Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/18/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I own a vacation rental in *********, ** and Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia was managing the rentals of my home. Here are the issues that I have had with them:1. A woman rented my home and they said that she "demanded" to be moved to a new home because she didn't "like" the kitchen countertops, nor the showerhead. There is nothing wrong with either and both have pictures posted on their website. She also said that the kitchen sink wasn't clean which is Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia's responsibility. Not only did I lose out on the rental money for that weekend (approximately $300) but they made me pay her $165 cleaning fee. I haven't been to my home in about 3 months and they are responsible for cleaning it. 2. I have had damage to my furniture with them that I reported to them and they have not responded to these emails. The items damaged are a custom leather chair that has a permanent wet **** on it, an outdoor table that has paint on it, my kitchen countertop island that has paint on it and my dining room table that has significant scratches on it. I can paint the kitchen island and the outdoor table but I cannot fix the leather chair nor the dining room table. I would estimate this damage to be around $3500. This was reported to them in emails in April ******. They claimed that they were a full management company but refused to clean my screened in porch or deck and I had several complaints from renters that they were not clean. 4. They sent me a list of items to be fixed in August that didn't need to be fixed. It was a complaint list from the one woman who "demanded" to be moved and they were all personal preference items. All of the items were in good working order. An example is that the light switches are "dirty." They aren't dirty. They are beige. It was a bunch of items like that. The towel bar is too high. This from someone who rented the home for 2 days. I told MHRG that I would not fix items that didn't need to be fixed and they ended our contract without warning within the hour.I have emails from them concerning all of the matters above.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/17/2023

  Hello,

  Sorry it took us some time to respond but the mailing address where the notice was delivered is not normally used for mail (We have a ********* PO Box we use instead).
  

  Here are some thoughts from our side of things:

  1. We've had several guests unhappy with the condition of this home - most of them not involving the routine cleaning of the home.  We communicated every item to the homeowner and she insisted that the items were ok and didn't need to be addressed.

  2. We communicated with the homeowner on August 17 and requested to meet her at the house over the weekend.  She only responded that she didn't know when she would be there.  We sent her a list of items that needed to be addressed on August 20.  She replied that most of them did NOT need to be addressed and they were fine.  At this point we notified her that we were removing her property from our rentals.  The house was non-rentable according to her terms.

  3. Another large property management company in ********* also had issues with this renter and was glad to see her go elsewhere.  ************ also could not rent her property according to her terms.

  4. We have quite a few emails with this owner that we are happy to share with BBB.

  This home is not rentable and this homeowner doesn't understand what it takes to rent your home in 2023 when there are 100s of homes to be rented.

  5. The $3500 requested by this owner is absolutely absurd.  She was unable to get along and work with the 2 largest home rental companies in *********.  We are both professional companies that know how to treat our owners and their properties.

  
  

  Let us know what else is needed from us.

  Sincerely,

  **** and *******

  We are the owners of Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia

  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/24/2023

   
  Complaint: 20617491
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  No compensation has been offered. We decided to go through the BBB first to avoid litigation. Unfortunately, Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia has not accepted any responsibility for mismanagement of our home and has decided instead to be dishonest about the history with the home. For example, they did send a text asking to meet at the home on a Saturday but did not even say why they wanted to meet nor even ask if we even planned to be at the home. We didn't know our plans at the time and simply couldn't commit to a meeting. 

  They sent me a list of items to fix that were mostly from one person who didn't "like" items such as the showerhead, the height of the towel bar and the finish on the kitchen countertops which were all in good condition. It lacks basic common sense to ask a homeowner to change items in their home that are a personal preference for one person who is a weekend renter. I did say that I would fix the items that were reasonable such a shower curtain and a door that was sticking in the high humidity over the summer.

  They reported that renters were upset that the outdoor table wasn't cleaned. Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia was responsible for cleaning the home. This was a persistent issue. I did tell them that I would deep clean the outdoor furniture in the Spring after pollen season and in the Fall after the leaves fell but that they would need to wipe things down in between since they claimed to be a full-service rental company. I've never worked with a company who did not clean screened porches and decks. We do not live in ********* and to expect me to somehow drive there between every renter to wipe down outdoor furniture was unreasonable. 

  I did use another rental company prior to switching to Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia and got along with them just fine. I decided to switch to a new company because of the lack of rentals over the winter last year. Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia told me that they had many new homeowners switch to them for the same reason. It wasn't anything personal and it is really a shame that Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia is going down that route.

  There was extensive damage to the home which was not acknowledged even though multiple emails that were sent. The damage was approaching the amount that we made from renting the home. I have owned multiple vacation rental homes for almost 13 years now and I haven't ever had any damage to my home before other than the minor expected scratches, etc. 

  The tipping point was when they said that a woman refused to stay in the home because she "disliked" several things and thought that the sink was dirty. Not only did they allow this person to change homes, which caused a lack of income for that weekend, but they also took her home cleaning fee out of my monthly check which is illegal. Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia is responsible for cleaning the home. It is bad enough that they moved the woman to another home but taking that cleaning fee out of my check is stealing. 

  I am not asking for $3400 but reporting that much in damage. I am asking to be refunded the cleaning fee from the woman that was moved as well as the rental income from that woman that was lost since she was moved to another home. 

  Sincerely,
  
  *********************************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2023

  The guest demanded to be moved---- because the house was UNSAFE.
    -   The owner painted the door of the bathrooms.  After a shower, the door swelled and with the extra paint, the door could not be opened.  The guest's pregnant daughter got stuck in the upstairs bathroom, was traumatized- she wanted out of the property immediately- the property is unsafe.
    -   The curtain rod was put up by owner attaching it in the middle.  When the curtain in moved the entire curtain rod goes up and down like a seasaw- and is unsafe.
    -   The owner PAINTED her kitchen counters with grey paint.  On the back edge of the kitchen sink there is a line of rust which the owner left and did not cover.  It's not possible for a cleaner to clean the rust off the back of the sink- it is the sink itself that is rusted.  We told the owner about this and that guests complained.  She would not correct. -- the sink is unsanitary and unsafe.

  We are happy to put the BBB in touch with the previous property manager if that conversation would be helpful.

  We are happy to put the BBB in touch with the guests that were moved and unhappy with the property.

  We will never recoup all the money and time we wasted on this property - and this property owner.

  We wish no ill-will to this owner, we just wish to move beyond this relationship.

  Sincerely,

  Mountain Home Rentals of Georgia