Darwin Homes Property Management
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Worst renting experience we've ever had.
Worst experience we've had. First, we were informed very last minute that the owner of our rental would be selling. They apparently sent out an email within the 60 day time frame BUT did no follow up until 30 days later which was also the last 30 days of our lease! The email was sent straight to our junk mail being from a 3rd party. They did no follow up via phone or email when their intent to not renew document wasn't signed soon after they sent it out. We were sent an email as what they called "a friendly reminder your landlord is selling". We were completely surprised because just a few weeks earlier we had called to find out how to renew our lease and were told that someone was supposed to reach out to us. Again, nothing. So their reminder email was actually a first notice for us. Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic and paycut we wanted to know if someone could come and do a walkthrough of our home before our move out date so that we can get our security deposit back ASAP to afford fees that come with moving into a new home. They were the ones that told us a walkthrough would have to happen first and that they could help us find a new home since they already had our security deposit on file. When we responded asking what our options were in doing this they never got back to us. We sent another follow up email asking if someone would please come and do a walkthrough if we had everything packed up and still no response. During all of this we have applied for a new rental (with a different company) and they sent out an email to Darwin Homes to verify our rental history. They got no response as well. The new company then called and even NTN called. They were told by Darwin Homes that the email was in their spam folder and would be forwarded to the leasing team. This was on Thursday (5/7). Then Friday they were contacted again and told it would be done. We then called ourselves again and spoke with Jessa (the one who originally sent out the reminder email) she said it was in the resident spam folder and would be forwarded and done that day (5/8). It was NOT. Jessa also stated that she is not the one that handles security deposits and was typing up an email to send to them. (If something is not in your job description that does not mean don't respond at all when residents are needing assistance.) Online shows that Darwin Homes is open 7 days a week from whatever times. So we called Saturday to try again to get them to respond to our rental history email. We were only directed to a hotline. They apparently tried to reach out to several team members, none of which answered. No surprise there. Today is Monday (5/11). The realtor we are working with still has not received a response from Darwin Homes. This is a requirement when applying for a rental home and you would think a property management company would be efficient at this. All of our previous landlords were private owners and they all responded immediately after receiving the email. Our realtor is now having to submit our information to her property manager and owner without a reference from our current "landlord". We were able to provide her with copies of our current lease and payment receipts just to have any kind of proof that we have been living here. Luckily we have great rental history and really hope this negative experience with Darwin Homes does not ruin our chances at getting approved for a new rental home. A formal complaint will definitely be made. We have honestly been disappointed from the start from coming into a dirty home, to having our realtor have to file a complaint to the board of realtors about the previous property manager then switching companies. I could go on with a list of things but will save that for our formal complaints to HUD and BBB. I can only imagine why the property owner decided to sell. Having to move in the middle of a pandemic and then dealing with an unresponsive "landlord" is extremely disappointing.