On October 19, National Fire & Safety Inspection Company solicited commercial buildings that I manage, claiming to have been sent by my management company to do fire sprinkler inspections. Five of the 10 businesses that occupy the buildings, believed the inspector and allowed him in to do an inspection.
A month later I was contacted by one of the business owners wanting to know if the Association was going to pay for the fire sprinkler inspection. I explained that I had not sent an inspection company out to the buildings, but was planning on having the 5 year fire sprinkler inspection done in the next month by the associations regular vendor. The business owner sent me a copy of the inspection report and invoice for $378.50 that National Fire & Safety Inspection Company gave them for the 3 minute inspection they did. I contacted the other business owners in the center and found that 4 of them also had unauthorized inspections performed for $295-$400... Red flags went up!
After review of a couple of the reports, we also noticed that there were items that were supposedly inspected that didnt even exist at those building.in further research of the company on the internet, I found the complaints filed on usacomplaints.com and knew we had been scammed.
I placed several phone calls and messages to the National Fire & Safety Inspection Company and finally received a call back from a guy named Tony who is supposedly the manager. He admitted that his inspector David must have solicited the businesses and that he would talk to the owner about reprimanding and/or terminating him. He gave me another number to call to get the invoices credited. The lady I spoke with was upset with Tony for giving her number out, but immediately faxed me over new invoices with zero balances.
Ive warned all of the association managers and property managers/owners that I know to be on the lookout for this company. Ive also met with the Ventura County Fire Department who is going to pass on the info to the Fire Marshall. A couple of the building owners in the association also threatened to file police reports.
0 comments