Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  10/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  I hired a property management company that has been negligent in their duties. When I asked for records of inspections or estimates for repairs, assistance leasing a vacant unit or negotiating a lease renewal, they refused. I live in California and had to ask friends to check up on our property and worked directly with the tenant to discuss hurricane related repairs and to negotiate her lease renewal. After several months of vacancies, I have requested to terminate our property management agreement. Not only are they refusing to hand over my keys and property records, they are charging me $2,000 for early termination. I am already left holding the bag for the lock of management, deferred maintenance & multiple months of vacancies. This has been a very disappointing and unprofessional experience the last few years.

  Business response

  01/11/2023

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2022/11/20) */ November 20, 2022, Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you BBB. We would like to settle this. This gentlemen had broken many, many, of the terms and conditions of our management agreement. The whole thing boils down to is: We can't rent his property to qualified tenants because it is too high for the market. Qualified tenants are looking at lower priced residences. However, there are many, many unqualified tenants out there that would pay the higher rent. But you would not like them. They are not credit worthy; owe past Landlords for rent and damages; have criminal records; ***************; Have no jobs; or have extended questionable families of 7,8 or 9 members and have 4 cars. I will not rent to these candidates even if my Client is a slumlord. Not saying he is. He is in financial trouble as he told us so in writing. However, that is not our fault. I as owner of Russell properties for over 40 years I would be putting myself in direct confliction with what my management agreement duties say I am to uphold. In addition, I would be violating my fiduciary responsibility to the public and to the Florida license I hold with respect to Fl. Statues 83. The Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. I would like to see him go away peaceful, remove any negative reviews or comments that were design solely to hurt my company's and myself reputation and hold no contempt or malice towards each other going forward. Please see below dates and email excerpts as to the leadup of this issue. Oct 3rd, Hi **, I have it listed in all of the proper sites. The interaction has come down in inquiries. I do think that considering a small price reduction may be what is needed. Here is a report from a program that we use when pricing an investment. This report gives you facts, stats and what is currently where the market is at. (Melissa Rp Property Manager to ** client) Nov 8th ** has informed me that a new property management company has been hired to manage the home that I reside In at *********************************************. Your company is holding my Security Deposit in the amount of $1,395.00. Please transfer my Security Deposit to them at the following address: American Home Reality, LLC ***************************************. They will notify me of the new banking institute and the account number once they have received the funds and it has cleared the bank. Please advise. Thank you. (Tenant #B to Melissa) Nov 10th Hi Melissa, Where are we currently w/**? Thanks. (Rp owner) Nov 10th I was called by the tenant in #B and she told me the owner has been in contact with her and he hired his friends company to manage them. Violation of management. So Tenant paid the other company the rent. I would just let them go if he removes his BBB comment. He is a nasty man the three of us, you, Myself and Cindi and there is no getting through to him. I tried to educate him with the rent fax for the reasons that literally showed what the going rents were and he went off about it to both you and me. The tenant and I were good. I had just done her inspection. He been managing them on the side for months. Melissa (Rp Property Manager to Rp owner) Nov 10th My thinking here is the same .... for argument sake let's trying and settle. Have we approached him on us managing the good one with the tenant in there and terminating management on the other with no fees (early fee & mangt. fees?) And getting him to pull the BBB complaint. (This is my company's first BBB In 40 ******* years) (Rp owner) Nov 15th We will have to transfer the deposit. The owner has not given me the name of his new company yet. I was just informed from the tenant. (Melissa to Rp owner) Consumer Response /* (3000, 11, 2022/11/21) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) This is not factual: Russell Properties left our property vacant for 2 months without a single application on file. They cited that the rent was too high at $1795. We hired a new property manager and they had exceptional traffic and received an application within a few days. Within a week, they signed on a new tenant who is paying $1850 per month. Our property and tenant has been neglected for years. When hurricane Ian hit, that was the last straw. Our Realtor who also lives in Winter Springs, where our property is located was able to visit the property and survey the damages. Russell Properties did not uphold their end of the agreement by effectively managing the property, maintaining the property, providing quotes for the vacant side or even showing/leasing the vacant unit. We have been their clients for 3 years and have a number of email, text and voice messages from our tenants complaining of their inability to reach the property manager and receiving a timely response. They can blame me all they want, but I am the property owner. I live 3,000 miles away in CA and I had retained their services to provide a quality service. I trusted that they would provide professional property management. They were not able to hold up their end of the agreement, which is what finally motivated me to contact the BBB. The new property manager would be happy to furnish proof of their exception response to the property at $1850 and the timeline for how quickly they were able to lease the vacant unit. They have also been very timely in their response to the existing tenants, any repair requests and my requests. The owner of Russell Properties resides out of state and doesn't have a clue as to how his associates run his business. He is just collecting and cashing checks. Best Regards, ****** *****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩