Should I complain? HOA/Snow plow service question...

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We pay HOA dues and part of those dues includes snow plow service for those roads not plowed by the state. My street is one of those that will be done by the snow plow service.

Yesterday--they came and plowed the MIDDLE of the street. Went over it once, then did a repeat, then left. There are driveways just on one side of the street and they failed to plow 6 feet (roughly a car width) of snow the length of the street. I ended up calling to ask about it. They said that they plow for emergency vehicles and typically come back after they do everyone in the neighborhood.

FTR: Last two times they had to plow for snow/ice events, our whole street was plowed.

Well, I had to run somewhere, and ended up having to shovel a section of the road so that I could get out. When I returned, at the start of my street, I had to use the momentum of the van to enter the street as my wheels would spin over the supposedly plowed center section. This was a mild issue since I have to go UP a little hill to get onto my street, thus it wasn't an issue when I left.

My husband got home last night from being out of town at around 6pm. But he was home a solid half hour before he came inside. He had to park in the middle of the street and grab a shovel to shovel an entry point for himself. (I had shoveled his section of the driveway for him and just never considered the plow folks wouldn't ever come back).

So should I call the HOA again to just let them know the plow people never came back?

It is now snowing again and it would be nice that should plowing be required that I don't have to shovel the road again. (Doubt that that will be needed, but we were okay with this HOA b/c it included snow removal on our street.)

Thanks for reading.

 

[Hoodie]

I would definitely complain. We pay for snow removal as well. Last year, as you know, we were hammered - but the contractor not only didn't shovel the sidewalks for 2 days (we ended up doing them with our neighbors) but literally didn't even plow once between the 2 big storms. Anything that was removed was done because all the neighbors came out to get everyone's cars out.

After LOTS of complaints, the HOA switched contractors. This year they have been WONDERFUL. We had the parking lots, streets, and sidewalks plowed out of 10+ inches before dawn yesterday. Better than the county!

Good contractors are out there, but so are a lot of lazy ones.


eta: they are out there again today to eliminate the snow piles left by the plow. Yesterday we had dry pavement - which was unheard of last year.

 

[snowywhite89]

We pay HOA dues and part of those dues includes snow plow service for those roads not plowed by the state. My street is one of those that will be done by the snow plow service.

Yesterday--they came and plowed the MIDDLE of the street. Went over it once, then did a repeat, then left. There are driveways just on one side of the street and they failed to plow 6 feet (roughly a car width) of snow the length of the street. I ended up calling to ask about it. They said that they plow for emergency vehicles and typically come back after they do everyone in the neighborhood.

FTR: Last two times they had to plow for snow/ice events, our whole street was plowed.

Well, I had to run somewhere, and ended up having to shovel a section of the road so that I could get out. When I returned, at the start of my street, I had to use the momentum of the van to enter the street as my wheels would spin over the supposedly plowed center section. This was a mild issue since I have to go UP a little hill to get onto my street, thus it wasn't an issue when I left.

My husband got home last night from being out of town at around 6pm. But he was home a solid half hour before he came inside. He had to park in the middle of the street and grab a shovel to shovel an entry point for himself. (I had shoveled his section of the driveway for him and just never considered the plow folks wouldn't ever come back).

So should I call the HOA again to just let them know the plow people never came back?

It is now snowing again and it would be nice that should plowing be required that I don't have to shovel the road again. (Doubt that that will be needed, but we were okay with this HOA b/c it included snow removal on our street.)

Thanks for reading.

Either call the HOA or move to Minnesota.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Either call the HOA or move to Minnesota.

I think I'll call the HOA.

On the positive side--the roads the DOT did were fantastic.

 

[sunnyday123]

Either call the HOA or move to Minnesota.

 

[bicker]

I think a lot of HOAs and condos are running out of snow removal budget.

We go back and forth between per-inch contracts per-season contracts. I hope we did per-season this year!

 

[Christine]

I would call; however, depending on what the contract states, they may only be required to plow a swath up the center and that's that.

We have an HOA and they stopped paying for snow removal services a long time ago. The reason was some liability issues plus, VDOT is required to plow everyone's neighborhood at some point.

Now, even when VDOT does come, it is hit or miss. Sometimes we get the one swipe down the street, which is all that is required, or like in this storm, we got curb to curb service. Beautiful.

So based on what the contract states, they may have fulfilled their obligation. I don't know. But it stinks when they leave those big piles on the roads because they take forever to melt.

 

[shortbun]

You guys are lucky you get a plow. In my neighborhood, the men, viral women and kids get out and shovel the whole street and sidewalks every big snow.

 

[piperdown]

I seriously feel for you guys. I'll take my 100 degree Texas summers over your winters!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I think a lot of HOAs and condos are running out of snow removal budget.

We go back and forth between per-inch contracts per-season contracts. I hope we did per-season this year!

In this case---it isn't the case.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I would call; however, depending on what the contract states, they may only be required to plow a swath up the center and that's that.

We have an HOA and they stopped paying for snow removal services a long time ago. The reason was some liability issues plus, VDOT is required to plow everyone's neighborhood at some point.

Now, even when VDOT does come, it is hit or miss. Sometimes we get the one swipe down the street, which is all that is required, or like in this storm, we got curb to curb service. Beautiful.

So based on what the contract states, they may have fulfilled their obligation. I don't know. But it stinks when they leave those big piles on the roads because they take forever to melt.

I called, part of the neighborhood is VDOT and the others is paid for private. Dues help cover the paid for private. And they are supposed to do the WHOLE street, not a partial and certainly not leave a strip of slush so it can refreeze at the entry point to the street.

It seems ridiculous to me.

 

[njmom47]

I would complain to the HOA.
I also live in a townhome development. Last year's snow removal cost us an additional $30 a month for 8 months! The snow removal was ok.
This year, we must have a new company and they are doing a WONDERFUL job! All us "old timers" know the "snowstorm protocol" and help each other out. There are new neighbors who didn't come out to shovel until after the plows had been by. Needless to say, they were the first ones to jump into a perfectly clean parking spot that someone else had cleared. Rude! (We don't have assigned parking)
My dh and ds are 2 of the first people out there with the shovels.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I'm reading this and still confused. Are you wanting your entire street cleaned and not the a row plowed through the neighborhood?

If you aren't satisified with your plow person then you should contact your HOA people but considering your plow person is probably contracted to several neighborhoods he isn't going to clean the entire street when it's start getting this kind of inches.

Last year we had a great plow man that made a strip through our neighborhood and plowed enough so we could turn onto the main street of the neighborhood. It was left up to us to dig out anything further. A few days later another plower in a little backhoe came through piling up the snow from the curbs that the plow had thrown.

I don't think you are going to get your entire road cleaned and is partly your responsibility to shovel the thrown snow at the foot of your driveway or at least that is what I have been taught. It's all just a pain in the butt. I told my husband I'm going to get a winter boy toy to shovel and I'll pay him in baked goods

 

[Christine]

I called, part of the neighborhood is VDOT and the others is paid for private. Dues help cover the paid for private. And they are supposed to do the WHOLE street, not a partial and certainly not leave a strip of slush so it can refreeze at the entry point to the street.

It seems ridiculous to me.

Then I would call. The HOA should know if the contractor is doing a crappy job. They pay good money for those services and they pay, most of the time, whether it snows or not. There are plenty of other contractors in the area looking for more work so it's definitely worth a complaint to them. The worst part is that once the snow packs down onto the treat and creates those icy areas, it is almost impossible to remove with standard equipment.

Last year, the contractors did a bad job on the main road into my parent's neighborhood. They had to call VDOT to come out and they broke special equipment to break up the ice patches.

It's really unfortunate that your street is private because I do think VDOT does a good job.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I'm reading this and still confused. Are you wanting your entire street cleaned and not the a row plowed through the neighborhood?

If you aren't satisified with your plow person then you should contact your HOA people but considering your plow person is probably contracted to several neighborhoods he isn't going to clean the entire street when it's start getting this kind of inches.

Last year we had a great plow man that made a strip through our neighborhood and plowed enough so we could turn onto the main street of the neighborhood. It was left up to us to dig out anything further. A few days later another plower in a little backhoe came through piling up the snow from the curbs that the plow had thrown.

I don't think you are going to get your entire road cleaned and is partly your responsibility to shovel the thrown snow at the foot of your driveway or at least that is what I have been taught. It's all just a pain in the butt. I told my husband I'm going to get a winter boy toy to shovel and I'll pay him in baked goods

I can only go by what our HOA stated.

And if I'm going to hire a boy toy, I'd like a reduction in my HOA fees as I don't wish to pay twice.

 

[tiggersbombed2]

I would complain, that's so wrong. Seriously wrong. You pay for the service, they should complete the service. They probably had other places to be and were short staffed or over booked so were giving everyone mediocre service. The should be short payed.

 

[manning]

Be careful. My heart doctor told me no more shoveling, even with a snow blower.. He said anyone over 50 should not shovel. I can still mow lawns. It has to do with the cold.

 

[bicker]

If you're paying for work (per inch), instead of for results (per season), then all that matters is whether work is being undertaken. That's why the per-inch versus per-season thing is so important. When we buy things, we always love to think we're buying results. Unfortunately, results often cost a lot more than work.

For example, if I hire a piano teacher, I'm going to pay per lesson, not for each level of my achievement. If I hire a personal trainer, I'm going to pay per session, not for each inch I lose or each extra pound of weight I'm able to lift.

Now there are people out there who will sell results, but generally the price is higher, and folks generally like a lower price, even when it comes with no guarantee of certain desired superior results.

Even when we do pay by season, what you're paying for has to be spelled out, or you are entitled to nothing more than some snow being moved around. Anyone who negotiates a results-based contract, without outlining what the evaluation criteria are for the results, does not know what they're doing.

In our case, we outlined what was to be cleared (roadways, driveways, walks, steps, stoops), when they were to be cleared (within 3 hours of the snow reaching a depth of 3 inches, or something like that), when the clearing was to be redone (ever 3 inches, maybe), and so on.

Even then, we could have done better, like specifying that, in clearing the driveways, it was essential to leave 24 feet of clearance - as it is now, our driveway is such that we can only get one car and and out of the garage at a time, because toward the street there are huge mounds of snow, overlapping the left and right front-corners of the driveway. We could have insisted that our guest parking be cleared instead of used for snow dumping. And I'm sure something could have been specified that would have resulted in us not having the only sheet-of-ice-road in the town.

I suspect, though, that if we wanted better snow removal, like that, that there would be a price for it. What we're paying is pretty-much for what we're getting. If we're not completely happy with certain aspects (as indicated above), then that's mostly because we didn't make clear what we wanted, and get someone else to agree to that level of quality of service. It's not a one-sided thing: We can't just order someone to do what we want for the price we want to pay. It has to be a mutually-acceptable agreement.

And in that light, I don't think most of us, here in our condo, would really want better service. What we're getting is absolutely less-than-perfect. However, the alternative would likely have badly eaten into the fixed-incomes of many of our owners.

Some owners do complain, just to be sure we're getting the most we're entitled to from our service, but at some point they'll just refer back to the contract and remind us that we're getting what we paid for.

 

[parrotheadlois]

I'd call up the management office (wherever you pay your dues to) and ask what is the expected procedure. Send them a picture of your area and show them what it looks like.

I know everyone association is different. Our plow guys are great. They have a procedure. First the outside circle (for emergency vehicles), not just one circle around - it's cleared, the the little cul-de-sacs (right up to our garage doors), then the sidewalks, then the porches.

I think you deserve better service.