Delbe was a complete disaster for our small condo building in NW DC. Any of their current or future clients should be forewarned: things with Delbe don't ever get better - they get worse, so cut your losses and move on to a competent property management company, STAT!
We have between 20 and 30 units, all of which sold quickly after the building was gutted and renovated. So when we all bought, Delbe was the contracted property manager the builder had picked. Delbe's employees (and president!) are totally unresponsive and irresponsible. For example, Delbe decided to transition accounting systems in the middle of the year and didn't provide us with any financial statements for 6 months. How is a fledgling condo association supposed to build reserves and stay on-budget without financial statements? After we fired them, they took another 3 months to write us a check to transfer our Association's money to our new property management company. It seems like they were perpetually out to lunch, because the Board would vote to make changes in the frequency of services, or to change vendors, and Delbe would just fail to follow through to make the changes the Board approved. But, the Board had no way of knowing they'd failed to follow through, because Delbe wasn't providing any financial statements. So now we're on the hook for services our board voted to get rid of. Services that Delbe assured us they had followed through on to make the changes we'd requested. They failed on the other end of the spectrum, too: bills they were supposed to pay went unpaid. We were paying Delbe each month, and they simply weren't doing their jobs. And now we're left holding the bag.
Other egregious acts of incompetence: they authorized work to be done in a unit - and payment out of the Association's account for the work - that was neither authorized by the Board nor the unit owner. They billed us - and took money out of our account - for services provided to an entirely different condo building, and then it took them MONTHS to rectify the errors. Complaints to the company's president, Scott, largely failed to spur any action. He simply tries to shift the blame to others, even though it's his company at fault, and ultimately, the buck stops with him. We are so glad to get rid of Delbe. It has taken four months for them to get their act together enough to transfer what still exists of our documents, records, and money to our new property management company. They still don't seem to understand that they did anything wrong. Good riddance! read more
