I too have had a very difficult time as a homeowner in a CMG run community. I have dealt with several HOA management groups in the past in the Charleston area and found them to be for the most part, easy to work with and caring about the homeowner's and the communites they manage. My experience with CMG has been the total opposite.
I had a lien filed on my property in May even though I was making payments monthly that included my regime fee in full, administrative fees, and collection fees. I was running one month behind from a missed December payment but still paying monthly to catch up. CMG and my board sent out a flyer saying they would file liens on homeowners that were 75 days or more past due with their HOA payment. My account was not 75 days past due as I was making payments each and every month for my regime fee and then some. On April 18 I get a bill from CMG that says I owe approx 251 (regime fee and late fees) which I pay in full around April 20. That same statement says my CURRENT due is 265 which I paid in May. However before I can make that payment, I view my ledger and there is a 165 lien fee? I am stunned, as I received no notice or warning that this was coming and that a lien would be placed on my home if I did not pay X amount by a certain date. After all I had been sending in full payments monthly for months. To add insult to injury, I learn that the 165.00 lien filing fee placed on my account really cost my association and CMG 10.00 to record! No attorney was used to file this lien yet my account was being billed as if one were used. When I inquired about this 165.00 fee I was told that CMG files the liens themselves to save on the attorney costs. Then why the need for CMG to profit 155.00 at my expense when no outside legal firm was used? I thought the objective was to help the homeowner not hurt them? My covenants and restrictions only call for reasonable attorney fees to be allowed to be added to my ledger along with late fees, yet they have now tacked this onto my account and I understand have done the same thing to others in the community.
How can an HOA Mgmt. Company who is in charge of bookeeping also be the ones allowed to be the actual party to file liens on people? This is a major conflict of interest in my opinion and liens should only be filed as a prelude to foreclosure on homeowner's who are not making payments at all for several months at a time. Certainly they should not be used as a collection tactic to threaten and harass a homeowner who is sending in monthly payments and late fees.
CMG refused to remove the lien and said that my board approved it although no payment of mine had been skipped for 75 days and no entire payment was late 75 days.
Several other management companies explained their collection tactics to me which were much more reasonable than anything I had experienced with CMG. I gave them no names but asked what they thought of an HOA mgmt group playing attorney and threatening homeowners legally over small infractions and fines. I had one very well respected company tell me that to treat a homeowner that way would be to "treat them like an animal." I kind of hope no one even treats their animals that way, personally.
In conclusion, I would not recommend this management group to anyone or any community looking for a management group.in fact, I would not personally even buy a home in a community that CMG managed. That would be my first question, "who manages it?"
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