I normally don't resort to these sort of antics on my blog... but I've been left with no choice.
I've been living in a condo in downtown Toronto for the past 10 years... and with every condo comes a building manager... unfortunately I've been stuck with
Horizon Property Management Inc.
Just over a year ago I had a flood in my unit that destroyed the floor, some drywall and some of my contents... these things happen and that's why I have insurance... but when you're dealing with the condominiums insurance and your own insurance... things can become difficult... especially if your management treats work like an obligation... I was living elsewhere and my insurance company was paying the bill... I had $9000 for accommodation while my unit was being repaired... which you think would be plenty of time to get my floors and some drywall replaced... yet after waiting for two and a half months with constant follow ups to Glen Bazouzi who owns
Horizon Property Management... they still had yet to get my insurance the money for the standard fixtures in my unit so they could begin the repairs... after over three months of delay... work was finally being done and in the end I was away from home for almost four months and my accommodation had run dry... and when I returned to my unit I had noticed that my brand new Hunter Douglas blinds had been damaged by the company Glen hired to gut my unit... upon noticing this I immediately reported it to Horizon... and I was told my blinds would be returned to normal... after another three months had past and following up several times... an employee for Horizon finally came to my unit to inspect the damage... another month past and someone came to measure for my new valances... of which four needed to be replaced... he reassured me it was a small job and I would have my blinds back to normal in a couple of months... four months past and still nothing... I followed up with Glen once again... and he said... "I have no idea what happened. It's like a needle in a haystack!"... so I asked him to once again send someone to my unit so we could put this behind us... several weeks later and more phone calls Glen returned with a sample... which was a different colour than the blinds I had... and he found out that they had discontinued the blinds completely three months ago... the next offer that was made to me was that I could have stripped blinds... this was out of the question... I paid just over $1000 for my blinds new and they were less that a year old... and I wanted them to return to the way they were originally... so I told Glen that it was only fair for him to replace all the valances... it once again took several days for a reply... and when came back to me he asked my why I was so "entitled" and that this wasn't his problem any longer... it turns out Glen found out that insurance wouldn't cover the cost because it took him over a year to report it... and he would have to pay for his mistake out of his own pocket... after several written statements that he would fix the problem... now he refused out right... I threatened to take him to small claims court and Glen once again disappeared for several weeks.
Glen has proved over and over again that he and his company
Horizon Property Management are nothing but incompetent... several store fronts have remain empty in the building for years... the common areas and stairwells are always in disarray... and reporting problems with your unit or the building is met with a "it's not my problem" attitude.
Several people in the building have told me they've had problems with Glen in the past and they're less than satisfied with his service... and before you look into
Horizon Property Management for your building... consider this a warning...
Horizon Property Management should be last on your list.
UPDATE: After 14 months of incompetence and complaining my blinds were finally replaced... I think it had something to do with this blog post... Glen asked me to remove it completely... but I refuse... maybe in the future Glen will handle these types of things in a more professional manner... and treat people the way he would like to be treated.
When I started this blog my first post was about Sleigh Bells... and since then I caught them live at Wrongbar in Toronto... were they impressed... even though their set was only 30 minutes and they played to a crowd that was more interested in snorting coke off the back of a urinal then the band onstage... but still turned out to be well worth the $10 cover... their first track "Tell 'Em" from the highly anticipated album Treats which is coming out on May 11 via Mom and Pop and M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. imprint... can be downloaded from the official Sleigh Bells website here... and you can watch live video at N.E.E.T.'s site here.
