Dear WEHO,
There’s a huge problem we are having with Athens Services. I have lived on Kings Road for 26 years and on the HOA board for over 20 years. We recently learned that Athens has been over billing us for 4 pick ups a week since at least 2015 or earlier. The HOA never sees the bill as it goes to our property manager and when we learned of this and spoke with staff, the men in our route we confirmed that they have always picked up our trash twice a week. However an audit of our bills shows they have billed us for 4 pick ups a week and this has cost us around 3.5k a year in over charges. The gross negligence, malfeasance and denial without evidence by Athena and the silence by the City Manager is atrocious and we strongly believe other properties may have or are being over charged by Athens which replaced continental years ago as our trash service.
I think this might be worth investigating by you as you have done a great job with the whistleblowers and the issues with the city and some of its vendors.
I also believe that prior to bills being sent electronically they were mailed which might add mail fraud to a possible legal action. I am reaching out to others to see if they have had issues with Athens and would like to know if the City has kept a record of complaints about Athens.
Ms Masterson, the government liaison between the City and Athens has proven worthless. There is no gps or photographic evidence of 4 pick ups a week and as I run my brands from home I know when they pull out the dumpster on Tuesday and Thursday and that is it. They are lying and we are looking at our options. I know we cannot be the only client with this issue of being over charged consistently even after we informed them of their error. We are a 12 unit community and 3.6k (give or take due to rate increases) times 20 plus what we are charged and over charged for green and blue bins is a crime.
Thank you,
Scott Ables
I was an HOA President for a few years, and Treasurer prior. The city has nothing to do with this unless and until one can demonstrate a pattern of overcharging. It’s the Board’s fiduciary responsibility to know where the money goes, not the city’s. This HOA could bring an action against both their property manager and Athens to see who wants to pay. Unless and until there’s evidence of something more than an undetected billing error, the HOA is on the hook for this.
Thanks for the reporting! I’m checking in with our property manager for our HOA>
I have a question about Athens too. I have a single family dwelling. I get one pick up a week of all three bins. This has always been paid on my property tax bill. A year ago Athens started billing me every quarter for roughly $30. I have paid it but have been wondering if this is legitimate?
This is very unfortunate however I’m not detecting ANY responsibility whatsoever of the Boards part for not knowing this since 2015, especially for such a small building, regardless of your property management. The Board has the responsibility to know where every penny is going and you’ve not had an audit in 10 years?
I’m just wondering… Our building gets the blue and green recyclable containers picked up on Monday, and the dumpster garbage picked up on Tuesday.
I’m just a tenant, so I wonder if our landlord is paying for two pick ups… One regular and one recyclable? or if that’s considered one pick up?
and if your HOA is being charged separately for recyclable pick up and regular garbage pick …which would make it four pick ups a week instead of two?
It’s just a question I thought I’d ask, and I hope you’re not getting ripped off!
Hey there is a serious problem with the comment section❗ We are completely unable to do ANY text formatting, add any hyperlinks or upload any pictures that support our arguments. Even html codes are NOT working.😱