EMB Management

The most frustrating incompetent management company out there.
Don’t bother emailing them, you’ll never get a response. Like many people here we had issues with late fees that were eventually resolved but it took quite a while. After sending emails and getting no response we had to leave a couple voicemails. It was probably two months or so but it eventually got resolved.
Calling always goes to voicemail and either their mailbox is full or they have a greeting saying they’re out of the office from two months ago that they never wound up updating. Once you leave a message theres a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ chance you’ll get a call back.
When they do respond it’s like talking to a wall. We had issues with a contractor doing work on our property and they were less than helpful getting anything resolved. Never followed up with us despite trying to email and call for updates.
It also took us forever to get the resale cert. like someone else mentioned in a review.
I don’t know if maybe the property managers have too many properties to keep up with or they genuinely don’t care but I would not recommend dealing with this company if you don’t have to.

I have bought and sold in many condo communities and dealt with many management companies. EMB is the worst.
I am trying to buy in a community that they are managing. I’ve left 3 messages for someone to call me back and no response. The community is in debt so bad that I can not get a loan and will not work with my lender to refinance.
When I finally got Claire to answer my call, she was no help. I wish the hoa would realize that EMB is hurting their values.
I will repost my follow up interactions with them as I am still trying to close on my condo.

By the looks of reviews on this site I’m not the only one with complaints about EMB/​Associa. I used to live in a condo managed by EMB and after moving out have been trying to get a refund of HOA they withdrew from my account for over 8 months now. Called again today and was told since they no longer managed the condo they couldn’t do anything regarding my refund. They had 5 weeks since my last phone call to issue the refund before they were terminated as the manger of the condo but chose to do nothing let alone inform me of the change.

Horrible company to deal with. They take your money and then do absolutely nothing with it. Bogus letters which have nothing to do with the bylaws are sent to homes, no one in the neighbor is interested in dealing with the association, hardly anyone turns out to listen to them. No wonder. This is the worst homeowners property I have ever lived in. To give them one star is too many. We need to have negative numbers to rate them.

Run very far away from this unscrupulous, litigious-​hungry and incompetent property management company! I lived for 18 years in one of their managed properties in Washington state and it was by far the worse experience of my life as a homeowner. The problems started from the day I bought my condo when they tried to get me to pay the back dues accrued from the previous owner. Then tried to get me to file an insurance claim on my own insurance policy for the water damage caused by a plumbing defect not of my doing. Over the years there was a pattern of slow or non-​responsiveness to simple maintenance requests like power washing of decks and sidewalks, carpet cleaning of common areas, snow removal, etc. Decks were left to rot because nobody would power wash them on a regular basis. When most of them were inspected and needed to be replaced, EMB sent out shaming letters to the homeowners reminding them of their responsibility to keep their decks moss free. Our bylaws clearly stated that the EMB was responsible for the exterior maintenance of the buildings, including the decks. The exterior paint of the buildings were faded and discolored. Only half the complex of 40 units were repainted once in the 18 year I lived there. Comments by other Unilocal posters about the overcharging was absolutely true. I too was the victim of their sloppy accounting and overcharges for late fees. When I challenged the validity of the assessment of 3 years worth of late fees ($ 1,000), I was sent to court, costing me $ 15,000 in attorney fees and finally ending with the sale of my condo in 2013. If I had the deep pockets that this business has to hire the most vicious HOA attorneys to let loose on me, I would have fought my way to the Attorney General’s office. But I’m just a little person who tried and lost against another soul-​less company more concerned with their profit margin than doing the right thing by their customers. The mental anguish they put me through and the fact I was forced to sell my property to pay these vultures off, is irreparable.

I am the president of a homeowners association on Queen Anne and we had used EMB Management for over ten years. When they were bought out by Associa was when our problems began. They started out by letting our property manager go, who we were happy with. Then they started doing all the accounting in Dallas TX. There were so many mistakes it was incredible, starting with them charging me (and other homeowners) a monthly charge for an assessment we had already paid up front. They ended up having to reimburse me almost $ 800 that was taken from my checking account without authorization. I received the check in the mail with no letter or any kind of explanation or apology.
They also lost homeowners checks that were never found, the list goes on and on… but the worst part was when the board voted to terminate their contract we were informed that we could only terminate them in the month of May or otherwise pay them a 50% fee from the termination date until the next May! It’s something called an «evergreen» contract — hard to believe they are even legal.
We waited until Jan. 1^st to terminate and are biting the bullet and paying the 50% until May — that’s how strongly we felt about terminating their service. Also, when we sent them the termination letter we did not receive a call or anything personal from the company — just a letter from their attorney! Unbelievable to be treated so badly after being a client for over 10 years. When we started with EMB it was a decent local company, after being taken over by Associa I would absolutely not recommend them to any HOA looking for a property management company.

this is a terrible property management company. I recently received a notification that I had three late fees in 2014. The late fee date on my bills is the 16^th of each month and they charged me on the 10^th of each month. I requested a full refund on all the fees and they did 2 of them and then I had to keep emailing to get the third on taken care of.
I finally get my updated statement and wham! Another late fee charged on 10÷10÷14! Grrr! Obviously they never corrected the root problem. This is so frustrating.
I would never do business with this company if I had the choice.

To call EMB incompetent would be giving them a better rating then they deserve. Over the 3 years I dealt with them on the Bridgehaven Association Board our property manager lied to us on a regular basis, they did a financial software conversion where they were unable to produce financial statements for months, they misunderstood bids, were slow to pay our vendors and we had a bank account turned over to the state as unclaimed property because they did not return the paperwork to the bank. When we complained they patted us on the head and said everything was fixed but the issues continued.
I would recommend any property considering doing business with EMB run away as fast as they can. We hired a new manager and we are all so happy with the change.

We have lived in a community in Harbour Pointe, Washington for nearly 6 years. When we moved in to our Condominium community our home owners association (HOA) used another property management firm to oversee the property. Our ex-​president and now an ex-​resident proposed that we (our community) were being charged way too much by our property management company. The HOA deliberated for some time and decided to change to EMB Management of Bellevue, WA. It seemed okay in the beginning, but when an issue came up that needed attention, the representative, LJ Richards turned a deaf ear. We have had EMB overseeing our community for 4 years now. It has now become a precedent that if an issue should arise, we need to contact LJ Richards via email or phone and ask her to correct it. I will give some examples of LJ’s shortcomings in the paragraphs below, and then you may decide for yourself. Our HOA purchased a great deal of new mulch to help beautify our landscaping somewhat. Many of the residents here volunteered to distribute the new soil media throughout the property. I must say that it looked marvelous! I was sitting on my porch a week later and saw some young men (age 9 to 15 years) playing army with plastic nerf guns. Unfortunately, the youths were running through our newly replaced landscaping material. They trampled many of the plants and pulled branches off of the ornamental trees to use as camouflage. I also saw one of the boys deliberately jump up and down on one of the sprinkler heads. I went out and asked the boys to play elsewhere and they left, but my wife said they were back doing the same thing the next day while I was at work. I was in my home when I saw LJ Richards drive up one morning. I met her at her vehicle and shared my concern with her. In our brief meeting I explained what had occurred and showed her the damage the kids had done. I asked for her opinion in the matter and she quickly agreed with me and told me that what the kids were doing was destruction of property. I asked her if she could send an email or a letter to the parents since they would be the responsible parties for the damage. She declined and told me that she would put out a general email to all members of the community, and ask parents to talk with their children. I was at home last week when I heard some commotion in the common area. I looked out my window only to see the same children playing army in the landscaping once again. I went through me emails and noticed no general email from LJ Richards or EMB Management regarding the «Destruction of Property» that LJ Richards acknowledged. This is a no-​brainer in my book! I am not certain how much has been spent on replacement of broken sprinkler heads in our community. But one thing I do know for sure; it can be prevented by keeping the children out of there in the first place. I am not sure what is up with LJ Richards, but she is anything but professional. Lastly, we once had a problem with a next door neighbor and her barking dog. The dog would bark continually nonstop when the resident was not at home. We had the police out here 8 times and each time is well documented in my briefcase. I emailed her and I phoned her, but nothing was done. We put up with the barking for months and months to no end. I recall the most unprofessional conversation I ever had with LJ Richards. I remember the police had just left and I had filled out a statement for them. I called LJ that evening to ask what was being done to squelch this little minion. She informed me that she had been talking to the resident and her landlord regarding the barking dog. What was said after that nearly floored me; she told me that the renter and the homeowner thought I was overreacting! Overreacting! We have 8 documented incidents from the police and other residents that say otherwise. Very unprofessional indeed!
These are but a few examples of EMB Management and the funky tidily wink mentality of the persons that represent them. I really wish our HOA had not been so stupid and just held onto our previous property management firm; we would be far better off. With our previous firm if we had an issue; it was usually resolved the same day, now it may be several months. One thing I do find consistent about EMB, they always collect their money on time; it comes out direct deposit every 5^th of the month. UGH!!! Now we are stuck with them!
If it’s EMB Management? Stay away!!!

I am trying to buy a condo in one of the condo complexes that EMB Management is managing. It’s taking them over two weeks now to return the Resale cert for the condo I am buying. It typically takes 3 – 10 days. I seriously doubt whether I want to buy a unit in the condo complex they manage. I might as well start shopping for a different condo because I still don’t know when I will receive the resale cert. I don’t really have 2 months to wait for the resale cert. I also don’t want to have a hard time selling the unit in the future because EMB Management can’t produce a resale cert. I also don’t want to live in a badly managed condo complex with unresponsive property management team. They don’t seem to be very good at what they do.
Also it’s laughable that they posted a response to Lew H.‘s review 7 months after he actually posted his review. I guess that’s just their turnaround time.

Is is possible to have zero stars? They are literally the worst. They don’t care about tenants let alone even know where they live even after multiple conversations. I had serious trouble with my car getting keyed (twice) in Bellevue because people kept parking in my space. They told me to just park on the street… guess what, we don’t even have street parking. They have one measley sign covered by bushes saying it’s tenant parking only which according to them is «ample signage.» What a joke this company is. I’m moving out of my condo and I haven’t even been there a year because they are so terrible. Not even one guest spot… so lame.

Not professional — that’s the bottom line. Best not to trust the maintenance and care of a major and important investment to this organization. They have been more of a liability to me as a homeowner, then the advocate and project managers they are hired to be.

I wish there was a way to leave negative stars. This company has «managed» our HOA for more than ten years. They’ve burned through our money and our community looks like a Calcutta Slum. Nearly a quarter-​of-​a million dollars has been pumped from our bank account into the coffers of EMB. We have nothing to show for it but obtuse reports and a near-​bankrupt organization. We canned them and hope that no one else makes the mistake of bringing this clown-​car to their neighborhood.