This was a long weekend of sun, swim and sparking conversation at Palermo. Nothing laborious about it. So it was with sadness that a problem reared its head with an e-mail and attached picture (the top photo) to Positively Palermo. The e-mail read: "Penny, once again the lack of proactive management is apparent, because too often when there is a delay in trash pick-up because of a holiday, the garbage piles up at the community bins. It is compounded when renters are moving in and out since they don't know that trash placed on top of the dumpster or outside it won't be taken by PSDS. A resident after the trash guys come must put the extra junk in the dumpster and then it fills up, and it can take a couple trash day cycles to catch up, with bags of rotten trash sitting out. It is attracting rats. Our paid management service hasn't put a up a sign saying not to throw trash bags on the ground, or to break up cardboard boxes or recycle them! It's not rocket science to know when this will happen, like holidays and when VPM has people moving in and out. Help! Complaints are just answered with excuses rather than just dealing with it proactively now and in the future." Miss Penny Lane says: Agreed, this is solvable with a management service that anticipates problems, and the dear residents of Palermo should not need to worry one iota about trash containers that are full or smelling.UPDATED: Here's another picture (the bottom one) of this problem from earlier this summer.
23 comments:
Speaking of no responses... have anyone else had problems with their water heaters? Only 2 years old and the regulator is messed up and the pilot light stays lit for like maybe a day. Emailed Miss Brandi and after 3 days have heard nothing. I'm springing for the plumber tomorrow, but I'm not sure if this is something I should be paying for.
I had a problem with my water heater when I moved in.Bushore sent the plummers out 3 times as the pilot would not stay on. Then they replaced the whole heater as the parts they tried did not work. Bushore informed me that 20% of the heaters here are faulty aand had to be replaced. Hope this helps!
Whoops! Spoke too soon! Miss Brandi emailed me tonight and informed me that my utterly useless 2 year old water heater is MY responsibility. Nice to know that 20% of the water heaters here are faulty. Makes me feel so much better.
You can get a trash or recycling bin by contacting DRM but be prepared to wait. It took us 6-8 weeks to get one from them. Response time to emails needs improvement too.
Does anyone know know what day(s) the dumpsters are emptied? Is it the same day as regular garbage pick-up? Is it only once per week or is it twice?
Also, will they take the cardboard that is stacked up there, or is that in garbage/recycle limbo...
They won't take anything OUTSIDE the bin, whether it is a bag of trash, stacked up cardboard, whatever. They won't touch it, and they won't even pick up stuff that falls out of the bin as it is lifted into the dump truck. I have to get to work or I would go over there and just take the boxes and put it by my recycling container in front of my place. That picture looks terrible, whomever lives next to it can see the trash mounted over the wall. Hoe it doesn't smell too bad, at least most people don't have their windows/doors open in the summer.
My understanding is that the water heaters weren't faulty but were discontinued so getting them fixed can be a problem because of parts and other things. A neighbor had this problem. My gripe is that DRM, as the professional community managers, should share such information with homeowners. It is like every time there's a problem each homeowners has to reinvent the wheel to try to figure out how to solve it. We need a resource guide and easy ways to get answers that we all have about fix-it things. Like those letters that went out about the dents in the garage doors - they had no info about the paint colors, so how is our handyman supposed to get the paint shade right? There was no help or guidance just threats when my door was dented by security letting people park there when I wasn't even at Palermo, but the letter said I did it. How does someone who is rarely here know that? Put the effort in helping residents (we paid for that) and if DRM is such a big, great firm, can't they be "proactive" to as Penny says anticipate problems?
I agree that a sign stating these rules would be helpful. I noticed that even though this dumpster was full, the other one was nearly empty. Most people won't bother to walk/drive to the other one to dump their trash.
I will say, as an owner that is also not here very frequently, that the dumpsters are a huge convenience, especially when your departure day does not line up with garbage day.
About the water heaters...have you ever flushed out your water heater? With the high mineral content in the are, you should flush it out at least once a year.
The dumpsters are needed. The one that's near the one bedroom units is more of a problem because more people are over there but the other one doesn't fill up too. Some people don't even know that there is a second one on Melody near Breeze. VPM should notify DRM when they are move in/outs because there have been several recently and they have filled the bin. I have seen VPM renters put sofas, TVs and other big stuff outside the bin. Just a few weeks ago a new renter put a HUGE cartoon box for a child's play set that stay for days. Maybe we could have a community recycle area for the cardboard and paper.
Hey, what about the landscape lighting??? It is a problem every Spring and Fall. It 8:00 p.m. before the lighting comes on yet just a couple months ago, when it was light out until 8:00 p.m., they were on by 6:00 p.m. A professional management group understands the importance of lighting and the need to adjust it many times per year. Can't a simple sensor be installed to rectify the problem? Or at least adjust the timer once a month or so????
Is anybody having issues with their air conditioner? I had to replace my compressor after 1 year living here as it was bad. Now 1 year later the new compressor has gone out again. It is under warranty for the part but not the $850 to isntall it. What kind of crap did Enterprise install here?
I had to have my air conditioner fixed once soon about a year after moving in. I can't recall if it was the compressor (my friend was staying here and he graciously took care of it for me). However, regarding the "crap" Enterprise installed, I found out today when the plumber came to fix the water heater (fortunately a simple fix) that the regulator for all the gas, which makes a huge groan like a dying cow whenever I use hot water, was placed incorrectly. Apparently, the regulator is supposed to be near the meter which makes repairs the responsibility of the gas company. However, since it's located PAST the meter, according to the plumber, "Unfortunately, it's your problem now." He also was completely puzzled as to why on earth they would locate the regulator where they did. Hmm....
The community manager should be a resource for all this --- water heaters, air conditioners and so on. A list of repair people, common problems were all having, things to make it easier on homeowner, like someone said "so we don't have to reinvent the wheel" every time there's a piece of equipment that goes wrong. We are all in the same boat so why no take advantage of that?? There should be a "resource guide" and "repair list" and "common problems" pages on the community web site that DRM is been touting.
The gardener made the dumpster problem worse today by heaping a bunch of cut-off branches on top of the dumpster, and now it is basically filled up again from all the junk that didn't fit the first time, and it will be overflowing until the next trash day unless we get another pickup. Several groups of people looking at vacant units were here this weekend (great Advertisement! Not!) I hope they didn't check out the dumpsters. THis kind of stuff is depressing property values. Clean it up.
Also, the dog poop bags have been out in the bag stand on Melody. When will they be refilled?
VPM has said it goes through the condo rules with its clients but then why do we have their renters putting all this stuff in the trash bins?
I just reviewed the condo rules this past weekend, and unless I'm mistaken, I don't recall any verbiage about dumpster etiquette. The sign will probably be adequate for informing everyone, but shouldn't the landscape contractor take any branches, etc with them instead of putting them in our dumpster? Just a curious question...
Our A/C compressor was also replaced the weekend after we closed. The builder basically took one from another as of yet un-occupied unit. I'm sure the original one we had that failed had the same thing happen earlier! I think they did the same thing with the thermostat. We were lucky that it was early on and the builder was available to deal with these issues for us. So far, no other problems with the A/C or the water heater...although perhaps I should not have just said that out loud!
To 6:37 a.m.: I agree with your point about the sign. It should says there a 2 dumpsters, everything has to go IN the dumpster and you can call PSDS for free pick u p of big items and the cardboard must be broken down. BUt I don't think these necessarily need to be in the CC&Rs because they are common sense and the rules you must abide by in any complex. Also agree that the gardener should fill the trash bin up like that especially when it is full already. to 6:40 a.m.: I think you just jinked yourself. Knock on wood.
The good news they are working on the front gate, I guess to make it abel to open if there's a power outage. Thanks for this improvement.
Miss Penny Lane for HOA Board! Rather than hide behind your anonymous website, why don't you really make a difference and step out of the shadows?
One, the dumpster overflow is most likely owners as well as tenants. Secondly, its disapointing to see boxes not broken down and food everywhere because someone was too lazy to do the mature, responsible thing. I can only think that its because they don't care that the sanitation department workers are people too and deserve better than that.
Post a Comment