Curtiss Property Management, Inc.

unknown

Hiring Curtiss Property Management, Inc., (CPM) was the biggest mistake we?ve made as owners of rental properties. 

In March 2013, we hired CPM to manage our new 4-plexes in Boise.  Owner Brandon Curtiss was our primary point of contact at CPM.  After several months of receiving less than expected rental income, we analyzed the account information provided by CPM and identified what we believed to be accounting errors and management problems.  For example, one tenant continued to be charged the first month?s prorated rent rather than the full amount of rent. Some tenants were not being charged enough for utilities.  And, some utility payments were not being paid on time.

 After two long phone calls with Brandon Curtiss in September 2013, he apologized for the mistakes, and blamed the problems on a software error and a new secretary.  He said he would be personally responsible for managing our accounts and that we would not be charged for September?s management fee.  But, CPM took its September fee anyway. By late October 2013, we had not received rental income for two months.  Curtiss claimed the rent checks had been mailed twice ? once on October 16, and then overnighted on October 30th.  Nothing ever came.  I called him on November 1st and asked where the checks were.  I recall
him saying, ?I don?t know.  I?m not the mailman.?  Setting aside his rudeness, I understood that he would put the checks in the mail that day by 4 pm.  Again, nothing came.  We gave CPM 30 days? notice that we were terminating our contracts to end on November 30, 2013.
  
By November 5, 2013, our access to CPM?s online owner portal had been cut off.   We became very worried about what had happened to the, now, three months of rent payments and security deposits being held by CPM.  Not knowing how else to protect our money and our tenants, we called the Boise Police Department.  They started an investigation which was determined to be a civil, not criminal, matter. The investigation was closed on November 14, 2013.  Brandon Curtiss threatened to sue us for false allegations and told us to get a lawyer.  Taking him at face value, we hired an attorney and filed a complaint in the Ada County District Court.   It took 13 attempts and 3 different process servers a month to serve Brandon Curtiss and CPM. 

It seemed to us that CPM refused to cooperate with our new property manager.  Brandon Curtiss would not turn over information about utility accounts in CPM?s name, or tenant accounts other than their leases.  He refused to turn over tenant security deposits for several months.  When he finally did, CPM had withheld several thousand dollars.  Brandon Curtiss claimed CPM could keep the thousands of dollars of security deposits as late fees that CPM had failed to collect from the tenants.  Records produced by CPM during the lawsuit showed that certain tenants were not late, even though CPM withheld money from their security deposits for late fees.  Our comparison of records provided by CPM before the dispute, with other records CPM produced during the lawsuit, seemed to show that CPM?s general ledger had been altered to show rent payments as late. 

Shockingly, in March 2014, several months after we had terminated the management agreements, CPM gave a full deposit back to tenants without our permission.  These tenants had broken their lease and owed over $2,000 for unpaid rent and damages.   

 During the lawsuit, Brandon Curtiss seemed to do everything he could to cause delay.  For example, he refused to come to a mutually scheduled mediation just two days before it was to take place in December 2014.  In April 2015, the judge determined that CPM had breached the management agreements.  The focus of trial was going to be how much money CPM owes us. 

Two weeks before the original June 2015 trial date, his attorney asked the judge for permission to withdraw from the case.  His attorney specifically cited to part of a rule of professional conduct comment that states:  ?Withdrawal is also justified if the client persists in a course of action that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent ?The lawyer may also withdraw where the client insists on taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant ...?  We do not know what happened between Curtiss and his first attorney.  

The trial date was rescheduled for September 2015.  Two days before the second trial date, Brandon Curtiss agreed to judgment being entered against CPM in the full amount of damages claimed?nearly $20,000.  Since then CPM?s bank accounts have been empty and we have not been paid anything.  

Hiring CPM to manage our rental properties in Boise was a horrible experience.  We would not recommend relying on Brandon Curtiss for any reason.

Has not gone well. We want him to move the renter out and do no business in our subdivision what so ever!

As an out-of-state owner of a rental, we've been using Curtiss Property Management for about 18 months now. They take excellent care of our property and are quite responsive to tenant issues. Their maintenance person is wonderful and calls if there is any kind of issue that involves a significant repair. We have no problem at all with the quality of the maintenance of our property, and if you're looking for a company that takes excellent care of your property and your tenants' needs, we'd recommend them.
However, we do wish the administrative staff were equally responsive to owner questions. For the past several months, we've either experienced missing payments or exceedingly late payments. We either call or send e-mails, but it takes a long time for any kind of response. As far as we know, the tenant is paying on time, but we have no idea what happens to the payments once they reach Curtiss Property Management. Two months out of the last four, we've received no payments until we called/e-mailed several times. 

If I have any concerns it is taken care of in a professional manner.

It didn't. See above.

So far they are doing a great job getting my property leased out. They replaced a toilet, cleaned up the yard, got the house cleaned, and made the house very presentable. They also painted the house. For the painting they quoted me at a considerably smaller price than an actual painting company, and they did an outstanding job as well.

They have been very responsive to my calls and are always willing to help
I highly recommend them.

Curtiss Property Management has been excellent to us! When we were first looking at this area we were nervous about trying to find a quality place so quickly; one that would be in a nice area with quality schools etc. But once we met and discussed what we were looking for with Brandon it was instantly relieving! He was extremely knowledgable about the area, took the time to really listen to what we wanted and he worked diligently to help find the right place for us that met our criteria and budget. He went out of his way to meet us at different times/locations and once we decided on a place he really made the entire process seem so easy and effortless. When we moved in, the place was exceptionally clean and he made sure we felt like we were home. Since then, anytime we have had a question, request or maintenance issue they have been super at responding to us rapidly with stellar customer service. We can't be happier with the service we have recieved from Curtiss Property Management and highly recommend this company to everyone!