ComplaintsforHarmes Team Real Estate and Property Management, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  11/16/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Full Complaint attached. *** Harmes from The Harmes Team Real Estate and Property Management LLC failed to abide by his property management contract on multiple occasions, and failed to maintain our property causing us significant financial damages to restore. He abandoned both his property management agreement with us, and his lease with the tenants. It took him 10 days to notify us that the first tenants were breaking their lease, and didnt provide comprehensive billing documentation. We discovered that he had failed to hold the previous tenants to their lease, resulting in nearly $1500 in lost revenue. When questioned, he would repeatedly avoid discussing the issue. He utilized landscapers that brought their family/children to conduct landscaping, which is a liability I never would have accepted, had I known that was his choice of vendor. Despite the landscaping, the yard was left with significant, documented overgrowth that will have to be restored at cost to myself.Instead of the 30 days written notification that his property management agreement required, he provided us a email stating he quit, turned over no further legal documentation for the tenants beyond a mailed check for their security deposit, and never returned the key to the property. In his only email notification to us, he stated that he would not compensate us for the well documented damages that occurred under his management, and that any remaining funds from the previous tenant would be kept by him. Additionally, he intentionally ignored our request that he assign us the Lease. We now have no formal agreement with the tenants living in our property, and are having to simultaneously manage the property and look for new property management. His actions are completely unprofessional, and frankly, predatory. We can provide necessary documentation to substantiate this claim, to include tenant lease agreements, property management agreement, and communications with The Harmes Team.

  Business response

  11/28/2022

  Within a week I had their home rented to very qualified tenants.  They paid their rent on time and the owners were paid on or before the 10th of the month every month.  When the tenants informed me that they had purchased a new house I immediately listed their home back on the market for rent.  I was AGAIN successful in renting the home to another qualified couple relocating from **********.  There would be zero delay or laps in owner payment and they were again paid on time from the new tenants. During the time frame that the first tenants moved out and the new tenants moved in I made sure that the house was professionally cleaned and that the carpets were professionally cleaned.  I had the locks changed and the landscaping taken care of.  During this time I was being called and texted at all hours of the day and evening and being micromanaged to the point that it wasn't worth it to me to keep this property.  If they have that much time to constantly be checking up on me they can manage the property themselves.  The second tenants signed the lease for the 1st but were not able to be there until the ****th of the month.  That gave me a few more days to ensure that I was able to get everything taken care of before they got here.  Even when I explained this to the owners the were insistent that I get it all done by the 1st.  I would like to be able to coordinate my vendors that I trust to do a good job and not over charge, to be able to make my schedule with the new tenants and not be hounded by the owners.  Bottom line is that I fulfilled my duties and rented their home at top market value for their home and location.  When the tenants informed me that they were breaking the lease I re-listed the home immediately and was successful in renting it out again so that the owners did not miss a payment to them.  When I found out that the owner was speaking ill of me to my vendors I decided that it wasn't worth the time or stress to try and make them happy.

  Customer response

  11/28/2022

   
  Complaint: 18410869
  
  I am rejecting this response because: It fails to address all of our stipulated concerns.  We never took issue about the rapid re-leasing of the property, outside of his failure to rapidly notify us of the tenants lease termination.  We were concerned with the lack of financial disclosures (unresolved to this date), **** failure to abide by his both tenant and management contracts, and a litany of unresolved damages to the property, none of which were addressed in this response.  As to his "contacting at all hours of the day or night", we responded to him in the time frames we had both agreed were reasonable, or utilized non-invasive contacts such as email, and are happy to provide text and call logs to substantiate this.  To date, *** and Harmes Team have still failed to contact us, provide any of the required documentation stipulated in his tenant lease, or to assign the lease to us. Because of his failure to maintain his property management contract, we will now have to pay significant amounts of money, at our own expense, to make up for his failure to adequately maintain and transition the property.  Outside of listing the property and collecting a management tax, he fulfilled no other portions of his management responsibilities.  The property was leased without notifying the landlord of any tenants pets, and no pet addendum has been received stipulating the number or breeds of accepted pets within the lease.  Especially unacceptable is the method of termination of HIS management agreement, which was not in accordance with HIS own documentation.  Landlords in **************** should be warned not to engage *** Harmes or Harmes Team Real Estate and Property Management. 
  
  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. ↩