FirstService Residential Reviews 346

I am writing this review in response to the constant ignorance and terrible customer service I received from this company and its regional property manager, ryanne ramirez. I have never seen a company this money-hungry, unresponsive and dismissive after so many phone calls and emails. First, it is charging inflated and unfair payments with no explanation that even your customer service agents cannot properly describe on the phone. There is no official document or any description for these comical charges on resident portals. These charges include, not just only late fees, but returned item fees, collection fees, insufficient item fees, interest fees, etc. This is nothing but a rip-off, especially when there hasn't been any substantial improvement in your community for years. Second, after stating that multiple times over the phone and emails, I will take legal action against this company if nothing is being done to refund these charges, I still get no meaningful response, except 2 screenshots of the refund being processed for almost 2 months by now. I call again and email only to witness more ignorance from the property manager, who I do not understand why this person even occupies this position, if you do not care about the complaints of your residents. I have understood that this person does not want to solve problems, only to prolong them even more and delegate it to other responsible people. This is not customer service. This is certainly not doing your job based on established standards. Third, I will call again today to ask for help one more time. If nothing relevant is being done, I will take reasonable action against this company, as it is deserved from the low-grade unprofessional performance I have witnessed.

They are advertising all the time for concierge guards. Why ?
Possible issues.
Their clients suck
They suck — and badly
STAY AWAY—— read 1 rating reviews

This company does resale certificate for the HOA we are buying a home from and we paid for the expedited service for 3-5 days. It has been over 10 days and their customer service told me to call back another day because there is a tornado in the area. They wouldn't even look up the reason for the delay and our closing date has to be postponed due to their lack of service. They are holding this transaction hostage and will not answer when it will be released.

If you are looking for a management firm that collects checks and not much else, this is the right company for you. Anything else is really outside of their area of expertise. Don't count on them to proactively manage those funds to mitigate risks, find more cost-effective means of providing services or mitigate the need for significant special assessments or consistently apply HOA requirements. Oh and responsiveness ... don't worry about that either although I will say that our latest POC is an improvement over the past couple but the bar was low. Subsequently, not a company I would recommend for any HOA needs and date of experience should actually reflect just over 4 years.

This company is useless. They don’t talk to you. They don’t call you back. You send them letters pictures. They do absolutely nothing terrible. They’re full of shit. I’ve had them for 21 years. They’re terrible. They should be put in jail.

Rico Pasamba is the manager for Harmon Cove Towers in New Jersey. I was directed to contact him regarding an issue I was dealing with in one of my units, and unfortunately the experience has been extremely frustrating and unprofessional.

Rico initially told me he would look into the issue and call me back with an update. That call never came. After waiting, I followed up with multiple emails asking for an update and received no response. I also attempted to call several times, but my calls were ignored. Eventually, he completely stopped responding altogether.

To make matters worse, when I asked for the contact information for his supervisor so I could escalate the issue, he refused to provide it. This has now been going on for months with absolutely no resolution to the problem in my unit.

What’s even more concerning is that I own another unit in a completely different building, in a different state, that was also managed by FirstService Residential. That building recently replaced FirstService Residential with another management company specifically because of the poor job they were doing managing the property. Based on my experience, I completely understand why.

Between the lack of communication, the refusal to escalate issues, and the complete disregard for resolving problems, this has been one of the worst property management experiences I’ve dealt with. I would strongly recommend that any HOA or property owners carefully reconsider using FirstService Residential if they expect responsive management and accountability.

Apparently, after 55 years living in the same house, this management company stops sending bills and does not notify any us for several months after the payment is late.

From the time First Residential Collections notice was received and payment was immediately made, they charge interest. The immediate payment in their mind was not enough.

An attempt for information was responded to a month later without any reference to the original complaint about not receiving bill.

I suspect a combination incompetence and agism. Companies like this love to take advantage of older ladies.

I am the owner of a condominium unit at Governor’s Pointe II Condominium in North Brunswick, New Jersey. I own it since it was built in about 1985. It is managed since last several years by First Service Residential and Donette Mabes is the site manager along with her assistant Lisa Carniglia. Both of them are a great team and provide excellent customer services.
First Service Residential & the Board maintains community in great shape, develops timely rules/regulations & amendments to keep up with changing situations.
I have known Donette Mabes for many years as the Association manager. She is a 5-star manager and officiates her duties above & beyond her duties. She is highly dedicated as shown by her weekend emails to residents whenever situation arises. She & her assistant have excellent personality & communication skills.
She is highly approachable, very courteous, pleasant speaking & respectful of all residents. She is extremely patient in dealing with residents even though she may be busy with her responsibilities as this development is 200 plus units. When certain residents do not follow rules or submit required documents timely, Donette always keeps reminding them for deadline as well as fines they may be paying. She always sends reminder 2-3 times alerting residents about deadlines. During snow times, she keeps all of us informed pre-storm, during & after with safety details, snow plowing details & timing etc. section by section.
You can not ask for any better manager than Donette Mabes.

My experience with FirstService Residential in Florida has been very disappointing. They appear to be taking advantage of property owners. In December, I called to pay my fees, and I was told I had no outstanding balance. However, when I checked their website in January, no payment information was available until January 23rd. I paid the fee on that date, only to receive a letter charging me a $50 late fee on a $35 payment.
They did not send me a bill, and the payment details were not posted online until after the due date, resulting in late charges. Last year, when I requested the full payoff amount, they initially gave me a lower figure and then added a late charge. It seems they are exploiting homeowners rather than assisting them. When I asked for the late charge to be waived, they refused.

Please be cautious when dealing with this management company. I never had this problem with the last management company since I owned this property for over 25 years.

They aren't worth one star!
Our condo is under their management and they don't do anything beyond assigning blame to the owners/tenants. The property manager is more fit to sell fruit in Karachi! He has 0 respect for people's time and is a misogynist moron with less than basic English. AMMARA SHAH, site admin can't even spell, ignores emails & basic requests and basically lies on queue.
This company is a corrupt atrocity!

The worst. Venomous animals. The manager has attempted to act as the owners rep during renovations

10+ million over budget. Unprofessional amateur people being rude and dictatorial lacking any knowledge.

Avoid that company like the plague.

We have experienced high turnover of community managers over the past three years. The company has mismanaged our utility payments and has posted miscellaneous income into our community account that is not our income. I have tried for several months to get this situation resolved to no avail.

I worked for First Service Residential for nearly four years as a Compliance Manager at Four Seasons At Westshore. This position required me to oversee compliance within the community, ensuring that all rules were followed. In addition, I proactively assisted with landscaping efforts, addressed resident complaints and concerns, and collaborated closely with the Architectural Review Committee to support the community's development. These responsibilities helped establish a positive reputation among residents.
During my tenure, I supported the General Manager with various tasks. However, the Board of Directors decided to eliminate the compliance role in favor of creating an Assistant General Manager position. Despite handling many duties similar to those required for the new role, I was unexpectedly terminated rather than reassigned. This experience was disappointing, especially since there were longstanding concerns regarding the General Manager’s performance, while my record remained positive.
Following my departure, several community members contacted management to express their dissatisfaction with the decision. A regional manager assured one resident that another position would be found for me, but no further steps were taken therefor led to a lie. As a result, some individuals lost confidence in First Service Residential, which may have contributed to the company's loss of contracts, including those with Four Seasons At Westshore and the neighboring Westshore community. Based on my experience, I am unable to recommend employment with this company due to concerns regarding employee recognition and customer service values.

I would like to commend property manager Kyle Hatakeyama for his professionalism and support.
Kyle helped organize assistance together with supervisor Ron Filocomo during a difficult situation involving drywall work and painting after a water issue

I appreciate their efforts and coordination,
I want to thank them for the help

I've lived in the same HOA community for the past 10 years and never had an issue with previous property management companies - until the Board decided to switch to FSR. The property manager, Bill McMannis, doesn't respond to phone messages or emails, including one from a member of the HOA Board after I complained. Many residents on our community have the same complaint.

I called the main office back in December 2025 to give feedback about our on-site manager and still have not received a callback from Gina Donovan. Called again to follow-up and was told my information was actually communicated to the same on-site manager about whom I was calling?? What a ridiculous thing to do when you have a complaint about the on-site manager.

Terrible property management company. Disrespectful staff at Harborside towers in Vancouver, building has a known ant infestation and they refuse to act properly. Cameras everywhere, feels like your in a prison not an upscale condo. Avoid at all costs. Douglas Mak and management named Kal, horrible passive aggressive person Kal. Pretends to be kind and the lashes out if you ever complain.

If I could give zero or negative numbers I would. We are owners of CO-OP in Queens, NY and we have sent numerous communications to FirstService Residential via email, phone calls, text messages and we only get automated responses saying the matter has been escalated but no action or response has happened for over a month. They should change the name of the company to NO SERVICE RESIDENTIAL.

They simply are clueless about everything. Even at the supervisor level I got no help with what to do about tenants who want to apply while the property manager is on vacation. They have access to nothing except two documents related to architectural modifications according to the rep and supervisor I spoke with. While the manager is away, NOTHING gets done. They could not even give me a number to try to reach someone at the local office because they have only email addresses for THEIR OWN EMPLOYEES!

This management company is the absolute most corrupt and incompetent organization ever- I’m a psychiatric MD who for the 3 years or so have been psychiatrically treating wounded civilians and military personnel alike - they were literally two steps from death’s door. I didn’t take any not take any money for these services -obviously. Upon returning to NY I found myself in financial straits, because of the services I provided which I felt were my absolute responsibility to my people. So now I’m behind on the maintenance costs - I owe them all of $20,000!!! They sent me not one but TWO certified letters warning me that I’m going to be evicted. Today I made a payment to them for $2500 and have reassured them that they’ll be paid monthly - I literally just got my first paycheck less than a week ago. I’ve signed on with Nation Debt Consolidation, and that’s all I can do. I do not qualify for ANY loans, not even a loan that involves taking equity out of my property. I think this is just egregious. It’s harassment. Has anyone had a similar situation or have any advice for what to do now??? Besides trash the s$&t out of them absolutely everywhere - I see it’s not a new thing. Who threatens an apartment owner with eviction the day of and again the day after Christmas???? What is this world coming too??? Jesus Christ !! I want to puke.