Complaint / Review
The Woods at Polaris Westerville Ohio
89 year old woman denied deposit, charged for remainder of carpet replacement bill and reported to collections due to alleged carpet stain that no family member saw

I am the concerned daughter of an 89 year old woman who rented an apartment from The Woods at Polaris, Westerville, Ohio, for approximately 2 years.

No contact was made to Mom or her adult children of any problems with the apartment after she moved to a retirement facility due to health problems. Mom moved out in July and began receiving phone calls from a collection agency in October. The collection agency informed her that the carpet was reported to have been replaced, supposedly due to a stain and that her deposit did not cover all of the carpet replacement and they demanded pay for the remainder of the bill. This was the first notification of any problem with the apartment and the first notification that her deposit would not be returned.

The Woods at Polaris had all of our names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and did not contact Mom or us in any manner. It was also quite a surprise that there had been a supposed stain on the carpet. The Woods at Polaris e-mailed me photos of carpeting with no real reference point of my mother's apartment. The photos don't really show any stain. Family members who assisted Mom in moving saw no stain on the carpeting. My sister-in-law returned to clean the apartment and saw no stain.

The remainder of the bill for replacing the carpeting was sent to the collection agency with no notice to anyone. At first the collection agency just demanded money for the carpeting. Recently, they accused her of not giving 60 days notice. I have the written proof of the 60 days notice that I have made available to the collection agency along with the photos. The collection agency has been harassing her regularly since October.

While Mom has many health problems, she is still mentally competent and very sharp.

After reading another report on this website referring to the same problem at The Woods at Polaris, I suspect this may be a common practice for this company. It would seem that they may be trying to pass along operating expenses to customers to pad their profits. Normal wear and tear on carpeting or any other part of an apartment, is usually part of a monthly rental fee and not usually taken out of a renters deposit. From my perspective, The Woods at Polaris appears to have unusual business practices.

Are there others of you out there who have had the same problem with The Woods at Polaris?