In 2009 me, my wife, and 2-year old son rented a home in Kingston through this real estate office through an agent named Andrea Suracci. We had just been transferred to the area on military orders. After seeing the home we were a little hesitant because it had been sitting vacant for almost a year and there had been zero upkeep in that time. The owner lived in California and I'm sure he was unaware of this.
We had little contact with the office while living there and we did a great job keeping the property up and paying our rent. Our only complaint was how slow they were to address problems we had with the house (one which could have burned the house down took weeks for them to fix). We even took care of many things that they said they would take care of after we signed the lease. I estimate that we spent about $2000 of our own money on improvements to the property. After moving, I received a bill for over $2600! She kept ALL of my deposit then went on to bill me for things that were listed on the move in inspection sheets! There was a long list of things that she tried to slam us with that were outrageous. One example: we moved in with our own washer and dryer. She said she would have someone move the existing washer and dryer to the garage for us. She never did so I did it myself. Upon moving out, she billed me $50 (for labor) to move them back to the laundry room. Of the entire bill, I felt responsible for about $400.
We were floored. She threatened to sue me, sent letters to my superiors (who told her to take a hike after seeing the pictures that I had taken of the house and quickly realized she was using my status as a member of the service to wrongfully shake us down) and she harassed me via e-mail for almost a year. I contacted the military legal assistance office who took the case. The lawyers (who had no financial incentive for being as appalled as I was) shot off a five page letter to her office - much of which was calling attention to her absurd charges and poor management practices. I will scan this letter and send it to any interested individual. I never heard from her office again after they received the letter from the legal office.
Since then, this office has also been reported to local military housing offices and "blacklisted" (yet for some reason the website indicates they're still advertising on AHRN). She sent me an e-mail saying she would sue me if I put her on this website. I'll take my chances if it saves another military family from having to go through what we did.
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