Management chaos and increasingly dissatisfied tenants: Crowdhouse is mired in additional costs

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Property manager Crowdhouse finds itself in a perfect storm: Tenants across the country are reporting to the editorial team after Blick reported the horrors of additional costs at two apartment buildings in Huttwil BE. Both former and current tenants of properties in Menziken AG, Herisau AR, Staffelbach AG or Sennwald SG are hitting the roadblocks. They don’t want to pay the terrible surcharges for their additional costs. In most cases it involves thousands of francs.

Beat Schmidlin (42) moved from his home in Menziken in April. This was followed by the shock in October: “I have to pay additional costs of approximately 5,000 francs for three years.” And this despite the fact that monthly payments on the account are 250 francs. “I don’t know how I’m going to pay for this,” he says. Schmidlin is divorced and has to support four children. Therefore, he has already written to the foundations and hopes to receive financial support this way.

Former tenant hired a lawyer

Marc Voppichler (26) was operated on by Crowdhouse. A mistake, as it turned out later. St. in March After leaving the project in the canton of St. Gallen, he has recently received a lot of mail. “I have to pay almost 5,000 francs in arrears for three years. “Including rent that I supposedly never paid,” says Voppichler. Another mistake, as he said. It also doesn’t rely on additional costs being billed. It is said that water consumption increased after the roommate moved out.

No one person was responsible for many searches in Crowdhouse. It’s the same pattern as in previous years when he repeatedly demanded an electric bill. “In the meantime, I hired a housing lawyer and asked for the statements and the distribution key,” he says.

“I will not pay this money”

Andrea Stöckli (41) has to pay around 2,000 francs for her rental apartment in Staffelbach AG. And it’s been like this for a year. “I won’t pay until I see detailed receipts,” she says. However, she did not receive a response to her e-mails from Crowdhouse.

The amount of additional compensation for Tanja S.* (37) is over 7,000 francs. He lives in Herisau AR and wishes to remain anonymous. «I requested documents for the last five years by registered letter. “I won’t pay for this,” she says. Tenants are also said to be operating illegally in this development. “If you call Crowdhouse there is almost no one available or even new staff.”

Matthias B.* (46) is also harsh on Crowdhouse: “I have never experienced such unprofessional management,” he says. In 2021, Sennwald moved out of his apartment in SG, but recently received invoices for the period from 2019 to 2021. How the money over 3,200 francs came to be is a mystery. “I tried to negotiate a discount at Crowdhouse but had no luck,” he says.

Major staff cuts? Crowdhouse denied

The chaos of crowd accounting is apparently self-inflicted. Many tenants say the company is experiencing major volatility. Financial blog “Inside Paradeplatz” writes about major staff cuts. According to an insider, between 40 and 50 employees have been laid off since the beginning of the year. However, the company denies staff reductions. Crowdhouse began realigning itself as part of the strategy set in spring 2022. A key component: the outsourcing of software development to Propportunity AG, which is owned by the same shareholders, according to media spokesman Michael Meier. “As a result, there have also been planned staff changes at Crowdhouse AG that are nowhere near the extent claimed by Inside Paradeplatz.”

As the company emphasizes, Crowdhouse has already responded to complaints in the administration. Crowdhouse cites significant process optimizations. Personnel results were also plotted.

*Editor’s name known

Source :Blick