CALCO Management

What it comes down to is this — Calco is not a company to do business with. They’re bad with communication, paper work, setting expectations and service.
Complaints have been filed with the BBB and Bureau of Real Estate as Calco has stopped all communication and have not returned the Security Deposit.
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I spoke with several PM companies in the downtown LA area, and prior to my signing the contract Donna was polite, responsive, really on her game with follow up. I liked the idea of a small business owner in downtown managing my apartment; I’d hoped we’d get very personal service.
Donna and her partner Pam came to view my apartment, and got the full tour. Donna was confident she could rent my downtown loft within 30 days, for a little over market value. She’d have open houses, and be promoting the property all over the map. They took some phone snaps while in the condo and then with my deposit in hand were off to begin listing the apartment.
Fast forward 2 months and she’d brought in 2 prospective tenants. The mentioned open house never materialized, and I had no way out of the contract unless I wanted to pay for a full years worth of property management fees.
Once she’d cashed the deposit check and had a signed contract with me, Donna became positively awful at communication. I had to call her to find out our ad status, and if there were any prospective tenants that wanted to view the apartment.
I offered on several occasions once the apartment was cleared out for them to come back and take new photographs (the originals taken on her handphone still showed my belongings in the apartment.) Donna was adamant that showing the property «lived in» was better in her experience so tenants could imagine how their belongings would fit into the space.
After several responses from friends and acquaintances stating I needed better photos, I hired a photographer myself to take new photographs. I then placed my own ads and within a week had 5 responses — this is compared to the 2 that Donna had supplied in 2 months.
Points of contention — in her original email she quoted me a lower price for her services than was stated on her first version of the contract. I got this corrected.
I specifically asked about insurance needs, when I’m switching from the homeowner/​resident to landlord — she claimed my current policy would cover anything that came up. I contacted my insurance company about this, and they informed me this was incorrect — you need a tenant/​landlord owner policy when someone other than you is residing in your apartment.
Once the tenant I secured moved in, things were relatively smooth until August 2015. There were things like some late payments by Calco, an incorrect rental amount $ 1,000 less than expected deposited in my account, missing yearly statements. There was always an explanation for these missteps, and as my tenant was ok I let things be.
Then, the HVAC unit in the apartment broke, and Calco got into a dispute with PayLease which saw the distribution of my rental money delayed by 18 days past their contractual deposit date; Calco was in violation of the terms of the contract they wrote. It took me contacting PayLease to get the funds released and eventually deposited into my account.
It turns out the broken HVAC unit wasn’t serviced during the past two years of use — something the Property Management Company — Calco — should have scheduled. Their selected contractor was a no show at first, and when he did arrive he further broke the unit requiring a new part to be ordered. I only found out about this, as I called the contractor myself after Calco didn’t return calls or emails requesting status updates.
I served them with the 60 day termination notice due to their non-​response to enquiries and property neglect. The only response to the notice was «why am I canceling with no warning».
Further attempts to close out the contract amicably have been ignored.

Terrible, Horrible, Awful. Beware of this company, rather not do business with them at all.

You information will not stay confidential with this management company!!! They violated my privacy information by sharing with one of the tenant, and that tenant announced it in front of 22 other units. Management company takes sides and harasses regularly. They don’t fix anything unless your one of the people that they have conflict of interest with. With this company managing, it feels like you are a prisoner in your own home. You cant even do things on your own property. I can go on and on but it’s pointless. Stay away!!!

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE– This management company is the worst! I wish Unilocal did not filter the earlier reviews so we could have known. Donna, the owner, comes off as very knowledgeable and convincing. She turns this knowledge against you! Our HOA signed up with Calco and in the beginning everything was fine. Then we started noticing strange withdrawals from our account. Only after bringing them to Donna’s attention, were they reversed. However, this kept happening over and over again. We also realized, too late, the account she opened at the bank was in her companies name, not in our HOA name as she was supposed to. She essentially was able to take our funds hostage and use our money as her own line of credit. When we finally had enough, we were not able to access our funds for almost two months. She then sent us a check that did not include the total balance– essentially stealing our money. Upon further investigation, we realized she was paying bills late and we were being charged late fees. To make matters worse, she had a clause in her contract that we needed to give her 60 days notice to cancel. She used this to charge us for an entire year of service! This woman is an absolute FRAUD. To this day, she is not responding to emails and continues to hold our money hostage. Our HOA will be pursuing legal and criminal action against Calco and Donna. Please don’t become a victim!

One of the worst management companies ever. HOAs beware do not use this company!!! Donna Ferrell is the President and CEO — she is negligent, nasty and the only thing she knows how to do well is collect her fees! Our building was in complete disrepair the entire time her company managed it. They do not answer phone calls or respond to emails from anyone, a homeowner, board member or vendor. No one is available on weekends, so god help you if there is an emergency on a Saturday! It is clear that this is not a company it is a one woman show. Donna Ferrell is very unprofessional and shows no professional courtesy to anyone. Obviously she does not care about maintaining a good reputation or referrals and references from past clients. After we terminated our management contract with her, we found out that our association was in collections for services she just stopped paying the bills on, several vendors just stopped servicing our building because of this. We received outstanding bills from vendors for payment 9 months previously. We also found out that she had put our operating funds and reserves into accounts under Calco’s name and not the association so none of the board members had access or control of our funds. She took no responsibility for any of this, and when we terminated our contract she held on to our funds for 2 months, and sent the check on the 60^th day «per the contract’». She did no work for us during that time, just collected her fees and held on to our money. She refused to show any professional courtesy to the new management company. Our HOA records prior to her management mysteriously disappeared. Also, our corporate status with the State of California was suspended because she never renewed it, another thing we found out after the fact. It is apparent that this woman has no business education or background in spite of what she says about all her credentials.
There are other very competent companies out there, do your homework and you will find a reputable and respectable company. We found a great company and are doing much better.