attaching the letter from 2011 and said NOT to email. I contacted her manager, and she said she would take it up with the board.
As Daniela K. says they are «unwilling to help». This is why you MUST stay on top of them & followup or you will NEVER get anything done.

I own a property managed by Common Interest. Our HOA dues grew from $ 300 to $ 700 for a condominium in Foster City which is already ridiculous. It seems as though they enjoy adding late fees for almost any transaction. Here’s the kicker, we paid over $ 40k for a construction job that they botched. Imagine being forced to pay $ 40,000 overnight for a problem that they created! This was a $ 10,000,000 mistake for our entire complex.
I urge you to not work with this association at all cost. I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
I repeat, do not work with this association at all cost!!!
This mistake will be a costly one!!!

Common Interest’s customer service is very poor customer service.
I wrote a very polite email in response to the package I received after buying a condo they manage. I told the customer service representative that i was going to do some light work — painting and replacing the window blinds.
To my surprise, i received a rude email with a bunch of instructions telling me that i should not change the windows or install hardwood floors. It would be nice if she comprehends emails before sending out rude emails.
NB. I am not planning on installing hardwood floors. Similarly, window coverings usually refers to drapes or blinds; I am not planning on replacing any windows.
First impressions, very poor customer service.

One star review is being very generous.
I am not surprised at all the negative reviews. Last month we received a two sentence letter stating: On June 7, 2013, it was brought to our attention that a child from your unit has wrote on the side of the building with chalk. We kindly request that you advise your child not to draw on the side of the building with chalk.
(By the way, yes I am aware of the grammar mistake. That’s how the letter was written).
As soon as I saw this letter, several points came to mind. First, we were not even living in our unit at that time. We were on vacation. Second, Common Interest did not even find out if this happened (by contacting my husband and me). It was all hearsay based on whomever reported it. If we had done it and I received the letter, I would not have minded. But to read a letter stating that your child did something when we didn’t and couldn’t have, is ridiculous. Then the letter had the typical «if you have any further questions please contact us.» So I did. There was an email address located at the top under their address so I emailed the rep, Menalyn (another reviewer wrote that he also had a negative experience with her… I’m not surprised).
In my detailed email I was polite but firm, stating that we were not living in our unit at the time and I would not allow my child to do something like that. Basically I told her that I was disappointed in the way this situation was handled and that it was not ok for Common Interest to accuse someone of doing something without finding out the facts first.
Her response? Thanks for your email. I will put it in your file.
THAT’S IT!!! So I emailed her back and made several more points. The most important one was that clearly Common Interest owes us an apology and that they need to change their protocol on these type of complaints. I said that there were many kids who lived in our complex (as well as kids who are guests of residents) and it could have been anyone. Furthermore, she should contact the person who made this complaint and let him/​her know that they made an error and to find out if this person truly saw me and my daughter.
Her response? I’ll advise them.
So basically her one sentence responses to my detailed emails shows the lack of customer service this company provides. This is the first time I have ever had contact with her (as in, I have never offended her in any way) so she has no reason to not want to help me or get this problem resolved. The only reason I can think of is that she knows she screwed up, I called her out on it, and now she’s embarrassed to admit it and is refusing to apologize. Had she just simply written something like this, the situation would have been resolved and I would have been satisfied: We made a mistake. We apologize and will handle future complaints differently.
But she couldn’t even do something as simple as that.
We are all human and everyone makes mistakes. I always tell my students that it’s ok to make mistakes and that it’s an opportunity to learn from them. I make it a point to tell them that even adults make mistakes and that it’s ok as long as you admit to it and make changes so that it doesn’t happen again.
But in this case, if you are refusing to admit fault either on your part or taking one for the company you work for, then it’s time to find a new job. Don’t work in a field where you should be providing positive, quality customer service if your solution is to be passive aggressive to someone you have never met.
And I really don’t care how many people she has helped in the past or provided decent customer service to, in this case she failed miserably and is a very poor representation of Common Interest.
Just look at how many negative reviews there are. There’s a reason for this and I’m sure their lack of customer service is a huge part. People are willing to give companies a second try if they see that the workers are working hard and doing their best. But if a place lacks customer service then it really doesn’t matter how great everything else is because who really wants to deal with this? And think of the high HOA fees we all pay every month. It goes to this company and all for what?
Like other reviews said, avoid this company. You will not regret it and be able to find another association who actually cares about the people and the properties they manage.

¹⁹⁄₁₀₀
I love writing updates that bring up low reviews to better reviews, but even love it more when I can bring up a one star review to four stars. As you can see from my first review, CIMS had a long hill to climb to come out of their hole, but climb they have and the service has really turned around. Happily, they are now staffed with professional people, like Lisa Masterson, who are organized, respectful and really on the ball. Thanks for listening CIMS.

Our townhome association was replaced with CIMS about a year ago. Since then, we kept receiving notices of ‘deliquent’ charges. This is highly unlikely since we do automatic bank pymts. Secondly, after 2 of such letters, we contacted them to ask them to research this. They assured we were up to date. I continued getting these monthly «deliquent» letters so we had contacted them once again and they told us to they will take care of it. Once i even got my neighbor’s «delinquent» letters attached to our letter by accident. i then find out they were screwing up everyone’s accounts! We were so fed up my husband had to email them, but apparently the email supplied on the template letters isn’t correct as the email bounced back!
I had to deal with them myself last month when we had rain and I had a roof leak. After careful inspection i found where it was coming from and had to call the Emergency number since it was a Sunday. I was pleased that someone came by within an hour. i found that on the same day another neighbor had a leak, too and that was probably why someone responded.
After the person gave us a bucket and told us that the association would be in touch in me, I never received a call. After 7 – 8 days i contacted them and the lady claimed she *just* got the report on her desk. I didn’t hear anything back for another week or so and called again and left a VM. She tried to call me back a day or so later, however, left me no VM about what’s going to happen (i saw that i missed a call from them that’s the only way i knew someone called). What’st he point of calling if you’re not going to communicate and leave a meaningful mesg? Then the roofer called to set up an appt to repair the roof. After that nobody ever called and we were just left hanging. We understood someone was supposed to come in and paint the ceiling but that never happened.
Upon seeing all the negative reviews of the same re-​surfacing themes is very distraughting.

The ONLY thing the staff has in COMMON is that they have NO INTEREST in helping you or maintaing the property!!!
If you can even reach them… you will get a rude response. i once called about the main light being out in the front entrance. simple you would think right? get a call take down the address/​problem and fix it… WRONG not with these people. SO RUDE AND UNWILLING to help I have no clue how they are even in business.
*****AVOID THIS COMPANY********

We used this place for a few years and I don’t think I would select them again. They look professional and seem clean. However, we have 6 times management change in 3 – 4 years. Too much!
They look good on a surface but in reality. I would say no. The speed of providing service is also pretty slow. They get back to the Board maybe next day or so. To the residents, maybe never.
Lowered to one star.