ComplaintsforThe Gilmartin Group

• Initial Complaint

  08/25/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We hired Sharevest properties in January 2020 to manage our home as a rental as we planned to spend 2 years in ******. They placed tenants in mid January of 2020 but have not managed the property as they had promised including huge issues with the dogs arose immediately, no proper inventorying of keys or state of the house on move in, trouble getting any response. The tenants moved out Aug 4 2021, after receiving a $2000/month discounted rate for the previous 6 months at the recommendation of the manager, leaving a filthy mess and destroyed back garden. The manager's report noted "good" throughout excl. notes on garden. We had a professional photographer visit the same day and documented thousands of $ in estimated damages. And our gardener also noted ripped screens, destroyed plants and weedcloth, lighting wiring chewed through and a garden full of dog c*** so bad it smelled. The manager has stopped responding to us and Aug 23 resigned. All Fees we paid s/b refunded.

  

  Business response

  09/20/2021

  In response to the complaint referenced above, please accept the other side of the story. Managing property for people is a very challenging business especially keeping all parties on both sides happy, that being the tenants and property owners. A homeowner that moves out of their home and rents it to someone, is seldom an experienced landlord. Sometimes their expectation of how the home will be lived in, or how it will be returned to them is not exactly in line with reality compared to an experienced property investor. Moreover, their expectations of how we can legislate how someone lives in their home is very limited, especially during the current Covid Pandemic. I have reviewed the emails between the actual property manager and the owners and tenants going back to the beginning of the lease relationship. I was brought into the completion and ending of the lease because the direct property manager has since left our business and moved into another industry. As the president/owner of Sharevest ******************* I take full responsibility of all my employees, property managers and our clients both tenants and property owners and pride myself on our equal service to everyone.
  

   

  My introduction to the state of affairs was to attend the tenant move out inspection on August 4, 2021. I attended the meeting with my maintenance manager, *********************, who walked through the property then proceeded to take a thorough account of the property condition with photos of every room including walls, ceilings, floor baseboards etc. These photos are important as we use them to compare to photos of the property prior to the move in. The owner had a local gardener taking care of the outside of the property and had stated that the yard had been ruined and the irrigation system would cost $20,000 alone to get fixed. In addition to the gardener, the owner apparently had a photographer go through the home and take photos of the home and give their opinion as to what was wrong. This was very unusual, and came to light a few days later when they sent a sample of the photos to me and asked me to then pay for the photo shoot they had set up on their own personal accord. Along with these photos, I received a 2-3 page spreadsheet of all the items they identified as needing to be repaired and who would be responsible for coordinating said items and paying for said items. My response was that most of the issues pointed out appeared to be normal wear and tear, except the items caused by the dogs in the yard and the screen doors and/or dog scratches on doors.

   

  I also noted that the home had been professionally cleaned and told the owners that it was possibly the cleanest home I've ever received back. I then endeavored to get estimates to complete the items I felt needed to be repaired while trying to answer/review other issues on the owners list of items. While going through these issues, reviewing move in photos, talking to the tenant and property manager I started to get a picture of an owner who was overreaching in their claim for security deposit money. I reported to the owners my findings and I started to point out issues that appeared to be there before the tenant moved in. The 1st issue was a ******************* in the hardwood floor in one of the bedrooms. After telling them that the tenant stated that the **** was there when they moved in, I reviewed all of our before photos and noticed that this area was specifically avoided in the photos. When I confronted the owner, they agreed that the **** was there before. Next they talked about the cleanliness, again I confirmed with the tenant that the home was professionally cleaned and I forwarded the invoice for the clean up. When I asked the tenant about this she stated that she had to hire a professional cleaner when she moved in as the home was not up to her expectations. I confirmed this via early email conversations between the tenant and the property manager. Next were the splotches and spackle marks on the walls. Again I spoke to the tenant who again stated that that is how the home was when they received it. I reviewed the original photos and again I can see the same spackle marks on the wall in the original marketing photos. They then went on to an area in the kitchen cabinets that they claim the tenants dog chewed on, yet again I confirmed in the original photos that the corner of the cabinet had been disfigured before move in. Finally, the owners had partial floor surface refinishing work done prior to moving. When I pointed out to them that it appeared that their floor surface was only refinished half way into certain rooms, they accused the tenant of doing a partial refinish of their own and left it like that.

   

  This was all a bit too much but the owner then accused my team of backdating photos, entirely false, posted on August 4, 2021 right after our initial inspection.

   

  All of the above actions led me to believe that the owner was trying to steal money from the tenants through their security deposit with overreaching claims and false accusations and set my company up for a lawsuit. At that moment I wrote the owners a letter, I notified the tenant of the disposition of their deposit and I resigned from the management of the property.

   

  In regards to the reduction in rent, the tenants notified us of their desire to move and the owner asked us to negotiate a rent reduction for the tenants so that they would stay and continue to pay any rent for six more months.

   

  I have an email conversations and photos that back all of this up.

   

  Overall, we feel we did everything to the extent of our ability to communicate thoroughly and handle the issues we were dealt with from both Landlord and Tenant as soon as the issues arose.

   

  Thank you for your review of both sides of this conversation. We are hopeful that all parties can move forward without further complications.

   

  Kindest regards,

  ************************************, CCIM

  President

  The ********* Group

   

  Customer response

  09/26/2021

   
  Complaint: 15795660
  
  I am rejecting this response because it is not based on facts and is libelous to my reputation. 

  In fact, the company breached our contract with them by not following on repairs they agreed to at the tenants departure, to be paid for by the security deposit.  And further, by their unprofessional communication to the client, they have put us in a difficult situation.  They need to return management fees paid.

  The attached document lays out facts, dates and quotes/statements made by Sharevest management in detail.
  

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

*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. ↩