The fees charged for setting up new accounts with ...

The fees charged for setting up new accounts with Access Managment have increased by 226% over the past four years. Supposedly, the amount any management company can charge for a closing letter is set by legislation to be $10. In order to get around that legislation, management companies have found more and more ways of creating a revenue stream off the backs of unsuspecting property owners.
Anyone buying a property in a development managed by Access Managment has to pay $230 as a 'new account set up fee'. The company uses a third party vendor to collect the fees for a closing letter. In addition there is a $5 fee charged when one pays the fees by credit card on the website. This is called a 'convenience fee'. Total fee that has to be paid up front in order to get the closing letter is $245!!!!!!!!! That is NOT what the legislature intended when they set the fee at $10.
Access Managment is the only vendor that collects payment prior to closing for services that are only valuable IF a closing takes place. No one else gets paid if the closing falls through. It's how the industry works. Why should management companies be the exception to the rule? Why can't they furnish the closing letter and submit an invoice like the rest of the vendors do? All vendors are paid by the closing attorney after the successful completion of the closing. It isn't like the closing can take place and the management company won't get paid! Attorneys feel as if the management company is forcing them to be a collection agency and they don't like it either.
On top of the outrageous fees, woe be if the closing letter is needed faster than a week ahead of closing. There is a substantial 'rush fee', too!
The folks who work for this company are nice, but the company policies and the increase in fees are simply outrageous.
I would not recommend any management company that charges such excessive fees to the members of the associations they represent.