As advertised, the home is situated in dunes in a nice part of Duck with a well-appointed, open-plan living area offering sweeping ocean views. Our rental experience, however, was ruined by the appallingly bad support offered by the “full-service” management company – Village Realty OBX.
We were renting off season and during a cold night the main water pipe into the house froze solid, leaving the house with no water supply – no toilets, no showers, no water in the kitchen. We later learned that the insulation on this pipe had been damaged and never repaired. While this is disappointing, particularly as Duck does experience an average of 40+ nights per year with below freezing temperatures, it should not have ruined our entire holiday, as unfreezing a pipe is a fairly routine exercise for a plumber or maintenance technician.
It was when we rang the agent for assistance that things went horribly wrong. The emergency support number rings through to some far-off call center. This is not a problem as long as you eventually hear from a local support person. It took three calls and over eight hours (yes – eight hours) to finally get a “maintenance technician” on site. This is a long time to be without any water in the house. When the technician arrived and we attempted to engage her in solving the problem (e.g., let’s find the pipe and determine how to get water flowing), she briskly informed us that she was only there to tick a box on her work order, which involved dropping off a space heater inside the house!?! When we informed her that this would do nothing to solve the problem, she told us that wasn’t her problem and she just needed to tick the box on her work order. She then pushed pass us into the house so she could tick her box. As soon as the technician dropped off the space heater (continuing to argue with us the entire time), she left and that was the last we heard from the agent. A good-hearted neighbour offered to set up a space heater to warm the pipe, and finally, after over 48 hours, water was restored.
So, in summary, the house is fine, but my advice is to avoid this property until the owners switch management companies.