This Time It Seems To Impact Our Payment Lockbox

While investigating Owner inquiries about payments that processed late over the last couple months, it was reported to us that there may problems resulting from mail delivery issues. This is specifically related to Owners paying by check and mailing their payments to the Carol Stream lockbox address, which is the remit address on the assessment statements.

We were told by the Association’s bank that other lockbox clients have suffered other similar delays as well. They stated, all mail is processed the same day it is received. They have been experiencing a lot of problems with the Carol Stream Post Office who told the bank they have a backlog due to staffing issues. Across the board, they have observed mail delays 3+ weeks for many clients. The Post Office claimed they are working on getting through the backlog and brought temporary workers to help out.

Unfortunately we have absolutely no power or control over these problems with the USPS. So what do you do? Here are alternative payment methods our team recommends to Owners who have concerns about US Mail reliability and timeliness:

1. One option is to make payments online via the Owner Portal.

This method is an ACH transaction, so it would not involve sending a check through the mail.  Payments submitted this way will be processed within 2 hours and appear as a pending transaction on your ledger.  (The payment will still take 3-5 business days to clear, but the receipt date will be immediate.)  You can make 1-time payments or configure a recurring autopay.

• There is no service charge if paying via bank account direct debit.
• There is a % service charge if paying via credit card.
• There is a flat fee service charge if paying via debit card.

Let our bookkeeper Danny in the office know if you need assistance using the Owner Portal, or if you need a password reset. You can e-mail him directly at dbravman@habitat.com.

2. Another option is to drop payments off to the Management Office, or mail them to us for on-site processing.  (As opposed to mailing checks to the Carol Stream address, which go to our bank lockbox for processing.)  Sending to us directly might make it easier to diagnosis if there is an issue, prior to incurring a late fee.  Also, if your payment does get lost in route to us and you want to issue a stop payment you can notify Danny and we will not process the check if it arrives later, which will avoid an NSF fee.  (If you stop payment on a check sent to Carol Stream, you will incur a fee if it is eventually received there.)

Of course for those still mailing a payment, this may not address the issue if the problem is USPS reliability. Our US Mail at 5415 North Sheridan, as many Owners and Residents already know can be unreliable too.

To submit payment directly to the Management Office:

• During business hours, you can bring payment directly into the Management Office.
• During or after hours, you can leave payment in the lockbox to the right of the Management Office door, or in the lockbox at the doorman station in the Lobby.  (These are monitored by security camera.)
• If mailing payment to the Management Office, have it sent to the following address:

Park Tower Condo Association, Management Office

5415 N Sheridan Rd, Suite 107

Chicago, IL  60640-1966

3. If you are as frustrated with the USPS unreliability as us, you can get more information about how to make formal complaints here:

USPS Service Complaints

Also, we suggest you can write our US Congress Representative:

https://schakowsky.house.gov/contact