Expectations of Management Company

It is not reasonable for the MC to ignore a known and demonstrated danger to people. A hornet's nest is a property nuisance and health hazard to persons sensitive to insect venom. People who are stung can suffer unexpected life-threatening reactions. This was a known and reported hazard which occurred on common property (?). (I assume that 5' from sidewalk is on easement common property, but that is not clear from your post. In any case, the risk of injury is on common property even if it originated on private property.)

The best response would have been to barrier off the area to keep people away as a preventative action and to call Pest Control immediately to remove the threat.

Very poor judgement by your MC. They should have least sent someone to assess the risk and prevent injury to passersby.

The next best thing is self-help. In the absence of any response from MC, I would have reported to Animal Control and hoped for some remedy from your municipality to contain the problem until removal could be arranged.

Donna, I agree with Gwen and you both. When contract renewal time comes, consider a re-write of the management company's contract or shopping around.

In my county animal control is a 9-5 thing, and I extremely doubt that they'd come out for a hornet nest on private property, they'd say to call a pest control company.

I don't think it would be possible or necessary to remove all hornet nests. They build their nests high in trees and don't bother anyone. Generally you don't even see the nests until winter when the leaves come down. By then they're dead, and the nests aren't re-used.

In this rare case, however, the branch that the nest was built around broke and it fell to the ground. Surprisingly, the hornets didn't abandon the nest as one would assume.

It was on common property. As to the management contract, it is their responsibility, that was not in dispute. I was pissed by the cavalier attitude of not trying to address it last night. It posed a danger. In the time the on-call employee spent talking to me and reiterating that their policy was "bees are not an emergency" they could have actually been calling the pest control company and getting someone ASAP. I'm no end of disgusted.

Unlike honeybees, hornets can sting repeatedly. You can get a lot of stings from just a few insects.

Reasonable to some people is really unreasonable to others. Even if the majority of Board members agreed to this, there's always someone who will object and yell about board members making decisions behind people's backs - even though this type of thing is usually rare and appropriate for emergency situations like this.That said, the management company does work for the association, not the other way around, so the board can set up whatever policy it wants regarding emergencies.

Personally, I like to see the management company involved because they are responsible for the day to day. In this case, it might help to establish some guidelines as to what is truly an emergency vs. something that probably can wait until the next day (extreme danger to health or safety is a start). That would include designating who is to make those arrangements instead of having every board member jumping in - the president is perfect for such circumstances, or the vice president, if he/she isn't available.

I also agree that this employee didn't handle the situation in a customer friendly manner. Bee and wasp stings can seriously injure or kill if the person is allergic - and sometimes, they don't know that until the worse happens. But is that enough to toss the entire company? I would say no, unless this is another example of the company's piss poor service. Why not let the company president know in no uncertain terms (in writing) how the board feels about this incident and request that this person not do anything related to our HOA ever again (how the company handles that is their business).

YOU are the BOD President ... keep in mind the Management Company is and employee of the BOD. However, as the President you potentially could have called an "emergency" meeting of the other BOD members and yourselves then called a "Pest Control Company" to address the situation. The buck does not start and stop with a Management Company ... it starts and stops with the Board!

Hi Jim and others,

Actually, I did not include this information, but after getting no help from the management company I did call about 7 or 8 pest control companies. However, what I found is, if you call after hours you get a recording that immediately separates those calls from people with contracts and those without. If you have no contract with them, you will get a call back in the morning. Presumably, those who do have contracts will get a quicker response.

So, to sum up, I was unable to get any pest control company that could help. The management company, who I assume DOES have a contract, would have been able to at least try to get action before 9 AM the next day.

Never assume anything - since this incident have you ASKED if they have a contract with any pest control company? If not, that explains why they didn't react as quickly (although that doesn't excuse the representative's attitude).

This may be a good time to talk with the company about how it generally handles emergencies - perhaps you may need to have a set of contractors you or they can contact. Since pest control appears to be the issue here, maybe your association should consider some type of service contract to deal with the wasps or anything else with wings and a stinger (or fur and fangs, or....) Then, you can set some guidelines on what constitutes an emergency and how it will be handled. If you stay with this company, make sure you get the specifics in writing so there's no confusion.

Thank you, those are good points.

Would any pest control company have a contract that is only for infrequent, unforeseen events? I would guess not. I imagine they would have contracts for continuing work, monthly tasks, etc. For something like this we are likely to be out of luck and would have to rely on hiring a company for a single visit -- no chance for after hours work.