Cope Property Management managed our Lake Keowee property, a LLC controlled by three members, for…read moreabout ten years. While Cope Property Management founder, John Cope, who has a Business degree from Clemson University, originally managed it, we had no problems. However, things started to go downhill when John turned the control to the company over to his wife April on website is listes as "OWNER, BROKER IN CHARGE". After April (who also apparently goes by the pseudo name "Nikki", a lady never named nor pictured on Cope's website . . . more on this latter), took control, I have been locked out of my lake house without notice, four times in the past five years. Without notice to me, April Cope has had the keys changed to the main door twice (the house must be entered though two doors, 1. the patio door and 2. the house door). After I had tried the new key I was given on the patio door, I found that April had put a different lock on the second door! When I filed a second complaint, only then did April have their handyman change the lock on the inner door to match the key I was given to me for the outer door.
Shortly after July 4th, 2021, my daughter (Kristy) called Cope Property Management, where Kathryn Powell, who works the front desk and has always been very cordial and helpful, told her that Nikki, who she identified as Cope's "Short Term Rental Agent", was the only one at the business who could block out the dates for the house on the rental computer. Kristen was then transferred to Nikki where Kristy identified herself as my daughter and made it clear she wanted to book the unrented house for the weekend of August 27-29 (She was going to have a group of 33 people at the house for one day (8-28). Kristy had catered a chef pulling a large gas grill driving from Greenville and invested in water equipment for a day of skiing. In all, she had invested close to $2,000.00 for this Saturday. Nikki told my daughter that she would book the house for her, block it off on their calendar. After checking Cope's public online booking calendar repeatedly over several weeks, Kristy noticed that Nikki never booked the house. I so called Nikki to find out what the problem was. Without any explanations as to why she never booked the house nor called my daughter back with an explanation, the dates suddenly appeared blocked off on their calendar. Finally, I thought we were all set for my daughter's big event; BIG MISTAKE!!
When my daughter arrived on the morning of Saturday, the 28, she found that, without any notice and according to a witness, about four days prior to that Saturday, April Cope had their maintenance man again replace the key lock on the main house door, only this time with a keyless lock that only could be operated with either a finger print or a digital code without letting either me or my daughter know me the code. With these 33 people set to set to show up at 12:00 pm, my daughter was in a panic. After calling Cope's office in Seneca and getting no answer, I told my daughter how enter the house via the basement level which she did. However, opening the house door from the inside, she found that this digital lock couldn't be disabled with the door re-locking every time the door closed. Kristy, upset and angry, called me again. I drove over to the lake house, removed this digital lock and took it to Cope's Seneca office on Monday. I handed it to Kathryn and asked her what the code was? When she checked her computer, she said there was no code on file and she she knew nothing about this new digital lock being installed. I told her this was totally unacceptable! She said she would let Nikki know.
On Thursday, Nov. 2, for the fourth time, Cope had their handyman installed a second digital lock, but this one could be also opened with a key. When I texted Nikki for a key, Nikki started texting me back, then suddenly it was April who responded telling me that Nikki had to quickly leave. April made it clear that I would not be getting a key, but like all Cope renters, I'd only be given a changeable code. When I demanded a key, April texted me back stating that she was only going to deal with one of the lake house members. When I told her that without a written contract, she had no legal authority to make this decision. April responded she had enough of, "this extra nonsense going on right now." and in two days, our lake house was removed from their website with the house being totally dropped when the last renter under Cope's contract left.
Conclusion:
Under April Cope, I encountered total confusion going on at this business. April Cope needs to understand basic business law and not make a verbal contact with only one property owner totally bypassing the other two. Moreover, be it John Cope or now April Cope, legally, all LLC members / owners of this lake house should have been given a copy of Cope Property Management's managing contract signed by all the owners with correct keys and kept up to date.
