Long & Foster

Tammy seemed very professional and competent when I first met her. I was impressed and hoped that she would take good care of our home while we were away. To be fair, she handled the basic receiving of rent and renting of the house without any problems. However, she did not ensure that the property was maintained properly. For instance, when a tree from an adjoining property fell on the addition roof in 2006, we heard about it first from neighbors. It was several days before Tammy contacted us in response to our enquiry. It took nearly a month to get quotes and longer deal with the insurance company and to start the work. The house was several months with only a tarp covering the sheared off corner of the roof and damaged siding. I kept sending emails to Tammy to find out how it was going, but would rarely get a response. I got my information and pictures from neighbors instead. The roof went without a gutter for 6 months because the contractor told Tammy he couldn't match the color. Ha! We got the dark gray guttering from Gutters for Less. Tell me they couldn't get it! Why did we finally get our gutters? Probably because I sent emails every day because I was worried about foundation damage (which later turned out to be true as you will see). Even when the gutters were finally installed, there were still problems. The tenants finally complained and asked if the back fence was ever going to be repaired. (It had been broken by the tree falling). When we were presented with the quote, it was for chain link fencing. The existing fence, which was still mostly in place, was wood. Obviously, Tammy had never even been out to look at the damage. And because the fence was done after the damaged roof was submitted to the insurance company, insurance did not cover the repair. To top it all off, when a neighbor sent me a picture of the completed work (I gave up trying to get something from Tammy) I found that the contractor had changed the color of our trim! It was obvious that Tammy had never, ever gone out to take a look at how progress was going. This was not a good way to start off with our new property manager. Things were quiet for awhile, but did not improve. Other incidences: After 2 years, we had new tenants move in. We happened to be in town so stopped by to see the house. The path alongside the house was so overgrown with mint that you could no longer see the path, open the side gate, or walk through. We had to help the new renters with the overgrown yard so that they could tell what belonged and what didn't. This situation should have been addressed when the previous renters moved out. Tammy made no note of the situation. More recently, this summer of 2012, we stopped by the house to see its condition because we were getting ready to sell it. We found that the tenants' kids had dug down 6 inches along the foundation and heaped the dirt away from the house. It must have been that way for some time, because the building inspector found that there was severe water damage in the basement. The lack of gutter situation from 6 years earlier may have started the problem, but it is difficult to say. It became obvious that even if Tammy conducted the yearly walkthroughs required by contract they were not well done and obviously did not include looking at the exterior of the house. Our parting 'gift' from Tammy involved gutters. The house inspection noted that they were clogged with leaves. Because cleaning the gutters was a responsibility of the tenants, I informed Tammy of the situation and told her that the tenants needed to clean the gutters or it should be withheld from their security deposit. I never heard back from her, so sent her several emails to enquire if the gutters had been cleaned. She never replied. So, we included the cleaning with other repairs included in the sale. When I had the cost for the gutter cleaning, I forwarded it to her and told her to withhold it from the security deposit. Only then did she reply to say that the tenants had cleaned the gutters before they left, she had checked that specifically during her walkthrough. Had Tammy bothered to tell me, so I could remove it from the contractor's work list? No.