Island Explorer Property Management

We contracted with IEPM to rent out our home on Saltspring Island. Let me just start by saying I would never use their services again. Though I understand why it took a few months to find a renter, I do not believe they did their due diligence in checking references. Our tenants stopped paying rent after 6 weeks, chalked up enormous hydro bills which they never paid, and in the end stole several items from our fully furnished house once they were asked to leave.
Communication with IEPM staff during the beginning of these challenges was extremely challenging. When, at the middle of the 2^nd month we still hadn’t receive any rent for that month, I sent an e-​mail and did not hear a response until I wrote another 2 times and called twice, leaving messages each time. I finally spoke with the owner and he informed me that they were having some «issues» with the tenants and was confident it would be resolved soon. It never was and the tenants were asked to leave.
Once the tenants were asked to leave, IEPM stated that they checked the inventory list they created at the beginning of the rental, and informed us that there were 3 items missing from the house. When I mentioned that there were about 50 items missing from the house, some of which were on the list and several that were not the owner of the business defended his staff and said that they had checked the house after the tenants gave back the keys and this is what she found. When I showed him a locked closet that was broken into and that items on the list specific to identified locations on the paper, he continued to defend his staff.
IEPM took their service charge while we are out close to $ 4000 in rent, hydro charges, and additional expenses to replace items that went missing. And they have done little to get the money from tenants they chose.
In the end, we realize that the tenants they accepted are well practised at this sort of fraud. Our neighbour mentioned that her vehicle was broken into on her property while she was away. And that our tenant broke a hole in the fence to go onto her property repeatedly, harassing her.
Lastly, the tenants left a pile of garbage that we requested IEPM to take away. They said they would and 6 weeks later when we returned again to the house it was still there. Two more phone calls finally resolved that issue.