Mazza Property Services - Warning

[Michael Crane]

It has come to my notice that at least three members of this forum have paid for goods/services/utilities to Marion Day of Mazza Property Services but the money paid to her was not paid out to the persons/companies to which it should have gone. In excess of 6500 euros has been lost by these three members.

Despite several attempts to recoup the money she has failed to make contact and deadlines set by each of the three members have now past. It is unlikely that any legal action against her would see the return of the money; therefore the decision has been made by all concerned that it be made public to ensure that no one else suffers losses to this person.

If you have given Mazza Property Services money for goods/services/utilities that wasn't paid on, please reply to this post. The more people that know of this the better.

[sam]

Marion Day, trading as Mazzas Property Services, contacted me via the Forum to offer her services. I interviewed her, took references, got her address, her phone number and her Fiscal number. Every thing seemed in order and I engaged her services in August 2008.

I later had some concerns and made a surprise visit to my property in late January 2010. I discovered the following problems:-
The pool cleaner had not been paid since Sept (I had paid her monthly, but she had not passed it on).
Water bills had not been paid (again, I had paid her monthly, but she did not pass it on) and the water had been disconnected.
A window (for which I had paid her for supply and fitting) had not been supplied nor fitted. She had emailed me on 20th and 27th November 2009, both times confirming that this work had been done.
Needless to say I dismissed her and changed the locks. However, we are out of pocket.

She promised me (1st Feb 2010) that she would pay the pool cleaner in the first week of February, but when he contacted her she said she did not have the money to pay him. So I have had to pay him.
I had to pay the water bills, fines for late payment (about twice the original bills) and the reconnection charge.
I have had to order another window and will have to pay for that.
As I paid a month in advance, and January’s invoice was less than I had paid, she also owes me some of this.

She promised me (1st Feb) that she would reimburse me, but has failed to do so. Nor has she responded to my written demands for payment. She owes me over 600 euros for the above, and this does not take into account the cost of changing locks, and other expenses in sorting things out.

[DaveK]

We also employed this person from approximately April 2008 we only sought inspections of the property on a weekly basis but not the payment of our utility bills. We did however ask her for a quotation for some new external blinds to the property. This was done and we accepted the quote of 550 euros. After some time when the blinds were not forthcoming we were told that there was a problem and the man could not supply the blinds for the original quote and a further supplier was found. There were various excuses as to why the blinds did not appear and eventually towards the end of last year we asked for a refund of the monies. Nothing was forthcoming and we were then told that there was a misunderstanding and she thought that the monies could be offset against future management payments. We then asked for a full refund together with the 100 euros which she held for emergency repairs to the property. No payments have been made and we have also requested the return of our keys but to date these have not arrived. We cannot give the exact dates as we are currently in Carvoeiro at the moment and cannot access our home computer.

[eccles]

I too solicited the services of a property managment company through this forum and been a victim of irregular accounting at the hands of Marion Day- acting as Mazza Property Services.

lewisl as a forum member has been part of my paper trail from Marion Day , so he has a knowledge of some of the background.

As for Rossi, I actually believe he gave me a reference for Marion Day . He may well find her service excellent,that is a personal measurement, but may not have had any financial dealings with her, which is what this thread is all about after all.

I applaude Mr Crane for taking such an active interest and obvioulsy wants to protect honest working people from any form of financial irregularities.

Carvoeiro is a great place to live and holiday and am sure most of the members want to keep it that way.

[lewisl]

after reading Mr Cranes message again, the following is totally incorrect, they have a case if what they saying is the truth and NOT lies made up by these people and Mr Crane.

Mr Cranes message
t is unlikely that any legal action against her would see the return of the money; therefore the decision has been made by all concerned that it be made public to ensure that no one else suffers losses to this person.

This is so wrong, I do hope Miss Day takes action against you all, including the website

[rossi]

I am happy to give a reference, I also know other owners that are happy to give references and support to Miss Day, so if you want references just let me know, by PM. Please don't take any notice of all this rubbish because that was it is.

[eccles]

... or maybe, people don't want to throw good money after bad or have been so cleaned out they can't afford it.

This is all about acting in an honest way and most of us take the view that most people are in fact honest.Anyone who supports forum members ripping each other off, must have a different moral conduct to the rest of us normal folk.

Maybe Marion Day should state her case and offer to provide evidence of all the payments that she has made on behalf of these people. That would settle the matter. Go on Marion, prove you are an honest person after all!!!!

If anyone believes that a posting such as this would be made without evidence must be MAD.

As I said before Rossi gave me a reference and if no money is involved, she may be fit for your purposes

[rossi]

or maybe if you have evidence you would seek legal advice and not use the website like this, and I would like it known that all the work that Miss Day is doing for me is excellent and she saved me loads of money on all jobs done and I along with others are more then happy with her. Maybe you don't want to seek legal advice is because you are not acting in legal way. Just think about it?????????? is your peoperty legal????? are you renting without a licence????? or do you even own a property in Carvoeiro?????

[sam]

If Rossi is happy to give a reference - he can do so publicly. We are attempting to have an honest debate. If Marion has other clients that are happy with her service, then they are welcome to post. If Marion wishes to defend herself, then she can either correspond directly with those people involved and/or she can post a public reply.

[lewisl]

I totally agree with Rossi and I am happy to give a 5***** reference, and I don't blame Ms Day for not replying to all this rubbish. I find it very sickening in all ways. And just don't understand why Steen is allowing it.

[DaveK]

Employing Miss Day to carry out weekly inspections on the property was to ensure that there were no problems i.e. water leaks, it also ensures that the building insurance is complied with. The fact that if the inspections had been carried out properly then it would have been noticed that there was a problem after the earthquake and also in the middle of December the property was flooded - neither of these problems were reported to us. Is this the actions of a 5star agent.

[eccles]

A lot has been said about references and as I said earlier, this is all very subjective. After all we all have different standards and that is becoming more and more obvious as this thread unravels.

This is about financial irregularities and as Sam also said, let Marion come out and defend herself with offering to publish a full set of accounts with evidence to refute all that is being said about her.

Now that is a challenge which would put all this to rest.

[DaveK]

Rossi - I think you should read carefully my original post in that we first came in contact with her in 2008 and at first we had no problems but these have surfaced since Easter 2009.

[rossi]

Eccles, King and Sam, maybe you are all the same person.....................becasue why not take legal advice, I would if I had the problems you seemed to have had. You would in the UK why is Portugal different.

[lharrop]

I have just noticed this posting so am adding my own experiences. Apologies for the length but there is a lot to put across

Marion Day was employed by me since January 2009 as managing agent to pay all bills, laundry, cleaning & liaise with workmen as appropriate. A monthly management fee as well as additional payments for works carried out was to be paid. As bills became payable, the amounts were transferred to them. For clients paying in Euros, the monies were also paid into their account. We had used this method previously when VDM were managing the property and there were no financial irregularities.

During September 2009, it became obvious that these bills were in fact not being paid when I had several demands as well as penalty charges for non-payment of bills including condominium fees of €2500, all utilities including taxes as advised to me by my solicitor as well as the local tax office who sent the bills direct to her for payment. The electricity supply had been disconnected on 2 occasions, once when friends s were staying who had been told by Marion that there had been a power cut. I even had someone who had not had her bond monies refunded by Marion. All of this is documented including her fictitious accounts indicating that the payments had been made.

We made 3 trips to Carvoeiro to try to sort all of this out as well as track Marion down, since the address she provided me with as 24 QDP was a false one. Eventually we met up with her and heard her explanation which involved tales of drug addiction by her niece and Marion herself being hospitalised due to taking an over dose. Faro hospital could not confirm any admissions during the period for a Mrs Marion Day. She said she was not a dishonest person and would repay the monies once her loan was through.( October 2009)

A forum member also became involved stating that her husband was a local solicitor and was taking on the case since her friend Marion had denied any such action and she believed her. Her husband has been included in all correspondence (the e-mail address given to me by Marion) since he was to be assessing my claims as well as agreeing the amounts to be credited to my nominated bank account. The forum member later confirmed to my daughter that she was confident that the monies would be repaid as soon as Marion sorted herself out. All of this has taken place from October onwards.

I have asked for the correspondence address of the solicitor i.e. the forum members husband, so that my legal advisor could send the full bundle of evidence across to him. This would surely be the starting point if he was to defend her. His address was never forthcoming.

My calls to Marion, have been ignored and all deadlines for payments which are in excess of €5000 excluding personal expenses have since past. Given this there was a reluctant to have a huge legal bill as well especially if she had no means of paying the debt.

A full breakdown has been given to all involved as well as offering to meet with Marion or her representative to go through each item so that all could agree on a payment plan.

I have taken out a loan to pay all outstanding bills and employed the services of another agent who has helped me sort this out with all the authorities involved.

The forum members who are creating most of the fuss about this and pledging their support to Marion seem to protest too much!!!
Are they involved or have they been taken in like the rest of us.

The support from the forum members has been tremendous and it is due to the need to protect them that I am posting this item. The forum moderator has been advised throughout with relevant mails being sent to him and he has been of great support.

Marion needs to speak out now and defend herself if she believes this is all ficticious. She could even get the forum members husband on the case!!!
I obviously tried but failed.