Brandon Curtiss Curtiss Property Management Liberty Property Management Kept rents, security deposits, emptied bank accounts to avoid judgment Meridian Idaho
Hiring Curtiss Property Management, Inc., (CPM) was the biggest mistake we’ve made as owners of rental properties. In March 2013, we hired CPM to manage our new 4-plexes in Boise. Owner Brandon Curtiss was our primary point of contact at CPM. After several months of receiving less than expected rental income, we analyzed the account information provided by CPM and identified what we believed to be accounting errors and management problems. For example, one tenant continued to be charged the first month’s prorated rent rather than the full amount of rent. Some tenants were not being charged enough for utilities. And, some utility payments were not being paid on time.
After two long phone calls with Brandon Curtiss in September 2013, he apologized for the mistakes, and blamed the problems on a software error and a new secretary. He said he would be personally responsible for managing our accounts and that we would not be charged for September’s management fee. But, CPM took its September fee anyway. By late October 2013, we had not received rental income for two months. Curtiss claimed the rent checks had been mailed twice – once on October 16, and then overnighted on October 30th. Nothing ever came. I called him on November 1st and asked where the checks were. I recall him saying, “I don’t know. I’m not the mailman.” Setting aside his rudeness, I understood that he would put the checks in the mail that day by 4 pm. Again, nothing came. We gave CPM 30 days’ notice that we were terminating our contracts.
By November 5th, our access to CPM’s online owner portal had been cut off. We became very worried about what had happened to the, now, three months of rent payments and security deposits being held by CPM. Not knowing how else to protect our money and our tenants, we called the Boise Police Department. They started an investigation which was determined to be a civil, not criminal, matter. Brandon Curtiss threatened to sue us for false allegations and told us to get a lawyer. Taking him at face value, we hired an attorney and filed a complaint in the Ada County District Court. It took 13 attempts and 3 different process servers a month to serve Brandon Curtiss and CPM.
It seemed to us that CPM refused to cooperate with our new property manager. Brandon Curtiss would not turn over information about utility accounts in CPM’s name, or tenant accounts other than their leases. He refused to turn over tenant security deposits for several months. When he finally did, CPM had withheld several thousand dollars. Brandon Curtiss claimed CPM could keep the thousands of dollars of security deposits as late fees that CPM had failed to collect from the tenants. Records produced by CPM during the lawsuit showed that certain tenants were not late, even though CPM withheld money from their security deposits for late fees. Our comparison of records provided by CPM before the dispute, with other records CPM produced during the lawsuit, seemed to show that CPM’s general ledger had been altered to show rent payments as late.
Shockingly, in March 2014, several months after we had terminated the management agreements, CPM gave a full deposit back to tenants without our permission. These tenants had broken their lease and owed over $2,000 for unpaid rent and damages.
During the lawsuit, Brandon Curtiss seemed to do everything he could to cause delay. For example, he refused to come to a mutually scheduled mediation just two days before it was to take place in December 2014. In April 2015, the judge determined that CPM had breached the management agreements. The focus of trial was going to be how much money CPM owes us.
Two weeks before the original June 2015 trial date, his attorney asked the judge for permission to withdraw from the case. His attorney specifically cited to part of a rule of professional conduct comment that states: “Withdrawal is also justified if the client persists in a course of action that the lawyer reasonably believes is criminal or fraudulent …The lawyer may also withdraw where the client insists on taking action that the lawyer considers repugnant ...” We do not know what happened between Curtis and his first attorney. The trial date was rescheduled for September 2015.
Two days before the second trial date, Brandon Curtiss agreed to judgment being entered against CPM in the full amount of damages claimed—nearly $20,000. Since then CPM’s bank accounts have been emptied and we have not been paid anything. On October 27, 2015, the judge also awarded 100% of our attorney costs fees because of Brandon Curtiss’ behavior. Our legal fees were far more than the actual damages.
On September 17, 2015, Brandon Curtiss filed with the secretary of state to start Liberty Property Management. It is at the same address as Curtiss Property Management. His CPM website (curtisspm.com) now redirects to a new url (libertypmllc.com). We believe he has done this to avoid paying the judgment against him.
Hiring CPM to manage our rental properties in Boise was a horrible experience. We would not recommend relying on Brandon Curtiss for any reason.