Villa Manager

UK Owner · Post by **UK Owner** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 10:35 pm

Are there any good ways of ensuring that one's property manager is not letting the property while it is standing empty? I trust my manager, but he is known to be 'inovative' and I want to be sure that he is not making cash out of my villa without my consent. This is a delicate subject but I am sure there are many of you who have, or have had, the same concerns and I would be interested to hear how you have satisfied your doubts.

e-richard · Post by **e-richard** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 12:14 am

Yes, I have often mused about this and thought of creative ideas such as phoning the Villa when its "empty", asking local friends to pop by, of even visiting myself unannounced, but at the end of the day rejected all these.

We trust our Manager with our house keys, to ensure that the maid visits while its empty, to pay all our bills and taxes. In return I ensure that we pay them their fees regularly and on time, that we visit them and talk.

The whole business of property management relies very heavily on trust. There is really very little room on either side to break this circle and remain in business.

Others may think I'm foolish, but it works because it works.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 9:23 am

It does happen. One year we flew in without accommodation booked, when we got off bus, a man said he could give us an apartment for 2 weeks. I was expecting a basic place for amount of money we handed over and he took us to a luxurious road and expensive looking apartment. When we started to unpack noticed there were a lot of expensive toiletries, personal items etc. in cupboards and then the penny dropped. I did feel bad about it but we had no way of tracing the man or owner so we stayed there but holiday wasn't as relaxing as usual because I spent most of the time keeping the place really clean and tidy & worrying that owners would turn up!

UK Owner · Post by **UK Owner** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 8:41 pm

Now that I know it does happen, I have to be equally as cunning and devise one or two methods of dtecting that the property has been used. I have some local contacts who may be willing to visit.

Thx to those that replied and I agree that it is a trust thing but I would hate to think that my property was used without my consent.

Spook · Post by **Spook** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:08 am

You could try renting some time on the US spy satellites!!

e-richard · Post by **e-richard** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:34 am

While we are getting creative, how about some secret webcams (with associate ADSL line for continuous feed) ?

Maybe even add to the Carvoeiro.com webcam page to give visitors to this site an alternative to the town square.

I suspect you'd fall foul of some EU privacy laws somewhere, but it could be fun.

Any other ideas ?

Thunderbolt · Post by **Thunderbolt** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:00 am

I think you should take a lot of surprise trips to CVO.

Like that you kill two birds with one stone. You get to catch whoever is in there illegally and you get to go to CVO loads in one year for "genuine" reason.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:09 am

Trouble with that idea TB is that the guests who are staying "illegally" may be totally innocent and ignorant of the problem and you then either find yourself without accomodation, or ruining someone else's holiday by ejecting them through no fault of theirs. Its a tricky problem

Thunderbolt · Post by **Thunderbolt** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:42 am

I know it is but at the end of the day, it is your property!

Alternatively, just use it as an excuse to go down there, that's what I'd do!!!

Although seriously, we have found ourselves in that position years ago when a supposed friend of ours who lived out there rented our property without our knowledge so imagine our faces when we turned up for a little holiday only to find our house already occupied! They left, we stayed!

Spook · Post by **Spook** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 11:54 am

A neighbor of mine also found himself in that position where he rented a villa through a local contact, and the owners turned up on spec!!! Sounds as if this problem is more widespread than we all think.

It would be interesting to hear from some of the villa managers, although clearly they will not admit to anything. Might be worth recruiting the maid in some spooking activities???

Guest 4 · Post by **Guest 4** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:41 pm

We had a similar problem, so we employed a friend of ours to check regularly on our apartment. He now does this for lots of people in the CVO/Vilamoura areas, pm me if you want his telephone number

Tricky

Debs G · Post by **Debs G** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 2:39 pm

Well, as jobs out here are scarce, I am sure you would be able to persuade people/someone to 'visit' holiday properties as and when required for a small fee!
(I have a few free hours each week!)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:56 pm

I don't think I suffer from this problem, but I have noticed things have gone missing from our appartment. I think possibly the maids took a fancy to our bed linen and swapped it for different set, only just noticed of course nobody knows anything about it

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 1:50 am

Part of our distant family have a villa and when we got talking last year they suggested that as they had no booking for the following week why not go on a last minute holiday.........

Much to our surprise when we arrived, the villa was occupied by an English family who had booked it through the agent

The agent was very appolgetic and quickly sorted us out another villa - no doubt somebody elses villa at no charge. I think that the problem is widespread and this is how some of the managers afford to live in sun.. Guess what, they are no longer in charge of the villa.

Also, a friend of mine used to work for Airtours managing a family run hotel and they regularly "sub letted" to people who turned up without accomodation, cash in hand of course....

Now Very Worried UK Owner · Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:03 pm

Oh dear this has now left me feeling very worried indeed.