Beware of Bad Property Management Companies!

The services offered by property management companies vary widely and this blog is not meant to knock those doing a great job. Unfortunately for us we have fallen victim to 2 useless companies near to Estepona, and need to warn others of our experiences. The first one we appointed was initially good and very organised and always attended to our meet and greets in a great way, and our apartment was well maintained. Over two years though the service began to deteriorate, towels and linen were going missing, and guests were reporting to us that the pillows had no pillow-cases on them when they checked in and towels were missing. A few guests said that laundry was being washed and dried and hung out to dry on the terrace. This should not have been happening as we were paying our management company for linen and towels to be taken to a laundry to be washed and dried professionally. We had to find another company quickly and one approached us. They were on site and offered to find us a long term tenant for 11 months as this would be easier to manage for us. The first tenant checked in on 6 October 2014. As were are in the UK, this new so called ‘management company’ agreed to attend to any problems that occurred during the tenancy and we duly signed a property management contract with them and paid them each month. However this tenant stopped paying the rent on time and electric bills were always being paid late. We had to ask our solicitor to write to her and ask her to leave, she left in April 2014. Our property management company agreed to be there when she left and pay her the balance of her deposit back, minus any bills. They did this and reported to us that all was well. To date we have not received any invoice from them as to how much they paid her and what money they kept back for bills and damage. We have emailed and tried to phone them but no reply, we see from their website that they are continuing to sell properties and manage rentals. When we saw the apartment recently it had not been well maintained and was in a shabby state; the sofa was damaged and the throws, linen and towels had been taken. What we would like to advise is that it best to go on recommendations if you can, and ensure that the company has an office base that you can go to when there are difficulties and go for a long established one. Better still show a copy of the property management contact to your solicitor and tell the management company that you are doing so too!

UK based owners