Dear Editor of the RIP OFF.com
I have a question to see if I'm right in the fact that I feel ripped off.in September we had to find a new place to live, due to myself becoming ill (disabled) and not being able to keep our home. I was in the hospital most of last winter 2004.
Any way, we responded to rental classified ad in the Southern Illinoisan Newspaper for a local reality company: Kennedy Real Estate, located in Murphysboro, Illinois. My wife Patricia went into the office and was handed the keys to three different placed and told that she could go look at them. She did the first two were unacceptable and the third was fairly nice.
This one was located on 14th Street in Murphysboro, Illinois. After returning to the office the secretary told her that she may want to move on the property if she was interested, since it wouldn't last long. On September 14 she sign the rental property lease and paid Craig Kennedy the owner of Kennedy Real Estate, the paid the amount of $1,200.00.
It is important to note that the lease was not to start until October 1. (Further, note that at the time the lease was signed Patricia was told to get a copy of the keys and bring the originals back to them and she did it.) Another important not, the lease was signed on 9/19/05; then on 9/21/05 the Jackson County Housing Authority, called and told Patricia that we had now been approved to move into a Housing Unit.
Patricia told the Housing Authority Lady (Judy), and she said that Patricia should contact Craig Kennedy to see if he would agree to cancel the lease as we could now get into housing. Mr. Kennedy said no problem, just bring back the KEYS to the house and we can settle up the account when the property get rented. (Patricia returned the house KEYS two days later, which was (Sept. 23), however Mr. Kennedy was not in his office.
The secretary said he would call Patricia back however he never did. A week later Patricia call Mr. Kennedy and he said that he would make a refund as soon as he could re-rent the property as he had already used the money.
Months went by, with excuse after excuse. He continually told Patricia that he had been showing the house but had not found the kind of renter that he wanted. Then last week 12/15 he stated that he rented the house to an Ameren CIPS worker after interviewing a lot of people. Mr. Kennedy stated that he would refund our money on 12/16/05 or on Monday 12/19/05; he would call to set up the appointment.
He did not call so at 9:30 AM on 12/19/05; Patricia called Mr. Craig Kennedy, he said that he would write the check and has it ready at his office in the afternoon. At 2:00 PM we went to Kennedy Real Estate; Mr. Kennedy told Patricia that his secretary was gone and he did not know if she would be back, and that he did not know where the paperwork was at.
Patricia told him that she would go home and get her paperwork; however, he continued to try to get her to come back tomorrow. Patricia asked him, is there anyway I can get some of the money today, since we are very short and our vehicle was on empty. He continued to suggest tomorrow.
Patricia once again told him that she could go home and get the paperwork, and if he would be in the office for a time this afternoon, he stated that he did not know. He did tell Patricia that he would call her when the secretary came in so that he could find the paperwork so that this could be finalized.
So we drove back from Murphysboro to Carbondale, a trip of 10 miles about 15 min. As we where getting ready to head back to Mr. Kennedy's office I gave him a call on my cell phone and I told him that I had the paperwork and would be at his office in about 15 min.; it is at this time that Mr. Craig Kennedy stated that he figure that he did not owe us anything that in fact he was doing us a favor by not pushing for additional half months' rent on the property.
The address and contact information of the company that I feel that we have been rip off by is as follows:
Kennedy Real Estate
330 North Street
Murphysboro, Illinois 62924
Telephone: (618)-684-4444
Broker: Craig Kennedy
Cell Phone: (618)-924-1777
Some background: I'm disabled, in wheelchair, with a total monthly income of $1185.00 per month from Social Security. We paid this real estate company $1200.00 in September, his property was not wheelchair accessible but we couldn't anything better in this rural area that we live in.
We did not get completely move into the modified wheelchair accessible housing unit, until after Thanksgiving; Mr. Kennedy had continually promised a complete refund so we paid all the moving bills, and normal monthly bills, which left us with nothing for Christmas for our kids, then Kennedy does what he did today.
The question I have after this long history story is this:
The lease was dated Oct. 1 as its start date and move in date; the lease was canceled on 9/26/05; do I have legal right to my money refunded or did I get ripped off in your opinion? Also, what can I do, if anything?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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