My husband and I bought a rental property in San Antonio in June 2022. Because we live out of state, we decided to use a property management company to help us manage it. We own a couple rentals closer to home in Denver that we self-manage. We decided to go with the company Bungalow Living, in part because several houses in our neighborhood in Denver were using it and they seemed successful. We also liked how well they photographed and advertised the properties. Our process of onboarding and initial communication were fairly smooth. There seemed to be some staff turnover and layoffs, but we had ample ways of reaching people to answering our questions.
They use a sort of sub-leasing model, and we signed a 2-year contract with them that ends in June 2024. They are technically our tenant who then go and find tenants. We only get paid when they have their tenants in place. They found tenants who lived there from August 1-July 31. We were not informed that they moved out or that the house was vacant (we get paid for the previous month, so we were still receiving payments through August), so we didn't know until September when we stopped getting paid. On 9/12/2023 we were told that there was a break-in at the property. All the appliances were stolen and doors and fixtures and cabinets have been severely damaged. We had also learned that in the 6 weeks that the house was vacant that they had 2 showings total, which is negligible in and of itself. As property managers ourselves, we know to adjust prices and marketing strategies when there is so little interest. Within our contract, it details the extensive liability insurance that Bungalow is to carry. We were instructed to file a police report and insurance claim. We filed the insurance claim but cannot file the police report, because the police are saying that the property manager that is able to be onsite must do so.
We have not been able to talk to anyone with Bungalow other than the maintenance and repair person who reported the problem to us. She gave us the name of our account manager (who had changed from our previous account manager, and we were not previously informed), and aside from one stock email, we have not heard a word from her. We cannot find any phone numbers with the company other than a tenant line that will not connect us with anyone else. We feel completely handcuffed in how we can proceed. We have made multiple attempts a day at emailing our account manager at the one email address we have (it is not a personal email address, it is the address for all their central properties). It appears that the company only has one account manager for all 700 properties, and there is no chain to escalate it to. Again, we do not have any phone numbers for anyone in the company. The only email contact we're told to use is the one we're using and not getting responses to. I tried to contact them as a new client, and the calendar to set up the call is completely defunct. At this point, we do not trust them and feel completely handcuffed because we need some element of communication from them on how to proceed, and we are not getting it. Meanwhile our house is sitting vacant with extensive damage and no realistic path to being rented any time soon. We do not want to do anything to break the contract illegally, but we need to be able to access the property and put an effective manager in place. We also feel like some, if not all, the liability may fall on them but need communication from them and likely legal advice in order to determine those specifics.
If anyone has any insight into this company or recommendations for next steps, please advise.
Thank you!
