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Some People Have Under-Sized Hearts

Royal Overseers: real-life Grinches.  

I'd like to share my unfortunate experience of renting with Royal Overseers Inc, the company that currently manages Gotesco Regency Tower A in Manila. 

I rented a unit in Gotesco Tower C from 2005 to 2010.  I was renting from the owner of the unit (through a broker) and there were no problems (tower B and C are fine as far as I know). 

But a change came around August of 2010.  My broker informed me that the owner of the unit was returning and I'd have to move.

An apartment/unit became available over at Tower A, which is in the same general complex but under different management.  I liked the unit because it had a nice patio and seemed to be a good place to continue my student ministry.

I did have some concerns.  Apparently a new management, Royal Overseers, had just taken over this building through some type of legal action.  This company demanded all tenants re-pay their security deposits, despite the fact that these people had already paid these fees to the previous management.  Tenants were intimidated and bullied until they paid (my apartment was located next door to the business office, so I witnessed all the drama).

Apparently the management of this building has changed hands several times over the past few years, causing a great deal of harm to the tenants (many of whom are foreigners and relatively easy to take advantage of).  This fiasco has been happening within just a few blocks of Manila City Hall.

I asked my broker if this management could be trusted.  She assured me everything would be OK, so I proceeded with the move and my broker transferred my security deposit to Royal Overseers (this deposit was the equivalent of two months' rent).  I signed a one-year lease: September 2, 2010 to August 31, 2011. 

Things went fairly smoothly until August, when  Royal Overseers gave me a new lease to sign.  They demanded a 10% increase in rent/fees and thousands of pesos in additional security deposits (remember that previous tenants saw their deposit fees disappear about a year prior to this).  I refused to sign it--I didn't see the need to pay additional fees and I didn't trust this company to pay back these fees (I later learned how correct my intuition was).

I paid my monthly rent/utilities for the next two months (September and October).  On October 20th I sent the management a letter stating my intention to leave on or before November 2nd.  I also asked them to send my deposit back to me in a timely manner.  They sent the following response:

"We regret to inform you the denial of your request due to short notification. On the other hand, the management has approved to give you consideration on non forfeiture of your security deposit is you pay the rent, maintenance fee and other charges for the month of November."

Translation: Give us more of your money and we may give you your deposit back.

Needless to say, this is neither legally nor morally correct.  According to Philippine law I was only operating under a month-to-month lease and under no obligation to inform them of my departure within a certain time period.* I left the apartment in good condition, so they should have only deducted the remaining utility expenses from the security deposit and given me the rest.  

Weeks went by with no word from them.  A lawyer friend of mine drafted a demand letter for me and I sent it to Royal Overseers around December 12th.  They responded by sending me another copy of the exact same letter I just quoted.  It is now December 21st and they have yet to return one centavo of the thousands of pesos of my money.  That's their "Christmas gift" to me--keeping money that does not belong to them. 


I don't expect special treatment as a Christian missionary.  Having said that, I find it reprehensible that this company would take advantage of someone that has moved to the Philippines in order to serve their countrymen. 

I'm still weighing my options legally.  In the meantime I'd like everyone to be aware of the way this company treats clients.  They should not have a business license as far as I'm concerned, since rental laws and ethics apparently don't apply to them.

Here's their information:

Royal Overseers, Inc
1129 Natividad Almeda Lopez Street
Ermita, Manila
President: Arturo M Garcia

Please pass this along so others will be warned.  I don't want to see other people get mistreated and ripped off.  

*Article 1670 in relation to Article 1687 of the Civil Code of the Philippines.