To whom it may concern:
We are so indignant that we think we should let everyone know how shameful TLC Management Co. And the woman whose name is Pamela Andrus are. So we decided to file this complaint to you.
We are former tenants of Museum Walk, Apt * which is located at 5541 S. Everett and managed by TLC. We signed the lease on Oct. 22. The monthly payment was $650. Although they said no deposit was needed, they asked us for a prepayment of $650, which should be the rent of Oct.. We also paid a pet fee of $250 and an administration fee of $250. So, together with the rent of Nov. And left 9 days of Oct., we paid totally $1988.64 for moving into the building.
In February we bought a condo in another place, so we had to terminate the lease earlier. According to their early termination options, the sublet option seemed better for us. So we decided to find someone to sublet our apartment. We advertised on line. Also we told Mrs. Vega who worked on-site for TLC in the building we chose to sublet the apartment and we would like to pay the rent of March for him/her who would sublet our apartment.
A few days later, we got a message from Mrs. Vega that one person wanted to sublet our apartment from March 1st with the March rent paid. After a formal paper work procedure, we sublet the apartment to the person, Mr. Kamau Scott with paying him the rent of March. We signed a sublet agreement with Mr. Scott. We and Mr. Scott also signed a sublet lease with TLC. After that, Mrs. Vega asked us to give a reward to her for what she did for us, and finally she got our drawer which is worth $80 without any payment. When we moved out, we asked Mrs. Vega for our prepayment. She said because we sublet the apartment, we should remain guarantor of the lease until the lease expired. She also told us to keep the lease and the receipt well, if Mr. Scott lived through the term of the lease and didnt break any rules then we could get our money back definitely after the due date, Oct. 31. Also when we asked her for the copy of the sublet documents, she said she would mail us the documents with Mr. Scotts signature (when we signed the sublet documents, Mr. Scott didnt come due to some reasons). Then we moved out on Feb. 28. But we never got those documents.
At that time, we didnt think anything about what TLC had done.in fact, as what we paid was a prepayment not a deposit, we should get back our money when we didnt live in the building any more. However, we believed that TLC was a big business company, we sublet our apartment, and we had the receipt of the prepayment, we could get back our money after the due date.
In Nov. we thought the lease had been due and knew that Mr. Scott was still living in the apartment, so it was time to get back our money. Then we called the officer (who was a man instead of Mrs. Vega) worked on-site and were told we should call their downtown headquarters office for that. Then we called TLC headquarters office, the lady who answered our phone said Museum Walk was supervised by Pamela Andrus. We should talk to her. Ok, then we tried to reach her by phone but every time we called, she was not there or having a meeting.
Finally we reached Pamela Andrus. She said she should look up the file and would give us an answer after she came back from her winter vocation. It was about the middle of Dec. 2005.
In Jan. we called Pamela Andrus again, she asked us to fax all of the documents we had to her. Then we faxed the receipt of the prepayment, the lease, and the notice of intent to vacate. But we got the answer that they wont refund any money to us. We can not believe that and asked Pamela Andrus the reason. She said it was them but not ourselves who found the sublet person. So we should pay a fee equal to one month rent for that. She also told us that we should have read some information regarding the fee in the early termination options. We felt being cheated by Mrs. Vega first. We told Pamela Andrus the truth but she said Mrs. Vega didnt work for them any more and she didnt know anything about what we told her. And that was their policy to charge the fee.
Then we read the early termination options again. It was very clear that if we chose the sublet option, we should not be charged any fee. If we should submit a fee, that would be under a relet option. But what we chose at that time was a sublet option. So we decided to fax all the sublet documents to Pamela Andrus. But we didnt have these documents at all.
Then we went to Museum Walk the next day trying to get the sublet lease from the on-site officer. But we happened to meet Pamela Andrus there. When we asked her for the copy of the sublet lease, Pamela Andrus said they didnt have the lease there and she could look for it in their headquarters office in downtown. And she would mail it to us. But we knew she definitely would not do that so we asked Pamela Andrus if Mr. Scott was still living in that building. And she said without any shame that Mr. Scott had moved out. We gave a phone call to Mr. Scott after leaving Museum Walk and knew that Mr. Scott was still living in the building. We asked for his help and finally got the important sublet documents.
In middle of Feb., we talked to Pamela Andrus over the phone again and faxed to her the sublet agreement between Mr. Scott and us and also the sublet lease. But we didnt get any answer for two weeks. When we asked Pamela Andrus again over the phone, we got the same answer that we could not get back our prepayment. We really can not believe that! A formal written contract can be broken so easily!
First, we dont think its their company who found the sublet resident. Although it was Mrs. Vega who worked for TLC told us that Mr. Scott want to sublet our apartment, it was because we paid one month rent of $650 for Mr. Scott to make him agree to sublet our apartment. Also, it was totally Mrs. Vegas personal behavior because she did it out of her work time and used her home telephone to contact us. She even asked us to give a reward to her for what she did for us. And she got our drawer. Is that TLC Companys work style?
In addition, since Pamela Andrus said we should submit a fee equal to one month payment, what is that for? A sublet charge? We could not find anything says we should pay a fee under a sublet lease. A relet fee? We just found one sentence in the relet option reads Resident must submit a relet fee equal to one month rent. But we didnt choose the relet option. What we chose was the sublet option. We and Mr. Scott signed a sublet lease with TLC and we dont think they are so stupid to have us signed a wrong contract with their company. If it is a relet option, TLC should execute a new lease between TLC and Mr. Scott instead of the sublet lease between TLC and us. Why we signed a sublet lease? If it is a relet option, we should be released of all obligations upon the execution of a new lease with the new resident, why we remained guarantor of the lease until the lease expired?
Last, we read one sentence in Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance Summary. It says The landlord must accept a reasonable subtenant offered by tenant without charging additional fee. Is TLC an exception?
We really felt angry about that and thought we should talk to their president, Mr. Stuart Handler. But the lady who answered our phone said no possible after she talked to Pamela Andrus. The lady even said Pamela Andrus was their president. It was really ridiculous. When did Pamela Andrus become their president?
Now we are trying to figure out why Pamela Andrus treated us like that. Is that because we are not Native American? Is that because she put the money into her own pocket? Maybe a comment from a guy living in Museum Walk can explain what we have experienced these days. He said Pamela Andrus was A VERY ROUGH women. So, we dont need to talk to her any more because she is also a liar.
We are new here from China and we used to think USA peoples are very gentle and polite. We never expected we would have met such an unpleasant thing and such a shameful woman. So we file this complaint and want to get the justice and we want to get back the money which belongs to us. Hope you can solve the problems for us and we will appreciate you for that. Thank you.
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