My husband and I planned a move to Maine and needed to rent an apartment. I found Propertique online and contacted them. I spoke with Staci Watkins who informed me she and her husband owned this company and that they had alot of really nice places. I explained to her what I was looking for and what I didn't want. She told me to fill out an application. So I did. Her husband Brian contacted me an said we were approved and he was going to rent us 57 High Strret in Fairfield Maine. He told me it was a 2 bedroom daylight basement apartment. He needed me to send him a check for $855 dollars. So I sent. Staci called me when she received and told me they didn't have pics inside because the girl who lived there had been living in there a long time. But she "walked" me thru the apartment on the phone telling me how nice it was and that we had the nicest entrance with rose bushes and that the original owners lived above us but they go to Florida during the winter. Also told me NO YOUNG KIDS lived in the building it was all professional people. She said it had wall to wall carpet. Now I spoke to her for almost 45 minutes and she knew that my husband was giving his notice at his job and that we were having movers move our furniture. She told me also that we could come up acouple of days earlier than Oct. 1 which I asked if it would be ok to come the day before. No problem, Brian will be there to meet you was what she said. So we came to Maine September 30th and yes Brian was there, but told us we would have to come back in 2 hours as he was cleaning the unit. Ok, so my husband asked to use the bathroom. He said not in there use unit 5. Well when my husband came out and got intio the truck he said theres poop in the bathtub. Now we were concerned. We pulled away and had to then pull over because my husband was LOADED with Fleas. They were all over him and now they were on me and our toy pom. Had to go to Walmart in Waterville and get flea spray. We came back and Brian gave the keys to my husband and left.
Now we let ourselves into the apartment. First off, thru the door there is steps down into the other door and they are covered with ROOFING SHINGLES. We get inside and I almost died, the place smelled like urine and mold. The kitchen was disgusting, food all over the cabinets and the stove. The stove only had 2 working burners and they were all rusted with food. Small bugs inside of the cabinets. Also all around the floor was scum and crayons and candy shoved into the baseboard heater and under the cabinets. I counted at least 30 nails sticking out of the wood walls. The bedrooms were not bedrooms more like closets. We would have never been able to put our bed in either room. The walls were all banged up, nails sticking out all over the place. And the windows were the sample windows you see at home depot (the kind you look at to place your order for the full size) put in sideways with the sticker's inside of the glass. The other room had no ceiling just insulation hanging from it and hundreds of wires hanging out. The wall in this room had HUGE holes at the bottom of it. Also a circuit breaker box (which was huge) on the wall. The bathroom was the worst room in the place as the floor was black between the small tiles from urine. It was slimy. The sink was slimy and everything was beat with scum. The living room had part of the ceiling gone with a pipe hanging in it. Also had a pipe sticking out of the wall to the outside with nothing but a rag in it.in the center of the room was a drain. No rugs anywhere, just uneven beat up tile floor. We talked to some who lived there to find out this was the washroom til Brian turned it into an apartment (that explains the pipes) and that the place leaked (explains all the water damage around and the mold smell) and that they called it the SUBMARINE. Also, college student in apartment 3 who partied all night in the parking lot. And we were not under the 80 year old previous owners we were under a family with kids and porch full of trash. The trash dump was right outside our door and it was huge. Per Brians lease all trash has to be in a trash can. Apparently that is not enforced. So my husband called Staci, who now says she has nothing to do with this company and you have to talk to the owner (her scumbag husband) So we call him, who says either we can have unit 5 (which is infested with fleas for 750 a month (200 more than what we are paying now) or this mobile home in Fairfield. We go look at the mobile and tell him we rather have that. He says he will get back to us. So we are stuck the night in this place with no heat, no hot water the whole time we were there.
The next morning my husband calls Brian, no answer. We decide at this point we are not staying. I called our movers and told them to turn around and take my stuff back to Pa. We repeatedly call Brian as I want my money back. He finally calls us 6 days after we are back in pa and tells us he will send us $400 the next day in the mail. Still haven't got that. My friend is a lawyer and he did a search on Brian and found out he owes back taxes on alot of the properties he has, also water bills haven't been paid and it looks like he uses one property to get another one.
These people (Brian and Staci) are big time scumbags. We took many pictures of the apartment for our lawyer. We contacted a lawyer in Waterville who went over everything I sent him (pictures and all the listings for our apartment as Brian re listed our apartment on September 30 at 841pm while we were still in it and states clean and cozy for rent in great building and then again on October 10 with reduced rent and now its a one bedroom with bonus room... I guess the room with insulation and wires and circuit box is a bonus) We can take them to court and were told we will win because of fraud on his part, but will probably have to stand in line behind everybody else he owes. So we thank the lord that we don't live in his apartment, and my husbands boss was so happy for him to come back. And we save up again. But if this saves just one person from making our mistake by either renting or renting to own from Propertique I have accomplished what I wanted, and thats to get the word out that Brian Kothman and Staci Watkins are scam artists looking to take your money from you.
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