I leased a house in Greensboro NC at 1220 West Market Street. Since living there, my landlord has been everything but helpful. We reported NUMEROUS times problems we were having with the house, and he sent a repair man out once - none of the issues were resolved.
Before moving into the house, my roommates and I were very specific about what we were looking for. Lots of space and fully electric. What drew us to this place was the amount of space, and the attic. Upon moving into this house, we learned that neither of these Features were true.
The attic in the house is LOCKED. Nailed shut. We asked PLENTY of times to have it opened to store extra boxes. We were not able to occupy attic space the whole time living in the house. No one came to open it. We were told by the repairman that it is a liability because we could fall through. So my question was (Why post in the ad there is an attic that can be used for extra storage).
Everything in the house is electric EXCEPT the heat. During the winter months, we noticed our heat was not working. We called to find out why, and thats when we were hit with a $193 gas bill from Don Cato. We called to discuss, and were told to Email him - dont call him. So we emailedand emailedand emailed, with no response. We spent winter with no heat in the house. We had to buy electric heaters because we felt we shouldnt have to pay a gas bill we were told didnt exist.
The ceiling in my bedroom leaked water HEAVILY when it rained. I thought it was going to cave in. I informed Mr. Cato of this, Sent him a video of the water leaking and everything - No repairs made. The repairman that came out said he couldnt detect a leak and put a light bulb in the socket of the light in the room that was leaking from the ceiling. I thought this could cause a fire so I NEVER used the ceiling light.
The sinks in the house were clogged, (the repairman did fix this; he told us there was a lot of food in the sink but no one has cooked in the house yet - a few weeks later the clog came back) there were insects EVERYWHERE (from Day 1), Windows were broken and would not stay up. There was a hole under the sink in the bathroom that had insects coming through it (a repair man came and put a piece of plywood over the hole).
To top this off, we noticed we were not getting any more mail. The house we lived in had a Mail slot in the front door, but it also had a LOCKED mailbox in the back of the house. The postal carrier was putting the mail there. We went to the post office, filled out a form, paid $15, and were told that we cannot get a key to the mailbox at our house-it was the landlords property-he must get the key because landlords are suppose to provide a key to the mailbox for the tenants. So we informed Mr. Cato of this by email, we received no response. We called him about 10 times about this still no response.
So finally I contacted the Better Business Bureau. Mr. Cato LIED to them, and told them he had never heard anything from us regarding issues with the house and the first time he heard from us is When I emailed him about removing myself from the lease. I have emails in my outbox (9 emails) that indicate we contacted him. And he sent a repairman once, so I know he read them. After months of back and forth emails with BBB, I stopped hearing from them. They had sent me a letter by Postal Mail (Which goes to the LOCKED mailbox) indicating I need to respond to them by May 12th with a response to Mr. Catos rebuttal. Well I didnt get that letter until July 22nd after pleading with the Post Office to please take the mail from the box and put it through the door flap.
And finally the lease - We signed our lease in October (we misplaced our copy of the lease). July 31st, the landlord called and told us to be out of the house by 12 noon on August 1st. We asked if we were being evicted. He said No; our lease was up. We were puzzled, Who signs a 9 month lease? He proceeded with a barrage of insults and call us idiots and told us we were nothing but trouble since moving in the house. He told us he would make sure he could get every penny from us. (My roommate has this voicemail recorded). To top this, he told us he had already leased our house to someone else who were looking to move in August 1st. Which means he wasnt planning to clean it for the next tenants?
I found an ad on Craigslist where he put the house were still living in up for rent. The ad is filled with lies. He says the rent has been reduced - when in actuality it has been raised. He says the attic can be used as a studio or storage space in which it cannot. He even posted a picture of a nice kitchen, the kitchen he posted the picture of must be of another house because its definitely not ours.
We finally moved from the house and I thought the nightmare was over. The landlord sent an email informing that he is basically keeping our security deposit of $995, and on top of that adding in over $2000 in fees. He refuses to send me a copy of the lease. And is indicating that he is going to sue us AGAIN for that fee and report it to the credit bureau.
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