VIRGINIA BEACH -- Marilyn Castro wants to get rid of her telephone land line, but if she does, she still has to pay for it.
She's one of many residents in a subdivision developed by LM Sandler of Virginia Beach. Many Sandler developments are under bulk billing contracts for communications services.
Bulk billing provides residents a bundle package for phone, Internet and cable services at a discount. Developers often make the agreements before ground is broken on a development so that the services come with the purchase of a home.
The bill for the services is attached to what residents pay their homeowners association. Under the agreement, homeowners pay for the deal no matter what. That's just one of the things they don't like.
"I would kill my land line in a second. It's just a chunk of the bundle we're paying for, I have no reason for," explains Allan Pineda, who lives in Woodland Park.
In his case, Sandler has a contract with Cox Communications.
Castro is the founder of the Website banbulkbilling.com. She's appealed to the Federal Communications Commission to pull the plug on bulk billing, but so far, it has decided against doing so.
In a recent opinion issued by the FCC, commissioners concluded "that the benefits to consumers of bulk billing arrangements outweigh their harms. The record shows that bulk billing, although it can harm some MDU residents, benefits far more of them. In the large majority of cases, bulk billing appears to lower prices, increase the volume and variety of programming, encourage high quality and innovation, and bring video, voice, and data services to MDU residents."
Under the communications agreement that applies to Castro's complex, Lexington, each homeowner must pay $146 a month. The contract is for a minimum of 25 years and up to 75 years. The company, Lexington Infrastructure Management (LIM), was created by Sandler, which in turn entered into a contract with Cox for delivery of the services.
Residents can seek services from another company other than Cox, but they still have to pay for what is already provided based on the Communications Services Agreement. There's no way out of the contract.
200 residents signed a petition against the communications agreement, but so far, Castro says, neither the developer nor the homeowners board of directors has responded to it.
"This contract creates a financial burden to the consumer as with the current economy some owners had lost jobs and are still responsible for payment or they could lose their home due to threat of a lien against the property," explains Castro.
The communications services agreement also say if a homeowners association is 60 days late paying the cable bill, cable can be shut off to the entire complex. That includes paying customers.
In some bulk billing agreements, homeowners end up picking up the tab when other residents fail to pay.
At a complex in Florida, every time a homeowner went into foreclosure and stopped paying, the cable bill went up for other residents.
Casey Taylor lives in Suffolk's Remington Park, another Sandler development.
"It's detrimental to the spirit of the community when you look at your neighbor and say, 'I wonder if I'm paying your cable bill,' Taylor says.
Both Taylor and Castro would like to see military personnel exempt from the contract when they deploy and are obviously not using their cable services.
A representative from LM Sandler says the arrangements are set up to benefit the residents.
"The services are all bought in bulk and passed on to the homeowner at a discount rate from what they could go out and buy themselves," states Ray Gottlieb.
