All Forum Posts by: April Griffith

I feel like that's applicable only for a commercial/multi-family unit. For someone to go out and shovel a sidewalk on a single-family twice a day is excessive. But thank you for the input!

@Caleb Heimsoth Single family with a short, one-car driveway and small amount of sidewalk.

@Don Spafford Single family. I don't believe the PM is overcharging since I have the invoices directly from the vendors. The place is currently empty (it's being renovated). Omaha definitely had multiple days of snow in a row, but who in the world would hire a vendor to go shovel twice in a day?

Unfortunately, I just hired this PM within the last year because I was unhappy with my prior PM. I'd been pretty happy with the new PM until now...

@Caleb Heimsoth Omaha, NE

As I figured, my property manager is saying these charges are legit.

My original email:

"I'm looking at the contractor invoices, and there are several times where both vendors supposedly went out to the property on the same day, removing significant amounts of snow. Both vendors are charging separately for snow removal on the same day for the following dates:

Jan 23 (one removed 3-5", another removed 2-4"; actual snow fall for Jan 22 was 5")
Feb 7 (one removed 0-3", another removed 2-4"; actual snow fall for Feb 4-7 was ~2")
Feb 10 (one removed 0-3", another removed 2-4"; actual snow fall for Feb 10 was 2.5")
Feb 17 (one removed 4-6", another removed 5-7"; actual snow fall for Feb 14-17 was 7")
Feb 24 (where they both supposedly removed >9" of snow each; actual snow fall for Feb 23 was 7.5")"

Here was his response:

"That said, this year we had nonstop blizzards which made the record books. In fact, it snowed almost the entire month. You have to remember that snow blows around and if it snowed 5 inches, it likely drifted 10 inches by the end of the day. In fact, the city had trouble keeping up with snow removal and 2 and 3 lane streets were down to 1 lane for part of the month. This article explains a lot: https://www.3newsnow.com/weather/weather-blogs/omaha-snow-now-running-two-times-average-for-season

Yes, $1,400 [actually $1666] sounds like a lot by any metric, but with a vendor charging $50-$60 per visit, it adds up quickly, especially when the snow fell literally the entire month of February and a good chunk of January and March. Couple this with the fact that snow needs to be cleared multiple times per day and you can understand how a bill of that size can be possible. My own house had to be shoveled 20-30 times this Winter for that reason."

I'm just not sure that I buy "blowing snow" as a reason for multiple charges on the same day five separate times.

I called each vendor, but I have their invoices so I'm not sure how much further assistance they can provide.

The vendors my property manager used are Pro Grass and Robert's Turf Services.

I use a property management company, and they used two vendors for snow removal at my house (short one-car driveway, small amount of sidewalk in Omaha, NE). Between Jan 23 and Mar 2, I'm being charged almost $1700 for snow removal. We did have multiple days of snow, but the problem is, when I looked at the invoices sent by these two vendors, they both supposedly went out to the property and removed snow on the same day on five different occasions--and the amount of snow they removed adds up to about twice the amount of snow fall for that day and the days preceding the snow removal. In one case, they both removed over 9" of snow, even though the snow fall was only 7.5".

I've pointed this out to my property manager, and I'm waiting for them to respond, but I have a feeling they will insist on me paying the full amount.

How would you proceed in this situation?