Florida Palms is run by Marion Griffin (Nee Barnes) and her Husband Patrick Griffin. We started using them in 2003 to manage our holiday rental property on Hampton Lakes.in addition to managing the property they also put tenants into the house on our behalf. On occasion they also collected money on our behalf from rentors who wanted to pay by credit card.
At first everything went well, we had excellent reports from tennants and they were filling the gaps we had in our calendar, Marion and her daughter were pleasant, efficient and helpful.
However after three months we were having increasing difficulty in obtaining monthly statements from them. Furthermore when these statements showed that we were owed money we had more difficulty obtaining payments. At this time they became more and more difficult to contact as we pressed them for payment.
Finally in June we had tennants arrive, we had been assured by Marion that the house was perfect and the pool crystal clear. But when we called the tenants we heard that the house was filthy and the pool was green. We put a new manager in within the hour who reported a sad state of affairs. The pool needed expensive chemical treatment over a week, the house needed a complete clean and numerous items were missing.
Florida Palms then disapeared until I read another post on this site I beleived they had ceased trading. They stole over $5000 dollars from us in unpaid rentals and the costs of repairs and replacement items stolen (vacuum, toys, sheets, towels, electronic games).
We later found that they have a history going back years of the same and many people are attempting to take them to court. Unfortunately the Florida smal claims courts demand the plaintiff be present in person, therefore we decided to cut our losses. However before we did so we put their name on every owners forum we could find and complained to every authority who would listen.
We later learnt that they were building a ranch house on a large plot of land and keeping horses. Life's easy if you have no conscience!
Neil
Peterborough, Florida
United Kingdom
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