disgruntledbrit
Junior Member
Hi,
First post, and I hope that this is in the correct section. This refers to a vacation property that we own in Orlando, Florida.
We had a management company looking after it, to whom we paid monthly and kept an account topped up for things that they may need to do in an emergency situation etc.
We continued to pay the monthly service charge to them, and things went a little wrong when we got a letter in the post saying that there was a 'lien' on the property due to the pool maintenance guy not having been paid for a few months. When we arrived at the property, it was a mess, grass had not been cut, pool was green and as a consequence the filter was broken.
The air con had not been serviced and needed various expensive parts replacing, the pest control had not been done. Basically, absolutely nothing had been done.
We tried to contact the guy and have been unsuccessful, all emails bounce back, phone not answered etc. We paid the outstanding debts, cancelled the monthly payment to management company and found another one.
Nobody has been able to contact him.
Until today, I decided to do some digging. I approached companies house here in the UK and found that at the end of August he had started a company with a name suggesting that they were dealing with Florida properties. The managing director is listed as his 18 year old son, with him as sales manager, and his ex partner (whom he told us he had no contact with whatsoever) as lettings manager.
It listed his address in the USA, a different one to the one that we had for him.
So i did some more digging using the power of the internet and it turns out he has other things going on, and i found a phone number. When i called he answered... so I know that I have a current number for him.
Using the wonders of facebook, i found his profile and read various messages he had sent to people. It turns out that 3 days after the company was formed over here in the UK, his son has returned to live with him in Orlando. There are also posts explaining how business is picking up for him and he should 'have some money on the hip' when his friend visits at the end of the year.
So he IS still operating. Yet he will not respond to us.
What he owes us is the balance of the account he had of ours ($3,000) and approx 6 months of monthly management fees ($1,000 approx). We would also like to hold him responsible for the considerable damage to the property whilst not being maintained.
Obviously this is quite difficult, due to us being over here in the UK and him being over there.
We have addresses for his residence in Orlando, the registered address of his business over here, and the address of his ex partner who is listed as a director and company secretary.
My question is; what legal avenues are there for us to go down with a view to taking him to court to get the money back? If he has emptied accounts and run off with the money, presumably dissolved his 'inc' company, is there anything we can do?
I would appreciate any advice that anyone can offer.
Kind Regards
Alex
First post, and I hope that this is in the correct section. This refers to a vacation property that we own in Orlando, Florida.
We had a management company looking after it, to whom we paid monthly and kept an account topped up for things that they may need to do in an emergency situation etc.
We continued to pay the monthly service charge to them, and things went a little wrong when we got a letter in the post saying that there was a 'lien' on the property due to the pool maintenance guy not having been paid for a few months. When we arrived at the property, it was a mess, grass had not been cut, pool was green and as a consequence the filter was broken.
The air con had not been serviced and needed various expensive parts replacing, the pest control had not been done. Basically, absolutely nothing had been done.
We tried to contact the guy and have been unsuccessful, all emails bounce back, phone not answered etc. We paid the outstanding debts, cancelled the monthly payment to management company and found another one.
Nobody has been able to contact him.
Until today, I decided to do some digging. I approached companies house here in the UK and found that at the end of August he had started a company with a name suggesting that they were dealing with Florida properties. The managing director is listed as his 18 year old son, with him as sales manager, and his ex partner (whom he told us he had no contact with whatsoever) as lettings manager.
It listed his address in the USA, a different one to the one that we had for him.
So i did some more digging using the power of the internet and it turns out he has other things going on, and i found a phone number. When i called he answered... so I know that I have a current number for him.
Using the wonders of facebook, i found his profile and read various messages he had sent to people. It turns out that 3 days after the company was formed over here in the UK, his son has returned to live with him in Orlando. There are also posts explaining how business is picking up for him and he should 'have some money on the hip' when his friend visits at the end of the year.
So he IS still operating. Yet he will not respond to us.
What he owes us is the balance of the account he had of ours ($3,000) and approx 6 months of monthly management fees ($1,000 approx). We would also like to hold him responsible for the considerable damage to the property whilst not being maintained.
Obviously this is quite difficult, due to us being over here in the UK and him being over there.
We have addresses for his residence in Orlando, the registered address of his business over here, and the address of his ex partner who is listed as a director and company secretary.
My question is; what legal avenues are there for us to go down with a view to taking him to court to get the money back? If he has emptied accounts and run off with the money, presumably dissolved his 'inc' company, is there anything we can do?
I would appreciate any advice that anyone can offer.
Kind Regards
Alex