DARDEN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

I'd give a 0 star review if I could. If I had to sum up my experience, I'd say they are lazy and money hungry. Here's a rundown of the nightmare that has been the past 5 months of my life. These are copy and pasted excerpts from an email sent to the BBB, where they currently have a 1 star rating. I'd paste the entire thing, but it is too long. "Not only have we had to live with mold, in which they “fixed” by spray painting over it (photos are attached), but we have also dealt with attitude, rude customer service, several phone calls that were never returned on multiple occasions, dishonesty in trying to cover their tracks, lack of urgency to fix a broken AC unit during one of the hottest weekends, and so much more." "I took over someone’s lease in April of this year. When I moved in, I noticed mold on the ceiling. When I asked about it, I was told by my new roommates that there had been a water leak that was repaired. They made Darden aware of the mold. Darden's response was to send someone over and spray paint over the mold rather than treating it. Next was Memorial Day weekend starting Friday, May 31, when our AC unit starting leaking with water dripping through the ceiling onto my roommate’s bed. The only way to keep this from dripping and soaking her bed was to turn off the AC. The temperature inside our house rose to over 80 degrees while we slept. Darden had no urgency to repair this. We were told we had to wait until the following Monday, June 3, to have this repaired; his suggestion was to “please move your bed and put a bucket under the drip”. (screenshot also attached). Doing my due diligence when moving out, I called Darden several days before the end of our lease to confirm with them that certain items that were missing before we moved in were noted in the property’s file. After leaving two voicemails that were never returned, I was told that the property manager, Malloree Boynton, was unavailable and she had the file, so no one there was able to give me an answer. When I asked if Malloree could please give me a call, the receptionist responded with, “I can pass along the message, but I can’t make any promises.” I never received a phone call. 6 weeks later, we had not heard anything regarding our deposit. My roommate gave them several calls with no response. She finally got a hold of Malloree and was told our deposit check had been returned to the office and was sitting on someone’s desk. I called twice and left voicemails asking to pick up the check to save them from having to mail it again. I never received a call back. The next day, my roommate spoke with her again and she stated that it wasn't in the office, but had actually been mailed to someone who was no longer on our lease: it was in her name and going to a forwarding address of hers in south Florida. Malloree said we needed to wait for the check to arrive at a former roommate’s parents’ house, have them mail our former roommate the check, have her cash it, then send us our money. We asked if she could please put a stop payment on the check since this was their error, but we were told no. She finally agreed to speaking with someone named Alicia regarding placing a stop payment on the check and give us a call back. After never receiving the call back, my roommate sent an email, reaching out yet again to Malloree. She forwarded Malloree the original email sent months ago where we had updated the deposit forwarding address. This time, Malloree’s story changed again. Now she is saying our check was made out to a different girl and returned to the office. I just spoke with Malloree after 3 unanswered emails asking for updates. She acknowledged the emails were received, but didn't think she needed to respond to them. Unfortunately, at this point, I will be at their office tomorrow afternoon expecting our deposit check, and because they did not send a notice within 15 days (per Florida Statute) advising of anything being taken out of our deposit, if I do not leave with the full deposit in hand, I will be having to take legal action, and I REALLY don't want to have to do that. Each time we speak, we get conflicting information. She has been unwilling admit her mistake in sending hundreds of our dollars to the wrong person, the wrong address, and has given us three separate stories as to where our money was." They can't return phone calls, had us live with mold, broken AC, and have the audacity to be rude when THEY screwed up in getting us our deposit. Now if we have to dispute any charges, the window of time to do so has run out.

This company provides excellent property management services. I live several states away, and it's been a relief to be able to relax and let them handle everything. Screening tenants, small and large repairs, prompt payments, reasonable fees. They are excellent. Thanks especially to Mr. Bowers!

They are reasonably priced and gave done an excellent job screening tenants and handling repairs. Price is quite fair for services rendered. Given that I live 800 miles away, they really have eliminated a lot of stress from my life!.