RIPAC is the managing company for Woodland Estates Condominium, of which I'm a resident. I reported about 6 weeks prior the light in the hallway on the laundry room floor being out for the side of the building in which I live. They have not fixed it as of yet. Previous management for this complex were prompt to fix problems. Allso, there has been a constant change in personel who is the contact for this company for our association to reach out to when problems arise. Other than that, they are professional to deal with.
Condo living is totally different than owning a home when it comes to maintenance. Property managers are constrained by budget and the severity of the condo owners problems. I emailed Jill Moran regarding a leak in my roof. Within one week I had an appointment for the maintenance men to assess the problem. Maintenance promptly came to my condo at the scheduled time and were wearing masks. The lead worker measured to see if my ceiling was still wet and then promptly diagnosed the problem. The next day maintenance returned and fixed my roof.
Owner at Blackstone Landing in Pawtucket and it would be hard to find a more dysfunctional property management company than RIPAC or a more poorly run building than the one I am currently living in. As far as RIPAC, they do very little for the building except collect their management fee and the condo fees. The yearly budget is a joke and fraught with mistakes and generalities that make no sense. The RIPAC representative in charge of the building refuses to attend board meetings and the yearly budget meeting because she is not getting paid to do that. She also is unprofessional and no help when it comes to getting information on the building. RIPAC has no perspective whatsoever on what is going on in the building and the budget they put together shows that. I have asked at least a dozen times for clarification on budget items with no response. The only response I have been given indirectly is that it would be too cumbersome to hand out all the receipts. All I have asked for is an accounting. I don’t want every receipt for every staple or piece of paper bought. Instead of a miscellaneous column I would like to see office supplies $100. That apparently is beyond their abilities. I have no idea how much the building manager is paid, it is tucked away in a number of columns that is top secret. The contracts that have been signed for garbage removal and other expense are all one sided against the building and there are some contracts that are $5000 more a year than other services that could be contracted with. The building is run down with no money for emergency expenditures and all added expenses are passed on to the owners. It is a mess that RIPAC is responsible for. If you are looking for a management company that cares about the building and its owners and renters, that will give you an accurate budget and will take the time to understand what is going on in the building, DO NOT CHOOSE RIPAC! Three weeks after I initially wrote this the owners were told that a section of the building needed to be repointed. The building manager indicated in an email that it was a project that has been put on hold for the last 6 years and would be starting in 4 days. It was never budgeted for this year, never discussed with the owners and the cost has been conveniently left out of the email. We just got done with an elevator project that cost 200k and the cost of that has been passed onto the owners via a new bank loan. Where is the planning? Why do the new owners have to pay for something that should have been budgeted 6 years ago? Where is the property management company in all this? As a comment to the response by the owner, I can't disagree with you more. First of all the positive comment you see is from the building manager who is running the building so of course she is going to say everything is great., but I assure you the building is not being run well. I was on the board and I don't remember any communication beyond sending me the one sided contracts that were in place. How did those get to be so one sided? The two budgets I have seen had many mistakes and omissions which I can be easily show you. Can you give your associates a few hours off in the morning to compensate for the hour it would take to go to a board meeting or annual meeting. Surely you can at least have an asoociate attend one meeting a year. I just received my bill this week for the renovation of the elevators. I now need to pay $54 a month more than what I already pay in condo fees. I was told that the payment would be $34. I thought we were paying you to help avoid that or perhaps I'm wrong. Quite frankly I'm not really sure what your role is?
Our condo board has been using RIPAC from the very beginning. Our current property manager Jill Moran stepped in and has been fabulous over the past 2 years in her duties. She is easy to work with, all I need to do is drop and email and she replies the same day. She is on top of the property management game and makes my work as a board president that much easier. Our board members just can't say enough good things about her and her work ethic so as you can imagine we are very satisfied ! Thank you Jill!
RIPAC‘S, Matthew Heiss, is excellent to work with during our transition. The maintenance program has been great-responding in a timely manner. Cheri Spagnolo has been instrumental in the transition process, as well as John Morgan and Cyndy Cooper. Their professionalism and cooperation has exceeded our expectations! Joseph Branch, President Rosedale Landing Condominium Association
Warwick, Rhode Island, 02886
winterwatch@ripac.net