The Beacon HOA

Terrible building and management. They never answer their phones, they don’t have any inclination to help when they do pick up. Not a good HOA. Go with 170 King St instead, worth the extra money

I’m really happy that the Beacon HOA has a separate page than the Beacon, because they really are on two different levels.
The Beacon as many of you may know is a beautiful building that is conveniently located with 2 hot tubs, a heated outdoor swimming pool, gym and dog park. I did my research, and decided that there was no other building in SOMA I would rather live in.
But what they don’t tell you about is the HOA. You pay $ 700 a month for their «services». Its a little ridiculous where this money goes. They constantly have people in touching up the walls and repainting where needed. They have people scrubbing the cement outside of the building constantly. You have to pay $ 250 to get ANYTHING delivered. Even if its a side table. This cost covers them putting up padding in the elevator and repainting the walls where needed again. They pay a pool guy to come in every single day, but somehow one of the hot tubs was greenish and smelly for a month, and the other one was cold with broken jets. I think you get the point.
And instead of making you feel warm and welcome, they try to nit pick and penny pinch constantly. With the amount that we pay to live here, I would expect them to be more of a service than a nuisance. I wouldn’t let them stop you from living here. But just make sure that you read all of the fine print… or they will find someway to charge you ;)

I just moved into the building an it turns out that the HOA has been changed and is now managed by the same company that manages Infinity. Kevin at the office was extremely nice and is working hard to fix building defects. He gave me a tour of the place and it seems HOA is doing a great job now. By end of 2013 all issues should be sorted out.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME RENTING, BUYING, or LIVING HERE! The property is managed by Titan Management Group with RUDE property managers at 260 King /​250 King. Incompetence of the property managers are overwhelming. Items not repaired continue… all with an HOA team that is unable to realize we need a new property management team. If I could give a «0» rating, I would.

If I could give them 0 or negative stars, I would. The one girl, not naming names, is the most non-​responsive, useless conveyor of information ever.
I wanted to get rid of a few large things out of my unit so sent her an email and voice mail two weeks in advance asking her if I needed to book the elevator. No response.
A week and a half later, another email and voice mail — no response.
I finally go into the HOA office with less than a week to spare, explain that I’m moving my couch, dining room table and some boxes out on this date, do I need to book the service elevator? The woman there tells me, ‘yes, you’ll need to fill out these forms and send them back to us’.
I take the forms, find out that they’re considering it a move (I’m not moving out) and require the moving company’s insurance, etc. Fine, I send it to the movers, they fill it out and send it back to me. I proceed to email it to her, (this is 2 days before the move, the movers are scheduled on Sunday) and I still don’t get a response from her. I finally call the front desk in a panic, telling Jason my situation and he tells me he’ll relay the msg and get her to call me back. I finally call her immediately at 9am, and hallelujah, she picks up. I tell her I have submitted the forms, am I ready for the movers? What does she tell me? «Oh, our policy is you can’t move on a Sunday» What?!
why didn’t you tell me this two weeks before? why didn’t you tell me this when i showed up at the HOA office to pick up the forms?!
Well, of course, i’m fuming at this point, I’ve already booked the movers, and she hasn’t been responsive in two weeks. I tell her she has to pay and work with the movers. She calls my movers, and tells me on one end, she’s working with me, then to my movers, tells them that she needs them to move first thing Saturday, instead of Sunday. Keep in mind, i’m losing a packing day now, I did not anticipate this to all take place with 3 days. Finally, and thank god my movers were a god sent, she has me moving on Saturday morning instead of Sunday. Not happy, but atleast, the service elevator is mine. All is fine?
She then sends me an email telling me she needs a $ 250 personal check and a $ 500 deposit. I argue, I“m not moving out, I’m getting rid of furniture, so some more back and forth, and finally she tells me, anything above 7 items is a move. I tell her I won’t have more than 7 items, she says fine, but she still needs the $ 500 deposit. Why all this wasn’t conveyed to me two weeks in advance, or when i showed up at the HOA office is unknown to me.
Friday afternoon, now, I get another email from her, asking for a $ 70 check? or she won’t let me use the elevator until I get it. What for?! Apparently, to use the service elevator. I say fine. I can’t fight her at this point, I’m stressed and upset about this whole ordeal. I ask her when she needs this check. She says by 5pm Friday. I work in South Bay, 1.5 hours away from the damned HOA office, you can imagine how pissed off I am. I won’t make it back in time. So I ask my boyfriend to do this on my behalf, because there’s no way I’ll get back in time. He shows up, rushes to the office and gets told that personal checks aren’t accepted, it has to be a cashiers check! I have in writing that she accepts personal checks. I find out later, that personal checks are only for home owners, since I’m only renting, it needs to be a cashiers check. Again, nowhere on the documentation, nor did she ever mention this to me in prior emails. Fast forward to 4:52 on Friday afternoon, my boyfriend has the cashier check in hand, and because he’s careful and diligent, and knows what I’ve gone through with the HOA office, he asks, «Is there any other forms, or anything else we need to fill out, so that we won’t have a problem tomorrow?» This same woman, then proceeds to tell him that yes, I need to fill out a delivery form, not the moving form, since it wasn’t a move. You think that she would have mentioned it in the email when we agreed it was a ‘delivery’ and not a ‘move’. And since he’s not a tenant in the building, he can’t sign this new form. Can you see the red in my eyes?
As I’m still on a train back from San Jose, and there’s now 4 mins before 5, my boyfriend has to call up my roommate who is on her way to pick up her boyfriend from work, to turn around and come sign this form (luckily she was close by). She comes in, fills the forms, (she’s upset with them for other reasons) and finally, the nightmare is over. The only thing I can say is, i’m sorry I didn’t move out completely. What a horribly run office!

If I was an owner here, I’d be pulling my hair out. Every week I get a ludicrous email with the exact same thing copied and pasted from last week saying that the window cleaning is «on hold.» It has been on hold for more than 6 months now. In the same email, it says that the spa will be fixed. Again, more than half a year, nothing done. Someone carved the word «DICK» into the elevator and nothing has been done to fix it. If I was an owner I’d be outraged. In fact, I am semi-​outraged because HOA is 800/​month and i’m getting nothing back from it (and i’m indirectly paying it through my rent). Luckily, I own houses in a place with a much better price to rent ratio, and I pay for my rent here with that rent money I make there.

I have lived in many buildings. This building is very nice but the management office is absolutely terrible in all dealings I have had. The Front Desk is awesome though. The team of Paul, Jayson, Wale, etc are all great and do a fantastic job as well as Maintence led by Rod. I give these groups five stars but management is terrible so 2 stars.
Whenever I ask the management office about something I would be told Thanks for your info and we will get back to you. I never hear a word after asking several times. Luckily the guy who did this is finally gone but I dont think it is getting better. As of now it has taken them 6 months and counting to fix the TV in the gym which had a problem with electrical aspects but they keep saying it will be fixed in a month the last 3 months and at the last step of the process. I am sure this will go on for another month. They also have a suggestion area for the gym but seem to never listen to suggestions. Now the side door has been inoperable due to a part on order that will be several weeks. Fed ex has overnight shipping and I am sure there is more than one company that can provide a part to make a door operable so we dont walk an extra block to enter our building on the Amicis side. If I was an owner here and not a tenant I would strongly encourage them to improve the service in the management office. They could learn a few tips from the front desk and management. Maybe it will improve with the new people coming on board now. Time will tell.
UPDATED
Have to say the new head of the building named Kim Londt is doing a good job. She sends updates on projects and when they say they are fixing something by a certain time they get it done and if not really explain the entire situation. Major improvement by the HOA office.