This blog post describes the slow progress with Meadow Park’s 5 year fire sprinkler system certification inspections which were completed in March 2015 by Exxell Fire Systems of Oakland, CA… Our Meadow Park community has been in existence for over 10 years but this is the first time we have had any fire sprinkler system inspections on a community wide basis…Over 200 of our homes still need corrections in order to become certified….Many of the Meadow Park Owners did not set up an appointment to let the Exxell contractors inside their homes to inspect the fire sprinklers and escutcheons……I continue to update this blog post as information becomes available directly from Exxell Fire Systems.
UPDATE 08/07/15:
I sent an email yesterday to Nate at Exxell Fire Systems:
| from: | Julia Angel <firsthealer@gmail.com> | ||
| to: | Nate Hargitt <fireprotectionguynh@gmail.com> |
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| date: | Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 6:02 PM | ||
| subject: | Follow up wih Board Member Directly | ||
| mailed-by: | gmail.com |
I hope this email to Nate helps move things along a bit.. I have not heard back from Nate as of this date and time: 08/07/15 2:36PM…
UPDATE 08/06/15:
Still no word. No news. No corrections appointment… It has become a big joke… All of this work that was done to inspect our fire sprinkler systems and get them all in good working order is now at a complete standstill… And so many problems were detected on our fire sprinkler systems too… Many of the problems apparently had to do with an installation error… But are we (the Meadow Park owners) getting any word back from the Board or the property management company, Wakefield Sharp? Are we getting things repaired in a timely manner? No! We are just sitting here waiting and waiting for something good to happen…That is what is going on right now at 11:15 AM on August 6, 2015…Nothing!
UPDATE 08/04/15:
It was almost 6 months ago that my fire sprinkler system was inspected by Exxell Fire Systems…. There has been very little progress made with the corrections… I checked in with Nate at Exxell Fire Systems today to see what was going, on if anything…He said he is not aware of what was going on either. He sent them (Wakefield Sharp) that SAME question one week ago and they never responded… He is following up now with another email to them TODAY..
I told Nate this is a very good example of the extremely poor customer service from Wakefield Sharp that we have to put up with here in Meadow Park…..They never even responded to Nate at Exxell Fire Systems… Can you believe it? What a bunch of bad people they are at Wakefield Sharp…
AND THE WAITING GOES ON AND ON TO HAVE OUR FIRE SPRINKLER SYSTEMS REPAIRED….
UPDATE 07/29/15:
I emailed Nate at Exxell Fire Systems to give him the most current information about the installers of our fire sprinkler systems… He said thanks and will pass it along…..I just felt is was important to give this information to him as this issue may be very tricky right now as installation problems were found during this inspection… I hope this speeds things along.. It took me awhile to find this installer…I wanted the Board to have the name and contact information of the installer… That is all I am doing… I did this research over one year ago and it seems to be pertinent now…
UPDATE 07/28/15:
On 7/25/15 I received an update from Nate at Exxell Fire Systems today…
“An update for you. There is a key part missing from most sprinkler systems. The Board is debating to see the best way to handle this. They are trying to determine if it gets put on all systems or just the ones we need to correct. I’ll let you know when a decision is made.”
Last year in June 2014 I researched several sources to find out the contractor who did the initial fire sprinkler installations for Meadow Park. I finally got an answer from a Centex agent on June 10, 2014. Here is the response:
“Good afternoon,
I am showing that we used Fire Protection Unlimited, phone 707-584-2770.
Thank you,”
Sara Stadley
Warranty Agent : : Northern California Division
6120 Stoneridge Mall Road, Suite 500, Pleasanton CA 94588
Emergencies only: 1-800-785-8346
I told Nate that the company that did the initial installation, Fire Protection Unlimited, is no longer in business. Here is an old listing for Fire Protection Unlimited:
This company is no longer located in Santa Rosa… If you click on their webpage, http://www.fireprotectionunlimited.com it redirects you to here:
http://capitolfireandbackflow.com/
This new company is located in the Sacramento Valley area….I never contacted this new company…That is something that the Board members should do if there was a problem with the initial installation…
I told him I am just patiently waiting now for my corrections appointment, as are the over 200 or more other Owners here in Meadow Park… And that is all I am doing about this situation now. It is in the Boards’ hands, not mine….
I will continue to post here any further information as I receive it. I am not making anything up. I only post the exact words and the truth.. That is all you will ever read here on my blog…I am not into sensationalism as other bloggers are.. I just report information that is truthful and not fantasy… You can get lies and fantasy in the other mainstream news of the day… I post reality only…
I am hoping that all 351 homes were inspected inside and out….That is a big question in my mind…How many homes here in Meadow Park actually were inspected? I was told that all of the outside equipment was tested on every building, but not all of the interior systems (i.e. sprinklers and escutcheons) were inspected… Hmm. I guess the Owners were not being cooperative with this? That is not good! I wanted all Meadow Park townhouse fire sprinkler systems to be thoroughly inspected inside and out..
That is what the Board wanted too. The board meeting minutes from November 18, 2014 state:
“The Board reviewed estimates from three contractors before the motion was made seconded and passed unanimously to approve the proposal from Exxell Fire Systems at a cost of $46,360.00 to inspect and supply documentation on the fire sprinkler systems and alarms for each unit in Meadow Park. The Board instructed Management incorporate the expense in future Meadow Park Reserve studies.”
A meeting was being scheduled (supposedly) so that the Meadow Park Board of Directors can listen to the inspection findings report and approve the correction costs…Apparently Exxell Fire Systems has been trying to set this meeting up for some time and has been told no several times by Wakefield Sharp Property Management..Hmm. Well, I am not surprised here. Wakefield Sharp has not been an advocate of this inspection at all and they are undermining the progress here… There should have been a meeting on this months ago…And now it appears that a meeting was never held…On June 10, one month ago today, Exxell Fire Systems was told that a meeting was going to take place… Wakefield Sharp was supposed to set this up but never did… So, Exxell Fire Systems is just sending them a new contract for the corrective work that needs to be done on the 200 plus units….
Exxell Fire Systems wanted to meet directly with the Board to discuss this matter, but it was not handled properly at all.. Several requests were made and ignored by the property management company Wakefield Sharp…
Now this is going to cost us some money… but other HOAs have done this too, even reaching into their reserves to cover the cost.. I do hope that the Meadow Park HOA Board of Directors sees the importance of this and understands that there have been other HOAs like ours doing the same thing because it is so important to have this done community wide…. It is now our turn to finish what we started….
I will continue to update this situation as more information becomes available…
07/16/15 9:28 AM
Ten days have passed since I updated this blog post. I sent Exxell Fire Systems a copy of the Board meeting agenda for July 21 because it has a new business item: Fire Sprinkler Systems… I wanted this company to be aware that finally, they are on the agenda at an open public Meadow Park board meeting… It took several months for this to happen… Way too long…
Here is Nate Hargitt’s response:
Nate Hargitt <fireprotectionguynh@gmail.com>
to:Julia Angel <firsthealer@gmail.com>
date:Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 9:07 AM
subject:Re: Board Meeting Agenda
mailed-by:gmail.comsigned-by: gmail.com
Important mainly because of your interaction with messages in the conversation.
Thank you, I hope it all goes smoothly. I have already sent an offer to be present directly to the board. They didn’t want that but assured me that if they had questions they would call me. I’ll let you know what they say when I know.
Nate
I told Nate that I am not too sure that his request to have a face to face meeting was ever really presented to the board members… I have a feeling Wakefield Sharp intervened here and stopped that whole thing from ever happening….I am waiting to see what happens after Tuesday’s meeting.. It will be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out in reality….Exxell Fire Systems can attend the meeting and be present when this matter is discussed. I want to make this totally clear that they have been fully informed… If it were me, I would definitely be there, considering the situation and circumstances… It is a good thing I do not have to be there though… All kinds of strange things would happen. I will just sit back and enjoy the show as a viewer not as a participant…..
07/06/15 12:38 PM
I sent Nate Hargitt an email today to get an update and find out if the “meeting” was ever held… I also informed him about the upcoming board meeting on 07/21/15… Looks like maybe the first week of August is when they will be resuming their work here in Meadow Park.
Here is his response:
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12:18 PM (20 minutes ago)  |
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Dear Julia,
Pretty soon. We have a final estimate that we are making the last few adjustments to then submitting this week, we may or may not be present at that meeting. Either way we will provide them with enough information that they can hopefully come to a decision. Sorry for the delay but hopefully we can get back to work come the first week of August.
Sincerely,
Nate Hargitt
Exxell Fire Systems
06/22/15 2:09 PM
Another update from Exxell Fire Systems:
| from: | Nate Hargitt <fireprotectionguynh@gmail.com> | ||
| to: | Julia Angel <firsthealer@gmail.com> |
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| date: | Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 11:42 AM | ||
| subject: | Re: Update |
Dear Julia,
Thanks for the information, we are currently in the process of working out a meeting time. I’ll update when we have this set up.
Sincerely,
Nate Hargitt
06/17/15 8:36 AM
UPDATE:
Here is the most recent update from Nate Hargitt about scheduling that very important meeting with the Board of Directors. Seems he is being given the run around here. I do not even know who the Board of Directors are now.. We never got notified about the recent election results:
from:Nate Hargitt <fireprotectionguynh@gmail.com>
to:Julia Angel <firsthealer@gmail.com>
date:Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 8:25 AM
subject:Re: Update
mailed by:gmail.com
signed-by:gmail.com:
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.
“Sorry didn’t get a chance to email you yesterday. The Board hasn’t gotten back to Wakefield yet. I’ll check back with them in another week.
Nate”
06/10/15 11:00 AM
UPDATE:
Good News! After some emailing back and forth with Nate, he sent me this last email which basically says that there will be a meeting scheduled soon with the Meadow Park Board of Directors and his company Exxell Fire Systems to discuss the Meadow Park Fire Sprinkler Systems’ repairs.. Here is his email:
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10:42 AM (14 minutes ago) |
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Just got off the phone with them. They are in full agreement at Wakefield with us meeting with the board. They will contact me when by Tuesday of next week to let me know when the board is available to meet with us directly.
06/10/15
UPDATE:
This is my response to Exxell Fire Systems:
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9:18 AM (25 minutes ago) |
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Really, these excuses are INCREDIBLY boring… And to say it may take up to three years to get it all done is outrageous…
06/09/15 12:10PM
UPDATE:
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11:58 AM (8 minutes ago) |
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06/09/15 11:12 AM
UPDATE:
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9:50 AM (1 hour ago) |
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I’m sorry, Miles is back and forth with the Management company, we cannot legally do anything without the ok from them. We were only contracted to do any corrections. I have no control over anything myself currently it’s all over to the other company. Blog all you want because it is messed up, and I’m getting many emails about the corrections, but we have rules we need to follow and we are trying to make it as affordable as possible. I’m sorry for the wait but we still cannot do anything until another contact is worked out and singed. There are about 200 other units that have other corrections that require a lot of work, such as shutting off the water, etc. We are working on it, we will let you know when it is worked out.
Sincerely,
Nate Hargitt
Exxell Fire System
My response:
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11:10 AM (3 minutes ago) |
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SO, it’s the management company (Wakefield Sharp) that is standing in the way… I will post this on my blog.. perhaps things will change… After all, it was theMeadow Park Board of Directors who approved this contract. The Board of Directors is composed of homeowners like me. The management company is just a hired company like you…The management company has no power over contracts! Be very careful here ….I hope you understand the difference here…The management company has to do what the Board says… That is the truth …
Read my blog to understand reality… Nate, you have to go forward and complete the repairs or you will be in serious legal trouble too…The contract still is valid…
06/09/15:
UPDATE:
Exactly four months ago today, on February 9, 2015, my fire sprinkler system was inspected by Exxell Fire Systems..It did not pass inspection… I have been in communication with this company regularly… On May 4, I received this email response from Nate Hargitt:
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May 4 |
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Dear Julia,
Thanks for the follow-up. We are still working out the best way to do it with the HOA, this could take some time as most repairs requires turning off the water, and on top of that we need to contact each person who has repairs and working out when it works for them etc. I will inform you when we are ready to get started on this.
Sincerely,
Nate Hargitt
Exxell Fire Systems
This is the company that the Meadow Park Board of Directors contracted with to do our fire sprinkler system inspection… They are obviously not the right company for us… Otherwise they would have been doing the repairs already…Nate sent this email over one month ago.. This is not acceptable at all…And still no response to my emails this week… Bad business practice here… I am not happy and I am blogging about it…How patient am I supposed to be? This is unreasonable and no one is doing anything about it… So I continue blogging and show how bad this whole situation really is…This company should have been organizing the inspections and corrections from the very beginning… Four months is long enough to be completely done with everything!
NOW I KNOW THAT IF YOU ARE READING THIS YOU WILL AGREE. THIS WHOLE THING IS A JOKE.. SO I AM PUTTING THE JOKERS ON DISPLAY AND LETTING THE PUBLIC READ IT… MAYBE THEN THEY WILL START ACTING LIKE A REAL COMPANY AGAIN….AND DO THEIR JOB!
06/08/15:
UPDATE:
I am still trying to get my appointment set up for my fire sprinkler system repairs.. I am not getting very far… I have sent 2 more emails and left another voice mail message…One of my emails came back as undeliverable. I have not received any response as of today 6/08/15 at 10:00 AM.. I am just documenting this here on my blog because this is so unprofessional…. I cannot believe that it was four months ago that my fire sprinkler system was inspected… Four months!!! And I was expecting the repairs and a certification report by this time…Four months to wait for repairs is unacceptable…
I am not being unreasonable.. I am only stating the truth. Now I am just waiting like the rest of the Meadow Park homeowners for some kind of action here…
This has not been a smooth process and continues to be treated like it is non-important.. It is in fact extremely important..The HOA Board of Directors approved this inspection six months ago and as of this date we still do not have our fire sprinkler systems repaired!!!
06/02/15
It was on February 9, 2015 that I had my fire sprinkler system inspected by Exxell Fire Systems (http://www.exxellfiresystems.com)… I have been in close contact with the employees there since that time..The reason I am doing this is because I want to make sure that I receive my final five-year certification report.. This is a state law!
Owners have to have this inspection done every five years here in California.. And as I have lived here in Meadow Park now for almost 10 years (June 27, 2005 was my move-in date), this inspection was never done and is way overdue!… But because of my interventions over this past year, the Meadow Park Board of Directors approved this inspection in November 2014 for all homeowners… It was not until February 2015 that the inspections started… The inspections completed in March…. Now what about the corrections? That is the big mystery here…
There seems to be some problems getting the corrections organized…
So, I remain in communications with Exxell Fire Systems and wait a little bit longer while they figure out how to schedule the corrections… It will happen I know despite the lack of coordination help from the HOA management … It still happens… We are all going to get our five-year certification reports because we the Owners here in Meadow Park are paying for it through our HOA assessment fees…
It is one of the best uses yet of those HOA assessment fees.. And it is going to happen..
This is the most recent email communication with Exxell Fire Systems:
from:Nate Hargitt <fireprotectionguynh@gmail.com>
to:Julia Angel <firsthealer@gmail.com>
date:Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 8:38 AM
subject:Re: Follow up on Fire Sprinkler System Testing
mailed by:gmail.comsigned-by:gmail.com
Important mainly because it was sent directly to you.
The conversations are being had with the corrections department. Please send an email to automaticfiresafety@gmail.com. Miles will get it, he has any information.
Nate Hargitt
Exxell Fire Systems
MY RESPONSE:
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Jun 2 (3 days ago) |
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Thanks Nate, I hope this situation gets resolved quickly.. I want my inspection report and you guys need to get paid…And it will happen… |
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HIS RESPONSE
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Jun 2 (3 days ago) |
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Sincerely,
Nate Hargitt
This is the most recent information I have about the fire sprinkler system inspection which was approved back in November by our Meadow Park Board of Directors… I am hoping that I will be contacted soon to set up my corrections appointment…I want to be in compliance with the state law.. I want all of Meadow Park to become a five-year fire sprinkler system certified community, even though the property management company is inhibiting the progress.
I know that this will happen!
This is my neighbor’s fire sprinkler water gauge that needs replacing right now…It is not working properly at all.
This is my fire sprinkler pressure gauge that was replaced last year by a plumbing company because I complained. It is functioning normally and did pass on the recent inspection in February..
This is my fire sprinkler alarm which passed inspection in February.
This is a fire sprinkler cover (escutcheon) located inside my home. I am currently missing 2 of them and one needs replacing because it had paint on it.
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