We rented a house in Gilbert, AZ in 2005 directly from the owner. All was fabulous while he was in charge. When we gave our notice at the end of he hired Bennett Property Management to take over and re-rent the property. No problem, we thought, until we found out that he handed over our entire deposit to them to manage. Mind you, this included last months rent. Right from the get go, they were intent on keeping every dime.
When I tried to set up our walk through with Jodi Brace, I played phone tag back and forth until I finally called the owner to let him know we were leaving and I needed her to get by! He called me back and said that Jodi said she had called many times and I was never home. The number she had was my cell phone for one thing and we had nothing to do but be there cleaning for the move-out! We cleaned for two days, wiping blinds, ceiling fans and even patching little nail holes in the wall and repainting the walls. Everything was immaculate! She never showed so we took pictures throughout the house with the date stamp and time on them. We got a letter over a month later with every deduction you could imagine on it, including things that came with the house that she tried to charge us to haul off. When I called her to ask her about the haul off charges, she told me that she didn't have time for this and to just sue her! Needless to say I wrote back and forth with her for 7 months until I finally found out from an attorney that I could sue and they would have to pay our ALL of our travel expenses to get back to Arizona to fight this.
I am assuming that the owner stepped in and told her to handle it because I had copied him on all letters to her by then. I also included the pictures that we had taken where everything was immaculate, and copies that she had sent me where everything was dirty. Gee, I wonder how long it was after we left she that finally made it there to even take pictures. May I also add that the invoices that she tried to claim for work done were through their own company. I hope that the owner filed fraud against her because I would gladly back him up in court!
0 comments