I resided at the Raintree Apartments for over a year from 1998 to 1999. I ended up having to move for my own safety after I had my upstairs neighbor arrested for sexual crimes. I was so eager to move out that I forfeited my deposit. I never heard from the Raintree Mgmt again. Until they sent me to collections 5 years later for 315.00.
During my time at the Raintrees, I had a broken dishwasher which they refused to replace, I had the sinks back up many times. One time it was so bad it overflowed onto my floors and flooded part of my front room/dining area. It took them DAYS to come in and steam clean the carpets.
They also blamed me for the sinks backing up saying I MUST have put grease down the drain. (FYI, I don't cook... Ever... I make microwave meals then I throw out the trays when I'm done. I was a double full-time student and worked three jobs anyway, so i wasn't home enough to cook). The smell from the backup was unbearable!
The 315 dollars they wanted me to pay was mostly because they put new carpet in after I left. A small portion of that money was for a carpet deoderizing treatment... Which doesn't make sense if they changed out the carpet completely! The carpet I had to begin with was old, stained, and ratty when I moved in.
In I recieved a letter from the Lawton Retail Merchants' Association (collection agency) saying that I owed 315 dollars for damaged carpets in my apartment (Which I could disprove the "damage" they claim because I took pictures after I moved out) I exchanged many calls with collections and ultimately settled the account for 205 dollars.
The collections agent, Mrs. Story, actually advised me to take the apartments to small claims to fight the charges (the apartments were giving her the run around too). This was not possible since I had a 18 month old, was 6 months pregnant, was taking care of my mother in law who was sick with cancer, and lived in a state 2,000 miles away. I was told that if I chose to just pay the 205.00 that it would not be reported to the credit bureau. So I did.
Now we are in 3 and I got my yearly credit report. Low and behold, the Raintree Apartments, thru the merchants association, reported me to the bureaus for an unpaid dept of 315.00 This is HORSE-CRAP! It is the only ding on my credit history but it looks very bad. Does anyone know how to get it removed?
The apartments never returned my calls. This whole thing makes me NEVER want to be a renter again. Thank GOD I'm a homeowner now.
Anyone looking for an apartment in the lawton/Fort Sill area of Oklahoma, STEER CLEAR of the RAINTREE APARTMENTS. They even screw their "good" tenants. I was NEVER late on rent in 16 months and was always quiet (mainly because I was gone a lot), and never had people over other than my aunt.
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