I found a spacious 3 story 3bdrm 4bath townhouse in a nice neighborhood that rented out cheaper than any tiny 2brm apartment I looked at. I thought I had been a fool for renting apartments thus far. I figured renting from a reality company would be the same as an apartment complex, especially a big name like weichert - Mistake #1.
The entire year I was in this townhouse was a nightmare from start to finish. I could type a 5 page book about the headaches this company put me and my children through (I will try to keep it a bit shorter:).
I signed my lease prior to the "walk through" so I had no leverage to get them to fix anything. And me being naive, I trusted that the house would be move-in ready and didn't think much when almost all the bulbs were burnt out and couldn't completely see the condition of the house.
I thought the walk through was so the property manager could note things that needed fixing and have them done prior to me moving in. Nope. I was exhausted for the first month. I couldn't fully unpack until I cleaned each and every inch of the house (did I mention it was completely FILTHY!)
So I moved, CLEANED then unpacked between working full time, and taking care of 2 small children. It took me 4 hours to clean the master bath alone - the shower floor was completely black. (Should I mention the dead roached and mouse traps in the kitchen) I had to replace all the light-bulbs, batteries in smoke detectors, drip pans on stove, even get my own mailbox key from the post office and wait for reimbursement. Seemed like every day something else went wrong.
I believe the prior tenants (aside from being disgustingly filthy) moved out in the middle of the night, leaving all their crap behind and bills unpaid. Nothing in the house worked and had a storage room worth of junk laying around (I had to gather.) Turning on utilities had never been a problem in apartments. I always just switched them into my name. Well the gas had been turned off due to the last tenants non payment and never restored. Long story short, It was about 15 degrees outside and with no heat/hot water we had to stay with family while waiting a week for the gas company to re-light the pilot. You think weichert took that week off my rent? Ha.
Next - after buying $250 worth of groceries I found out the frig/freezer didn't work properly. Either did the dishwasher, smoke detector, or dryer. So, again I stored the groceries at our families house. And waited almost 2 weeks (eating out of a mini frig) for them to be fixed. Took 4 days of me calling several times a day for weichert to even return my call.
Next - all the appliances were old and poor quality. The washer and dryer seemed to work although they made funny noises, the washer leaked some, and the dryer hose had been disconnected for sometime b/c the lent catcher had a hole in it (I had to wait for it to be fixed and clean the months of lent that had been blown into the room.) It wasnt long before the dryer started literally burning my clothes and ruined several items. So I went without a dryer for about 2 weeks. Next the washer stopped working and flooded the laundry rm. I had to wait again for that to be replaced. Very hard to do with 2 kids.
The spring came and I found out that the yard work was tenants responsibility. The entire front yard was wooden planters that took hours of weeding and raking out old leaves (was never maintained previously) not to mention the money I spent on flowers, weed-wacker, gardening tools, etc. And to make it worse, someone planted rose bushes and cacti of all things so I was tore up everytime I tackled the front yard.
Next - The first hot week of the year I found out the air conditioner also did not work properly. It took almost 2 weeks for a repair man to come. All it needed was freon. I begged weichert to let me have my own a/c company fix it and get reimbursed. But my kids and I suffered in 100 degree weather. Waiting.
Skipping to the last 3 month of my lease - Although not apparent in the lease, I was told it states that weichert will advertise the home you are living in as well as put a lock box on your front door for the last 3 months. I was appalled! I am a widowed mother living alone with 2 small kids and anyone with the lock box code has access to my home at any time. And Im paying rent!?!
So move out time comes, I receive a list of things to be done prior to move out. Among the list, professional gutter and carpet cleaning. It was apparent the gutters had not been cleaned in quite awhile and I got suckered into spending $100 on cleaning. Upon moving in, I steam cleaned the upstairs carpet b/c it smelled like urine and was visibly dirty. The middle and basement carpets were brand new. I asked if I could at least skip cleaning on the basement carpet b/c it was not used and still in new condition (would have saved $75). Of corse, I was required to have all carpets cleaned. I spent $250 on steam cleaning all 3 floors.
Bottom line - I spent way too much time, money, stress and energy to justify living in this townhouse for 1 yr. I left it in 100% better condition than I moved into and was required to do things upon move out that had not been done for my move in. I have yet to receive my deposit. Again, I put nothing past this company. I will take it to court if need be.
I don't understand how a company can legally lease a property that is not in livable condition and expect you to pay rent. Nothing was inspected, up-kept, or repaired between tenants. There wasn't even electricity or gas! The people of weichert are unsympathetic/uncaring and two of the three ladies I dealt with were extremely rude! The majority of the time they are slow in retuning calls/addressing issues and the contractors or "handy men" they use are always backed up and/or unprofessional. There were instances I had to call the companies myself and go back and forth between them and weichert.
A plumber out to fix a different problem noticed the hot and cold water lines were switched and installed incorrectly. Probably why I only had 5 minutes of hot water in the shower. I spent over a week going between a plumbing company saying weichert never sent them an order and weichert telling me to call them b/c the order was sent. Why weichert couldn't call them directly. Who knows? Eventually I just gave up. I don't have time for that. Needless to say, the problem was never fixed. We just learned to deal with cold showers.
This was a learning experience for me and I am telling everyone and anyone NEVER to do any type of business with weichert!
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