Management company for off season

[Dylan1916]

Hi Everyone,
Could anyone please recommend a company who looks after your apartment during winter and times we are not there? We are looking for someone to come maybe once per month just to open windows and let some fresh air in, flush loo, check everything is ok if there was a storm or freezing weather, check everything is in working order etc... can anyone help or does anyone have and experience with these companies?

[jon480]

Just e.mail office they do it all for you. That's what you pay maintenance for. Don't have you windows opened in winter the apt will be wet from the rain they open them in Oct and leave them open till summer. We have told them not to open ours never had a problem.

[Dylan1916]

cheers john. im just worried about pipes freezing over mainly.

[J&K]

We have never had a maintenance company to look after the things you mention. FN do winter maintenance checks and all has been ok. We always turn our mains water off before we come home.
If we have small problems like leaks or need small electrical jobs doing we tell the office and they send someone the same day or next day and charge accordingly.
For larger jobs, eg. Installing kitchens, decorating etc we use a british company who we trust and are very reliable.
If you are thinking of renting your apartment out (we don't) they you will probably need a maintenance/property & key holding company to run that for you or ask FN.

[Dylan1916]

No we are not going to rent it out. We are buying from Ireland from an agent in sunny beach, I don't know if fortnoks have a key to the apartment. I do not know if the previous owners have knocked everything off before they left and put it up for sale.

[J&K]

Maybe you should email FN direct and ask for full information of what your maintenance costs will be and what you get for it. They always have a key to all apartments in the office.
We bought off plan direct from FN.

[Dylan1916]

ok thanks, ill do that this morning, that could save me a few quid. cheers

[Chez2]

cheers john. im just worried about pipes freezing over mainly.

The last time you visit for the season, drain it all down. We turn the water off when we go home but at the end of the season we drain the pipes and boilers.

We ask Fort Noks not to open our windows as we arrived late May one year and our windows were wide open. Our old management company said windows can be left swinging open for a few days. We had torrential rain and storms for two days just after we arrived.....close call!

We also ask them not to open our windows as the bugs get in early spring. They 'bleed' all over the walls, curtains and bedding etc. Its not always possible to sponge it off. We have arrived to loads of bugs, takes ages to clean them up.

The last two of three years we have asked FN to clean the windows and do a spring clean at the start of the season. We ask a few days before we arrive as the boilers are left on after they have cleaned. They are a lot more expensive than other two companies we have used but they do a very thorough job.

[Dylan1916]

Hi Chez,
Thanks for you advice. ill get in touch with fortnoks and get them to do it like you suggested. only this is im buying from an agent and im wondering will fornoks have a key to the apartment. Saying that I could ask the agent to drop the key up to the office after the sale is completed.

[Chez2]

Hi Chez,
Thanks for you advice. ill get in touch with fortnoks and get them to do it like you suggested. only this is im buying from an agent and im wondering will fornoks have a key to the apartment. Saying that I could ask the agent to drop the key up to the office after the sale is completed.

I would get FN to change the locks for you while you are at it. You should end up with two or three new keys but we always leave one with the office.

[J&K]

We had ourlocks changed but to be honest items still go 'missing'

[Dylan1916]

who takes the stuff

[J&K]

We don't know .... yet! Its never anything expensive just random things they perhaps think we won't miss like tea towels, shampoo, my daughters disney dvds, half jar of coffee, a torch.

[Dylan1916]

That's bad form. we have been visiting years and nothing like that has happened.

[Chez2]

We never noticed anything go missing until last winter. My husband left a bottle of after shave in our bathroom cabinet. It had been opened but he bought it on the way out at the airport in August so hardly used. It had gone this season when we arrived in May. We don't rent our apartment out, nobody other than FN has a key. A plastic disposable lighter had gone missing, annoying as we only had that one to light candles on our balcony. I had a cheap straw hat that went missing too.

Our good quality bed linen and towels are locked in a wardrobe. The slightly older stuff has been left unlocked this winter but I've photographed everything. We leave a single wardrobe locked with other bits and bobs in. Nothing much of value to anyone else but it saves bringing stuff to and fro each trip when there is only us using the apartment.

We didn't realise this had been happening to anyone else otherwise we would have reported it to the office.