My two friends and I moved into a house in Spokane on the South Hill. We were hurried by the company to move in before someone else did. We were assured the house would be cleaned by the time we moved in. The day came and we picked up our keys and looked in the house, it was still a horrifying mess, nothing had been done except the carpet had been quickly vacuumed, but not shampooed, which the company assured us happened after every tenant left. They didn't clean it, leaving it to us. They left most of our concerns and complaints off the initial walkthrough, and gave us a hundred dollars to split between ourselves to keep quiet about the flies we had to bug bomb for when we moved in so we wouldn't talk about it. One roommate was furious, but we did our best to clean the place up and make it usable. We kept the yard fairly neat at first, until our lawnmower died, but by then it was winter. We found out just how bad the winter was there, the place only had an oil furnace and two fireplaces to keep it warm. The furnace cost an outrageous $600 a month to keep the house warm, and the fireplaces were not designed to keep a house that size warm, we went through a lot of wood.By the end of winter we still had a good amount of wood, but were asked by the company to clear it from the carport, so we moved it to the backyard, knowing we would need it next winter. One of the three of us had an illness in the family and had to move out to take care of his grandmother's house. With this, we could afford the rent, but realized we could not afford the heating bill in the winter once he left and could find no one who could meet the requirements of the credit check to move in and help us, so we had to move out. We moved out, leaving the wood in the backyard, telling the property manager that the next tenants might want it for the winter due to the high prices of the furnace. We would have stacked it in the carport again, but were told to leave it clear. We hired a cleaning service to ensure the inside was cleaned thoroughly, a company by the name of "Merry Maids" They cleaned the house far better than when we moved in, but due to my inexperience, and not being firm on the things that were wrong when we moved in, it still got worse for the exit walkthrough, taking an $850 dollar deposit and giving us only $22 in return. They cited 15 hours of labor, at $40 an hour to clean up the wood and weed, and charged us to haul away a fireplace grill that they had in the house when we moved in, plus a ping pong table that had come with the house (just the top, no legs). We tried talking to them about the bill, but they matter of factly told us that we were lucky getting that much back and could charge us more if they felt like it. I didn't know where else to turn about this and was directed to this site by a coworker.
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