Archer Property Management

Archer is no longer managing our co-op. He was terminated August 2012 after one year on the job.

When we hired Archer, our Board was emphatic about what it wanted Archer to do. We wanted an evaluation of our superintendent with write-ups if he was not performing. We wanted at least three competitive bids for the many projects needed. We wanted Archer to evaluate our financials and suggest ways we could improve efficiency. Finally, we wanted Archer to effectively communicate with shareholders.

We received nothing that we asked for. Our property agent was a lost cause. She was arrogant, wrote very poorly and failed to communicate with the shareholders. Instead of evaluating our super, she made our super the top dog, giving him free reign to purchase goods through vendors, all without informing the Board. We asked for monthly financials and a budget and were stonewalled for the first 3 months –they refused to give us information about how they were spending our money!

Archer gave the super complete control. Why? I believe Archer wanted to reduce his workload and move quickly onto his other co-ops. Our experience was that our property manager would drive by only once a week and speak with the super for a half hour outside of the building. She didn't even bother to go in and personally inspect our building. Meanwhile, the building's physical appearance suffered.

Regarding the evaluation of the super, which was so badly needed and specifically requested of Archer…nothing was done. One can only guess why Archer failed to write-up our consistently non-performing super, even when his obvious performance failures were brought to Archer's attention by members of the Board. Archer supported the super when the assistant super, who had a far better work record, was falsely accused in a security issue. Archer threatened the assistant super with a “suspension” from his duties.

With regard to competitive bidding, we never received the promised three bids on any project.

Archer was a failure in financial planning. The bookkeeper made several errors including overcharging the co-op $50000 for insurance. The books were kept on a cash-only basis; one would not know our actual financial condition until the year-end outside audit was completed. Archer had no expertise in constructing an annual budget. Shareholders were charged late fees because maintenance payments were misallocated.

A shareholder was at first denied access to current financial reports even though the proprietary lease permitted such access. The STAR credit was not credited according to the custom established in our building – once, in total, during the month of December. Archer never even asked the Board what had been the customary practice before he split the payment over two months – December and January.

The superintendent staff was forbidden to speak to the shareholders about anything but immediate repairs to their unit. All communications had to go through the property manager, who we later discovered, did not tell the Board of all the complaints or requests she received from the shareholders. We learned five months' later that a shareholder's request to review the monthly financials had never been communicated to the Board. This created the impression that the Board was non-responsive to shareholders, when it was the property manager who had failed to meet her duty to the Board.

Needless to say, shareholders consistently complained that our property manager was often non-responsive and had a negative attitude.

In summary, Archer failed in all of his duties to manage our co-op.

DO NOT HIRE ARCHER.