BENCHMARK MANAGEMENT SVC LTD

Our Co-Operative has had no fewer than 3 different agents assigned to us in as many years by Benchmark Management. Communication with them by phone rarely gets you talking with the currently assigned manager, and call backs from anyone in Benchmark seldom happen. Emails from shareholders to the manager regarding property management issues, contracted work issues and account issues go unanswered for days and weeks on end, if they are answered at all. Contractors they recommend to do major work have done poor and sloppy work, with simple jobs such as painting a lobby having to be done twice, as well as tiles in a vestibule that were allowed to be laid without properly prepping the sub-surface, causing them to crack within a week. Other contractors they have recommended have done jobs without any supervision, having left secure doors open over night, not properly warning shareholders to close and lock windows in a timely manner when fire escapes and pointing was being done, and one contractor even started working before permits were in place, and continued to work after their expiration due to length of time they were allowed to drag out their work. Even just now, I had to send a third email in less than a week regarding our broken garage door that has not worked properly for a year, and only today, after trying to call them several times and receiving an operator stating their phone number was not in service, I did get an email back from the assigned manager. I would venture a guess the sudden promptness was because I prorated and reduced my monthly maintenance payment to reflect the lack of service. The manager stated, and I quote: "We are hoping the garage door will be repaired tomorrow but with the weather we're having today we do not yet know if it has caused any delays." Not quite sure what that means except that the garage door is not being repaired yet again today, Having served on the board and thus having worked with several of their agents and president first hand, I can honestly say they have not lived up to expectations, and were I still on the board, would vote to remove them in favor of another company.