Land Merchants Property Management - Tampa, Florida

Cody E.

I was charged $350 for a pest control/ flea treatment. When asked about it I was told the needed to treat the carpet for fleas. The only bugs that were ever in that house were an infestation of roaches left by a previous tenant. According to the neighbor next door and the neighbor across the street from the house, the tenants prior to us went several months without trash pickup. When we first signed the paperwork to move into the house the manager informed us that “pest control was tenant’s responsibility” which I thought was strange that they felt necessary to mention but didn’t pay much attention. It became pretty obvious why because shortly after we moved in started seeing bugs everyday. We paid for an exterminator to come once a month for almost 2 years and still couldn’t get rid of the bug problem. With all that being said, there were never fleas in the house like manager claims. There are glue traps under the refrigerator and under the stove with dates on them showing dates of service from an exterminator and proof of an infestation of bugs. Roaches of course and not not the fleas that the managers are claiming were there. Shady company making up illegitimate charges. Don’t do business with Land Merchants Property Management, Condor Realty or Anthony Schiavone Realtor.

B J.

Wow. Just wow. My fiancé and I had such a terrible year living in the house managed by Tampa Land Merchants. Within the first 48 hours of moving in the guest bedroom flooded with rain water. Within the first two months our front yard had been completely flooded and inundated to the point where it was flooding into the guest bedroom even more. Turns out there was a hole in the roof where water ran through the walls and out the baseboards in the room. Upon further inspection there was wood rot that allowed even more water into the room. 2 months living in this house, we get slammed with almost $2000 in water bills. We were shocked. Brianna and Anthony claimed it was a running toilet in the master bathroom yet we never had a problem with the toilet and it was obvious it was NOT running. This also does not explain why the FRONT OF THE HOUSE WAS FLOODING! Our lawn maintenance informed us we had a broken valve in the sprinkler system and shut it off for us. The flooding immediately stopped, But guess who was still responsible for having to pay the water bill! US!! The city of tampa granted us a $300 refund on our water bill and land merchants matched the amount. We still owed $1300 on our water bill that we are STILL paying off 7/5/2020. Our monthly rent jumped $700 each to $900 each because of that water bill. Don’t forget we couldn’t use one of the rooms for the entire year because it would constantly flood. $900 each for a 2 bedroom 70+ year old house.

Land merchants even removed our lawn service within 2 months of living at the house. It was one thing after another.

The patio in our back yard had a collapsing and rotting roof that we constantly informed Brianna and Anthony about and they did nothing about it. Every time it rained it would downpour on our patio, it killed my plants and ruined our expensive furniture. Again, no apology and nothing done about it.

By July/August our AC wasn’t working and our electric bill was $200 since move in. You guessed it! The AC was extremely old and wasn’t working to cool the house down. They finally replaced it within 2 months of reporting the AC issues, and about another $1000 in electric bills within 4 months of us living there.

By month 4 we were done. We wanted out. We spent so much money on maintenance issues that were completely to no fault of our own. How were we supposed to know that there was a broken sprinkler valve UNDERGROUND? And for them to “claim” it was a running toilet was ridiculous. We had 0 problems with the bathrooms.

By move out time we had this house in better condition than we received it in. They even blamed us for some kitchen stains that came with the house when we moved in. We put up a total of 4 portraits in the house. Covered up the holes, sanded, and repainted with the paint that was provided to us with the house.

THE PAINT THAT LAND MERCHANTS PROVIDED US WITH DIDNT MATCH THE COLOR OF THE WALLS AND THEY CHARGED US DURING MOVE OUT FOR IT!!!

Can you believe that? They give us the paint, it’s the wrong color, and we still have to pay for their mistakes.

We are so glad to never deal with land merchants again.

SAVE YOURSELF!! Do NOT rent with land merchants, you will 100% regret it!

Will update review later with more photos of the home before we moved out.

s2s

Land merchants is the absolute WORST! They take ZERO accountability and ONE HUNDRED PERCENT take advantage of you. These people are scam artists, stay away.

Gabbi R.

Beware of this company!!! Do not rent with them!!! They will completely screw you on your security deposit no matter how good of a tenant you are. I am sickened on how much money they charged me on my move out when I left the home in better condition than how I received it. As a mother and veteran you would think they wouldn't try and rip you off. They send you your deposit with a hefty amount taken out with no valid charge. They don’t allow you to do a walkout with them, I am very saddened with my experience and hope rental owners steer clear of this company.

Heather C.

I lived in a condo managed by land merchants. I moved out over a month ago. Today I got a certified letter demanding I pay my entire security deposit plus $140 to them. I paid $160 for a women to clean our apartment when we moved out. Land merchants was aware of this. Today I. The letter I received from them was a list of charges they want me to pay including a $260 cleaning fee... interesting that they paid another company that much money to clean an 1100 sq ft condo that had just been cleaned. Also they charged me $200 for paint staging that they had freshly painted the apartment when I moved in SIX years ago and it should have been painted again by me before leaving. Supposedly it’s in my lease. I am a tenant that rented two different condos totaling renting from them for 11 years. They were great the first five years but as soon as we had to move to a different unit their attitude changed. It is clear that any time something went wrong in our apartment that we were bothering them to fix it. My dryer did not work properly for over a year, my oven and stove did not work right and my toilets constantly ran causing high water bill on a monthly basis! I complained to them several
Times about all of these issues to no avail.
Do not rent from this company. They will rob you blind and do nothing for you!!!

Senthil K.

As a leasing agency you need to ensure taking time and talking to tenants before they move out from the unit after your pre move out visit, if there are something to be fixed or issues tell them upfront rather then sending a certified mail after few weeks of move out and asking more than the security deposit, dont give excuses the unit was occupied with furnitures, it will be your responsibility to talk to the tenants and mutually agree upon, how do we even know that you spent that much for the claims mentioned, the bills/invoice you provided for the work that you mentioned are not from the respective vendors, its your own made up bills, still I am surprised you need 7 galons of paint for touchup. On a side note you were good during our tenure, overall its a bad experience with you, its not just me had faced this with you, based on the reviews I could see many others had similar experience.
For new tenants with this leasing vendor I would recommend you to talk to them before you move out and mutually agree upon. else you wont get your security deposit, entire amount will be claimed with and you may end up paying more. be cautious so that you could avoid such mess.

Erica A.

UPDATE: You seem to have me confused with someone else. Perhaps someone related to me, who also used your services. I would HIGHLY recommend re-checking your records before speaking to someone in such a manner over a bad google review. I have NEVER owned a dog and did not have additional fees owed to you other than what was taken from my deposit - which also had minimal left-over that was returned to me.
Your tone is proving my point. This is extremely unprofessional for a company to speak to a client in this manner. I have been nothing but respectful and truthful with this review. To have to deal with with almost a decade later is absurd.

Also, clearly I'm not the only person who has had a poor experience with this company.

Updated review in response to owners response: I find it interesting that the rationale provided by the company, now over 6 years later, is a complete lie... I have never owned a dog, nor was the carpet the original "excuse" from the company for keeping my security deposit. I want everyone to be weary when renting from this company, as it seems, several years later, things have not changed.

Scam artists. They take every penny from you that they can when it comes to your security deposit. I would NEVER recommend this company to anyone. STAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!!!!

Kyler W.

There are two sides to every story, having worked in an industry where I worked with other property managers for 7 years I can say hands down Land Merchants is one of the better PM’s I’ve come across. Bryanna and Anthony were very helpful from day one of our lease. Always responsive, very quick on maintenance issues. If we emailed about a concern they were proactive to send people to check something before a larger issue popped up. Very reasonable on rent and again went out of their way multiple times for us (to fix something I messed up even). Truly deserving of 5 stars from all accounts I’ve have had with them.