Sutton Group - 1st West Realty - Richmond

PART 1/2: This is going to be a long review but I urge you to read it all before deciding to hire or utilize this company. This is one of the most abysmal companies I have ever come in contact with. If you are a tenant of theirs, I pray for you. If you are an owner looking for a property management company, don’t come near these scam artists with a 100ft pole. We rented from one of their clients for over 4 years. We were great low maintenance tenants. From the moment we started dealing with them it was complete unprofessionalism and chaos. I will never forget the time we were on the phone with them for an issue and they HUNG UP on us mid call because they had reached their closing hour and just didn’t want to deal. Similar to the review below, the communication in all aspects is terrible and they have indeed started responding to emails as “office” that i would also agree is avoid responsibility or accountability. Now, this is the part that irks me to my core. We received an email from them on June 17th, 2021 advising the owner wanted to sell. In that original email they sent to us they advised the owner also wanted to paint before they listed, and that they understood how this would be inconvenient and what we needed to facilitate vacating. We responded immediately and said we completely understand the desire to sell ASAP in the current market and that pending an approval at another apartment we could potentially vacate by July 15th, 2021 - we wanted to be as accommodating as possible. Through a series of fortunate events we were approved for a new apartment quickly and the new landlord wanted us in June 26, 2021. Again, with the current market in BC we wanted to grab the opportunity fast since housing is getting scooped up within hours of being posted. We reached back out to the property management company and said we could be out by June 30th, 2021 pending a few conditions such as June rent reimbursed. To summarize, we packed up our life and moved out of that apartment in SEVEN DAYS to accommodate THEIR clients request to vacate. We did them a huge favour and they still tried to suck us dry for every last penny. When my husband was setting up a time for move out inspection they initially wanted to come at 2pm on Monday June 28th. My husband asked if they could come at 4pm as we were having the carpets professionally cleaned at 2pm. They refused to accommodate (are you guys serious? you couldn’t come 2 hours later?). I work until 6pm and my husband was flying out of town for work the next day so we really had no alternative but true to form they did what was in their best interest and not anyone else’s. We dropped off the keys and said they could do the inspection on their own since they didn’t want to work with our schedule and I am simply not able to take time away from work. We should have known better based on past experiences but we gave them the benefit of the doubt since we had just done them such a big favor and had been so accommodating we assumed they would be fair and reasonable.

This Richmond based business is horrible to tenants. They don't answer emails or calls, & don't do repairs in a timely fashion. They're not professional, often send contractors out that don't speak English & I don't speak Chinese, so very hard to communicate. My family is now on day 42 to get and emergency water pipe leak & mold fixed. They don't keep us updated or informed & have now started answering emails with "Office" to avoid responsibility & accountability in the "work" they do. We used to have a person who we know is in control of the issue at hand. Now it's getting passed around & nothing gets done. Don't use them at all, even if they save owners money in their fees, it's going to cost more by the time the penalties for breaking BC tenancy act and other compensation is given to tenants.