My husband and I rented a townhouse from Mary Wilkes/aka Wilkes Property Management, at (Personal Information Removed)
When my husband's parents were both hospitalized unexpectedly in the end of July, I attempted to contact Ms. Wilkes to let her know we needed to go to the Midwest/Illinois, to help out asap. We would be moving out, and although Ms. Wilkes did not return phone calls prior to the 1st of the month, she stopped by the townhouse on Sunday, 8/5, as the rent was due and she wanted to be paid. We explained the situation to her and she told me to prorate the amount for the days we would be be there and send her the check to the Olympia Wilkes Management address. She said, at that time, that she'd return our deposit and any overpayment if we left before the amount of days I paid for. I did as she asked, and marked my check to her for the prorated August rent amount "as agreed." I sent, along with the check, an address for Ms. Wilkes to send our deposit refund, which she was required by state law to do within 14 days of our moving out. My husband and I put in a change of address with the post office on Aug. 9, and moved out Aug. 10, one-day earlier than I paid for to Ms. Wilkes. I left a phone message on the Wilkes Property Management phone number letting Ms. Wilkes know I'd overpaid by one-day and she could add the $27 to the $400 deposit refund and send it to the address I provided her with. My husband and I cleaned the townhouse (he is former military, so the unit was exceptionally clean. We even paid to get the carpets cleaned so there would be no chance of Ms. Wilkes being disappointed; however she refused to walk through the unit before we left. Also, when we moved into the unit in April the place smelled awful and was very filthy. We cleaned before moving in and added the carpet cleaning to try and remove that original smell, which Ms. Wilkes had left a fan and windows open to try and dispel when we first were to move in).
About one-month later, the beginning of September, Ms. Wilkes still hadn't sent the refund, so I tried calling her at the Wilkes Property Management number, as well as on her cell phone number, which she provided when we first moved into the unit. I called once a day, for the first week and then tried another number (listed on the message on Wilkes Mgmt. As an 'emergency number') as I was getting no response and no refund. I began calling each of the original two numbers once each day, and called Ms. Wilkes' cell number more often, as she would answer and then hang up without saying anything, and I wanted to be sure I was reaching the right number.
After a few weeks of this (with me leaving messages for Mary to please call me and/or return my deposit as she had promised, and eventually saying I'd hate to have to take her to court for my money if she was indeed stealing it) I received a certified letter from Ms. Wilkes along with a check for $200 that stated if I cashed that I was agreeing she owed no more money than that.
Ms. Wilkes said she wasn't paying the full amount because I "harassed" her. She claimed to have sent me a refund to the Lacey, WA address "the day after (we) moved out."
She claimed I didn't put a change of address with the post office (which was not true) and that she had "waited for me to call" to ask for the refund, which she claimed she took out of the vacant unit's mailbox).
Why she didn't send the refund to the address I provided, or send a refund within 14 days as she was legally bound to, or why she didn't refund the whole amount she previously agreed to, I don't know.
I have since sent her back the $200 check in a certified letter, (since in her letter she said she wanted all further correspondence to be through US mail) along with a demand for my $427 that she owed. However, she hasn't picked up the certified letter and is ignoring that as well as my previous phone calls.
I've turned Ms. WIlkes/AKA Wilkes Property Management over to the Better Business Bureau and hope they, or someone will make her (apparently) stop stealing money from tenants. Evidently she had no intention of refunding my deposit, and I can only surmise may do this to all her tenants who move out of state, because she (apparently) thinks no one will sue her to get their money back.
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