Cal West H.M.S.

If I could give a zero star rating I would. I also want to note that I used to manage residential and commercial properties.
I moved into a run down property that was managed by the owner. It was a beautiful house, but the previous tenants ran it down. I received lower rent, because it was run down. Within a month of moving in the owner hired HMS to manage the property.
That was were everything went downhill. I told them that the owner wanted them to do a walk thru to inventory the damage from the previous tenant. I had taken a picture of everything. The property management refused. They did not want the photos and were not going to do a walk thru.
One day I was outside with my 5 year old watering the grass when sparks came out from our water spicket. I called immediately and a lady, who worked in the office, said it wasn’t a big deal and she would call an electrician. I never heard back from her, so I went to the office to ask why she never called back. She called an electrician and spoke to him on the phone in front of me and told him that I probably didn’t know what I was talking about but maybe he should just come out. Then she handed the phone over to me so, so I could arrange a time. He asked me if I was in the room when she was talking to me. He couldn’t believe that she would talk to me Like that. I expressed my irritation with her about her lack of customer service skills and left. She called me an hour later and said that after thinking about it, the electrician thought my problem was more serious than thought. He came out to do over that there was a electrical wire wrapped around the main cold water pipe. It was very serious.
I expressed my concern over the house not being up to code, but no one listened. The house had knob and tube electrical and grease leaking out of the old chimney in the kitchen with the gas (line very close) that goes to the stove very close. The house is in the Rose Garden Area in San Jose. It is 100 yrs old.
The maintenance took forever if you needed something fixed. By forever, I mean months to complete the maintenance ticket. And the work they did complete looked awful. I would not want them to repair my house.
We gave notice to move out due to financial hardship, safety and the property mangers being incompetent.
The week we were to move, our main driveway was blocked with the city tearing up and re doing the sidewalk and curb. We couldn’t move, because we couldn’t access our driveway that would allow us to move bigger furniture pieces. I asked the workers why we weren’t notified and they said they contacted the property management. I called the office and the lady said they were notified but didn’t think it was important to let me know. We had to stay a week longer and they are trying to charge us for it.
When we moved out they would not do a walk thru with us. They sent us a bill for over $ 5,000 of property damages. We wrote back sending the photos to prove we moved into the place not being cleaned and already damaged. (It took us 2 weeks to clean, fix a leak in kitchen sink and repair bathtub, before we could move in.)
After disputing the charges with the owner and sending him all my pictures to prove we didn’t anything in damages, they ended up just charging us a $ 80 fee to clean carpet. (which we shouldn’t have been charged either, but it was better that $ 5,000+.
Also, they put the house on the market, raising the rent $ 1,000 more than we paid. It stayed empty for a few weeks. Then lowered the price $ 300 and it was rented.
It is a great house we wanted to buy, but it was infested with termites, black widows, (before we moved in rats.) Plus the fact it wasn’t to code.
We didn’t hear back from the office after we were told about the carpet cleaning fee. Then we just received a letter from a collection agency saying we owe $ 1,500 to HMS. We moved out June on 2013. We never received a bill to dispute, or anything.
I wrote them asking why they sent us to collections and to have us removed from collections. The owner refuses to answer why he unethically reported us to the collection agency and instead telling us that it is out of their hands.
We are going to report them to BBB and possibly get an attorney.
DO NOT LET THIS PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY NEAR YOUR HOUSE! Do not rent with them!!! They are awful! Run away!!!
**** This is my second post, because they had my first one removed by the owner for privacy reasons. I am guessing because I listed the street names. So now I only mentioned the area the house was located and deleted the names of the «ladies» in the office, even though many of the other reviews list names.

There’s a reason for reviews, recommended or not. I read ALL of them. Too bad I didn’t even think to Unilocal HMS before we rented with them. Our experience resonated more with the negative than positive and closer to the «not recommended reviews».
They have some nice people like Jilene and Stephanie who responded to most of the problems like a garage door battery dying and quirky light bulb replacement fixes for older homes. The difficulty appears to be handling more complex matters like a crack on an exterior wall that caused moisture and leaking issues, and early lease termination. Their solution was to caulk and then paint over. We didn’t think that would solve the problem and of course a year later the hardwood floors buckled. Then we started to see more pests like silverfish enter the bedroom. Pretty gross. HMS sent out a maintenance guy twice within the year to take measurements to replace the window and fix the problem, but it never happened. There was mention they would replace the old sliding glass doors and that didn’t happen either. The frames of the doors were extremely dirty with caked in dirt and cobwebs, but we didn’t notice them at first until we moved in. We just saw the bathroom upgrades, new blinds and new paint. We were eventually told the house was not professionally cleaned when we moved in (which explains a lot) and yet they expect us to do that upon moving out!
Kathryn was our contact and seemed nice, but after a year seemed distracted and forgetful about the fixes that were being done. She would forget maintenance appointments and text me assuming they weren’t done when they were. Then she forgot to show up for an appointment which was a waste of my time. These probably aren’t a big deal for some, but people like my husband and I who really stay on top of stuff were surprised. We are busy parents, my husband travels a lot, moved to the area for a private school and like everyone else life is pretty hectic. We consider ourselves excellent tenants never late on rent, kept the place cleaner than when we got it, and have credit scores above 800. We tired of managing fixes not to mention the warping floor, and we moved at the end of the second year having to «break our lease». We decided to buy again and it’s hard to time that with a nice clean finish to a lease, but with such a hot rental market in Los Gatos a landlord can’t complain of not finding a new tenant. I can see the upset on their part as we had just renewed the lease, but HMS likes to send you a request to renew 1.5 months before the lease actually ends and only gives you 7 days to respond to it. Well it coincided with our months of home buying and most should know what that’s like here in the valley. We ended our lease before it actually expired, but they wanted us on the hook under a technicality. There was no ill intent to leave HMS/​landlord high and dry as that’s not who we are, but HMS is dealing with this unethically with Kathryn telling us our rent will stop once the house is cleaned and keys turned over, but she did not honor that. She also told us the new tenant was assuming our lease and will move in a few weeks after we vacate, and that the landlord wanted to make the fixes to the house they’ve neglected to make before the new tenants moved in! Kathryn said she told the landlord that charging us rent while we’ve already vacated to do their fixes was not legal and we agreed.
Then we get a call from Carrie who seems to be from their accounting end after we’ve moved out, telling us we missed our last month’s rent when in fact it was their error. It appeared they closed us out of their auto-​pay system, but weren’t aware of it. Either way, no one from HMS cared to elaborate. Carrie is rude and her job must be to deal with collections, but we didn’t deserve that. Now, Kathryn is nowhere to be found and they’ve sent us a bill in the amount exceeding what we we’ve agreed upon which is paying rent up until the new tenant moves in. So in reality, they’re making fixes they should’ve made a year ago, but doing it on our dime. This is disgusting. We’ve informed our realtor to have their rental clients stay away from HMS! As homeowners we will never, ever hire them to manage our rental when the time comes. We would never advise our friends to use them either. They’re clearly disorganized and unethical when things don’t go their way. It doesn’t pay to be a good tenant with them and these folks deserve tenants who destroy property.
Update: It’s funny how they say all we needed to do was to just talk to them. Well that only helps if they return your call! We disputed their additional charges and like another Unilocaler, they sent us to the collection agency. Wow. That was their way of dealing with the issue and forcing you to give them what they want. Nasty folks. We will remember them.

We have lived in a Cal West managed property for 5 years and can safely say any issue we have presented they have addressed. They regularly inspect the property for any maintenance issues and respond promptly if an issue occurs. Their online bill pay and maintenance requests are convenient and reliable. Looking forward to many more years in our home.

I am currently renting my house through Cal West as an out-​of-​state home owner. I am satisfied with the level of service I receive, though sometimes it takes a couple of follow ups to get answers to my questions.
What gives me true piece of mind is that they do regular check-​ins on the property (pictures and all) and they will schedule yearly maintenance (gutter, roof, chimney inspections) so I know that even if my renter’s aren’t treating my home as their own, it is still getting regular maintenance and check ins!

Prompt, friendly and professional to work with.

HMS used to be a great property management company, Cal West was never a good one. Sylvia and her Son Troy had made HMS a pretty good company, but after Cal West took over, it has been as bad as it gets. I could never even contact the property manager and she couldn’t rent the property in 3 + months. It’s better to keep ur property empty than giving this company for management. I wish I could say better things than this, but its simply very frustrating to deal with them, I had to switch out after 7 years or so.
P. S. Please scan the reviews separately as an owner or a renter. My comments are purely from an owner’s prospective.

The maintenance issue on this matter was submitted by the tenants on ¹⁄₃ and the co-​owner was notified of an issue on 1/​20, 18 days later. I as the primary owner learned 20 days from the tenant’s report of the issue. The sitting on this matter was due to HMS’ neglect.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I used HMS to manage my rental property for about a year. Part of their responsibility was taking care of any maintenance issues that came up at my duplex. During this time my tenants reported that they suspected a leak under the kitchen sink, which in the end was determined to be a broken pipe. It took HMS a month to fix the issue and only after my urging when it came to my attention by the tenants 20 days after they had reported it to HMS.
During those first 20 days HMS neglected the issue. They failed to send someone to the property to inspect the issue, allowed the tenants to coordinate with the plumber, did not follow up with the tenants, nor notify me of the situation. The delay in resolving the issue resulted in water filling up underneath the house, costly cleanup costs and days of inconvenience to my tenants — all which could have been avoided had the matter been attended to promptly.
Owner, Julie Collins, admitted to making a mistake and was apologetic, blaming the neglect on operational issues they were having at the time. She even shared that an employee was sent home as a result of the neglect. Despite this, she refused to cover the cost of the cleanup because she said it would cost HMS more than what I paid them annually to care for my property. Disappointed in their failure to take financial responsibility for the mistake I insisted that they pay the cleanup costs. On two occasions Julie agreed to pay half of the cost, but eventually went back on her word.
Ultimately they paid about 25% of the cleanup cost, but not before terminating me as a client «due to a fundamental and substantial difference of operational procedure and/​or expectation between agent and client.» I absolutely understand that mistakes happen, but HMS’ lack of accountability and failure to take responsibility for their errors, along with terminating clients for complaining about how they conduct business is unacceptable. I would not recommend using HMS. They lack integrity and are unwilling to do the right thing for their clients.

HORRIBLE property management Company. The owner Robert Collins is both lazy and incompetent. I contracted him to rent out our home. First his rent analysis was incorrect and then he never even returned my calls when i asked him how the process was moving along. I finally got fed up with him and put a «for rent» outside my property and we rented it in one day. I saved the $ 1,500 he was going to charge me, plus I got $ 200 more a month than Robert said to list it for. So I guess i can thank him for his ineptitude. His staff follows suite, «except there rude». I had the displeasure of having to rent one of their properties until our house was completed. It took them months to respond to our requests to fix items and they missed items that needed to be fixed. Every contact we had with them had my family and I dreaming of when our lease would end with them. Well, it finally has and i can say categorically, they are simply the worst property management company we have ever experienced. I had to sue them in small claims to get out deposit back. Robert showed up with pictures of a finger touching dust on a blind. Incredibly pathetic! I agreed on a portion of my deposit just to remove myself from his stench.
I would encourage property owners and renters to steer clear of CalWest.

Talked to Julie today and we are getting our refund. She was incredibly nice and informative! The day of my viewing must have been an off day for her. Defintiely going to give it another shot

My husband and I rented a 2 bedroom apt. in south San Jose, from April 2012-​August 2013. We had a great experience. I especially appreciated the ease of paying rent and submiting repair requests online. Repairs were completed in timely manner. One major problem we had was a burnt out wire in one of the burners as well as uneven stove (it rocked). The repairman was able to fix both problems the next day!
After living there for a year we learned we could have requested a pool pass. I was dissappointed we hadn’t learned about this earlier, but we made good use of it until we left.
We moved for my husband’s work. Otherwise I could have seen us staying there for many years! Sad we had to leave. Great to have rented from Rob, Dawn, and Denise! We miss you guys! –W&L

I’ve used Cal West H.M.S. since 2010 to manage my condo in San Jose. Robert Collins has earned my trust and business. Robert and his staff keep me informed regarding all issues with my property and tenants with minimal engagement by me. I couldn’t ask for a better property management company. Thanks again Robert!

We’ve rented a place from Cal West since Oct 2013 and the process was pretty simple, apply online on their website & then submit the supporting documents (pay stubs, etc.) The staff are very kind and respond via email or phone really fast. Denise stopped by for a quick 6 month home check to make sure we didn’t punch any holes in the walls and she remembered what we talked about during the viewing which was 6 – 7 months ago!
We actually came across two issues at our place. One was the stove burner that didn’t really fit the hole so I emailed a photo and I received a response super fast and the maintenance guy came to fix it at our earliest convenience. The second issue was the heater, the pilot was off so I sent an email to request to turn on since winter was approaching. Again, the response was really fast and Cal West requested we contact PG&E to turn on the pilot (safety protocol even though the maintenance guy could have done it but we’re glad PG&E did it). PG&E discovered that the heater was producing a gas (can’t remember which one) at a dangerously high level so the pilot could not be turned on. PG&E provided a slip of the service which I emailed to Cal West and again, fast response, maintenance guy came out at our earliest convenience to check it out and determined a new one is required which he installed at our next earliest convenience.
Cal West accepts payments (e-​check or credit card w/​a fee) and maintenance requests online as well. I haven’t used the online maintenance request but the e-​check is very convenient, saves a stamp from mailing a check and a drive down to San Jose!
Overall, happy with Cal West.

we have had been two years renting with them. Nothing special happen, sent a plumber to fixed the sink once. Very fast and efficient. They did a good job on customer service side, very professional to deal with problem and complain. Robert was very reasonable and professional owner that took care his business seriously. much respect for him. Over all, highly recommended.

We have been renting from Cal West H.M.S for six months now and have had a positive experience. Any issues have been resolved in a timely fashion and everyone is professional.
What puts it over the top for me though is Denise. She is so personable and really takes the time to know us as a family. She is professional, thoughtful and truly a kind person to work alongside. She mixes the right amount of concern for the property with concern for the tenant to present respectful interactions.

My roommate and I randomly found HMS through one of their online listings, and it was the best find we ever made.
I called HMS on a Wednesday, and viewed the property Friday. Our application was approved that day, and my roommate and I signed the lease the following Monday. We dealt directly with Jilene, and she was incredible.
We have now lived in our apartment for a little over two months, and couldn’t be happier. The staff here is very efficient, and extremely nice and helpful. Our maintenance request was answered the same day, via email and phone call, and everything was addressed and fixed in less than one week (it would have been sooner had my schedule allowed for this). I really love their online rent payment, as you can set up an automatic reoccurring withdrawal. What a time-​saver.
I don’t know why there are any bad reviews for this company, I completely recommend this business, and couldn’t be happier with the service that I have been provided with.

I’ve been a tenant of Cal West for the past 3yrs and have been very happy with their service. Dawn is awesome and very sweet! Rob has always been very professional and understanding. Every issue I’ve ever had with my place has always been addressed and in a timely manor too. The vendors they send out to fix whatever problems have always been very nice and professional. Chris the plummer is awesome and knows his stuff! I love my place and hope to stay on it for a long time

We love working with Kathryn on she will definitely take care of everything for you! The communication is great and HMS has made our lives a lot easier.

When I see a bad review of Cal West, I feel as if I feel down Alice’s rabbit hole. I can’t quite imagine a management company giving more personalized and professional service and responding at lightening speed.
I have rented from them more than once and dealt most often with Dawn and Rob. They show genuine concern over any issue and rectify it if humanly possible.
I also have lots of experience with both having landlords and being one. This is the finest company I have ever dealt with and I am now in my 60’s. Lots of years to be either ignored, taken advantage of or treated almost like a family member.
P. S.: The person writing this is not a family member, just very satisfied.

Wish I could give no stars. This Managment company has been a disappointment from the day we moved in. We’ve been told «What do you expect it’s a 100 year old house», «If you don’t like it you don’t have to stay, just pay us to find a new renter», «the electrician said there was nothing wrong with the switch, he only replaced it because you asked him to, he didn’t think it was a causing you to get electrocuted. Your going to have to pay for the new switch being installed». Good luck to anyone else stuck in a lease with these guys.

Robert is rude to the tenants of the properties that he manages. He tries to intimidate tenants into doing what we wants, and puts «For Lease» signs up when he shouldn’t. Don’t lease from anyone that uses this company for property management.