11172 help with house rental

these people used to be quite active on here and were very helpful... hopefully still in business and if you contact them they most probably even if they cannot help directley will know someone that can

[url=http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/members/britaly.html]Italy Magazine Forums - View Profile: Britaly[/url]

[EMAIL="britalyproperty@msn.com"]mailto:britalyproperty@msn.com[/EMAIL]

they are based in the town you mention by the way ... and have heard that they are both friendly and reliable

Being in the centre of a small town and for four years then I would think that there must surely be a suitable, trustworthy neighbour who would be glad of the extra income. Just ask around. Also I suggest finding a handyman. Things are likely to get broken I imagine.

We have had several 'false dawns', where we thought something had been put in place (the type you describe) but nothing that fulfilled all the requirements, in short the complete changeover package. Thanks anyway.

hi would try britaly on abruzzolutely
have met him and he is a very nice guy and iam sure if he couldnt help you directly would point you in the right direction.
we are about 25 mins from loreto and could possibly help if you are totally stuck.
i used to stay in loreto while renovating my house and also have a contact called claudio,who could possibly help.
my mobile is 07969450430
simon
sandwich

Simon Hi. Not a good idea to post your telephone number on a Public Forum.

Thanks all very much for the recommendations. Very much still in business, relying on word of mouth and reliability.

Joanna8 I've replied to your email, so hopefully I can be off assitance in the future.

Thanks again all

[quote=Sally Donaldson;105582]Being in the centre of a small town and for four years then I would think that there must surely be a suitable, trustworthy neighbour who would be glad of the extra income. Just ask around. Also I suggest finding a handyman. Things are likely to get broken I imagine.[/quote]

I think if you can find a suitable neighbour then great.

However we get so many calls particulary over the Easter and Summer periods with holiday home owners asking/pleading with us to help them out as a matter of urgency as they have been let down by a friend or a neighbour who promised to help them and need a changeover within 2 hours!!! :eeeek:

When we inform them we are unable to help due to our existing workload on that day, we get offered silly money to help them out, when we say we are sorry, but really cannot help on this occassion they scream at us.............

Obviously I am biased, but think it pays to employ someome who you know won't be popping to the shops or attending a family get together when you need a changeover.

just to add my agreement... with the above post...we used to help out neighbours in our village...Italians that is that wanted to rent out their properties... as a gesture of good will... should add not for money... we soon gave up... not only did the Italians harangue us if the people renting did not leave it clean... every time there was a tiny problem of any sort we ended up getting an earful.... i would say unless you are very patient and dedicated this is one of the hardest jobs there is.... final straw was when a family from essex moved away without settling the bills for months afterwards we had them dropped into our house to go and act as debt collectors...

we also had a rental of our own... and would say 50 per cent of people that stayed were excellent, easy, and most of all respectful... to my mind we didn't charge an awful lot for the place as we hadn't really restored it for that purpose more for family visiting... what used to annoy us the most i guess is waiting until mid night for some idiot to turn up that had decided after landing at pescara to take a scenic route or do some other excursion and got lost... should have been a 40 minute journey... others who arrived with no food and then knocked on our door to borrow wine ... after they had drunk the bottle left for them... because they hadn't bothered thinking of doing any shopping... needless to say we sort of gave up doing rentals and just had the people we knew that had been OK come back... the others that wanted to we just explained we had friends staying...

so to my mind it would be an imposition on a neighbour who might offer freely to do something before like us they knew the implications ...and pretty soon they would be swearing about what they had got into and even if paying them...it wouldn't be enough... like a lot of things its better to get a professional... they just have to cut their losses, not their friendship, and save willing and friendly neighbours for real emergencies

strongly agree with Giovanni above, this is not for the faint of heart. i am fortunate in that my house is in a small village (thus making access more convenient), there is a very nice guy with a small store who is there most of the day and who helps me with the management (the paid "quarterback" who greets people, takes care of small problems, etc), have two cousins in the village who are an electrician and a plumber. bottom line is that you are going to need support(s) to make this happen. the more the better. if there was a company that could provide these services at a reasonable price i would probably look into having it done professionally.

I did this for a while when we first arrived and it is HARD work. I also found that people really don't want to pay you. They think "oh it takes me about 4 hours to clean the house" and then want to pay you that amount. They don't think that it takes a lot longer to clean a house where people have been on holiday in it. You have to do everything all at once. Every towel, sheet etc etc. It takes ages.

I had one house where it was a real Heath Robinson affair and the owners had brought everything over from B&Q and Screwfix in the UK (including the sockets). The wiring left a lot to be desired! They were in an area where they would have water shortages if the weather got hot. Instead of installing a storage tank to make sure their guests could at least have a shower when they got there, they did nothing. Instead, I regurlarly got shouted at by irate guests who had no water. I also, remember one group turning up just as the water board turned off the water as the owners had not paid their bill.

They hadn't taken up the animal stall floor and put down a membrane so apart from it growing a fur coat in winter, it was a b@stard to keep clean. The final straw was getting groped by the owner's brother-in-law who lived opposite. Needless to say I didn't go back!!!

Good luck to those of you out there making a living at it. You deserve your money. Those of you that rent your houses out, the property management guys are worth every penny and more!!

Hi Joanna,
With regards to your question on a reputable key holding/property & letting management company based in Calabria. Myself and my partner are in the process of setting up a company called 'Calabria Management' which will be based in Pizzo. We have 15 years of experience in similar fields and we will be moving permanently to Calabria in June of this year. We have our website currently under construction and are going to inspect suitable office premises in February. We have our team of professionals already organised, we are just in the process of finishing off the finer details.
If you would like more details on the nature of our business etc; please don't hesitate to contact myself @ [email]paulmdonnell@hotmail.com[/email].
Yours sincerely,
Paul McDonnell

Having read Penny's comments I so agree. Here above Lago Traimeno there are some holiday apartments in a complex of old buildings, owned by an Italian/German couple. The website doesn't show it as it really is and the place is also none too clean. This is a terrible start to anyones holiday! The poor person that did the meeting and greeting gave up last season. It is a tough job and tougher if the owners are tight fisted.

Paul Hi Bad move to put your e-mail address online as you lay yourself open to spam. Better to get people to pm you.

Hi, the original post seems quite old, and good answers to the problem has already been given, I'd just like to mention that I have a (danish) friend living in centro storico in Loreto Aprutino. She is already holding the keys for her various foreign neighbours, always help out with a meal and some home owners have hired her for cleaning/washing calling her a week before coming out so that they find everything in order.
She doesn't want to work full-time, but if needed she would be a very reliable asset to any houseowner in that area.
If somebody here finds it relevant they can PM me.