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:07/19/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore 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.

  We were renting a space in O'Fallon, MO and the building where our company was in, a strip mall was sold to SAI O'Fallon. When we left they didn't give us our security deposit back. I tried emailing and texting him and he did send an email back. He didn't respond to me and the management company did not respond to me regarding returning the security deposit. We did everything we were supposed to and never got our security deposit back.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/11/2023

  Hi,

  As you can see in the attachment, this tenant lease was from 2021 to 2024 and we gave them 4 months of Free Rent.  They broke their lease early and as a result they are not entitled to the refund deposit.   They actually owe is the rent for remaining 3 months free that we gave them.

  Thanks,

  ****

   

  ******** CR
  Rec’d 7/26/2023 at 7:27 am
  
  Hello Ms. *****,
  I’m sorry that I’m just now seeing this.  I’m currently out of the country.  
  
  The company, from what I can tell, doesn’t have a physical office.  Their tax paperwork uses the address I gave, and I believe it is just the owner’s home address.  I typed it into Google Maps and it indicates a house in a subdivision.  I’ve typed the address below in case there is a typo in the address you have.
  
  *** ********* ***
  ******** ** *****
  
  I did notice that on the tax paper I have from them, Ballwin is misspelled Ballwyn.  I don’t know if that could be creating the problem.
  
  If this doesn’t solve the problem, please let me know.  Hopefully it’s something we can resolve through email.  If not, I will hopefully have access to my phone again in about a week.
  
  Sincerely,
  ******* ******
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/23/2023

  Good afternoon,

  I am replying to SAI O'Fallon's response to our complaint.  My apologies for not responding within the 7 calendars.  We are abroad and since they had 30 days, I believe, to respond, and I was not checking my email often enough (assuming that we would have a longer period of time too) and did not even see the email until 5 days after it was sent.  Once I did open it, I should have read the full email more closely--again, I apologize.

  I was shocked to read the response as it is not at all what was talked about or agreed to.  We did end our contract early.  Unfortunately the first discussion of us ending it was by phone so there is no written record.  I called SAI O'Fallon's property manager--through whom we did everything--and explained that we were considering closing or subleasing the business.  We were leaning towards subleasing it.  After I explained our plans, the property manager strongly suggested, and said that they preferred, for us to simply terminate the contract so they could start new with the new tenants.  It was their idea to terminate and not sublease, not ours.  Our responsibility was to continue to pay rent until the new tenants started to pay.  In that first conversation I inquired about the security deposit and the property manager assured me that we would get it back as soon as the new tenants paid their deposit.

  When we found someone to take over the space and they were getting close to finalizing all their details, I asked **** personally what we needed to do to finalize the termination of the contract and receive our deposit.  We wanted something on paper.  He insisted that all we needed to do was to send him an email with our company name, the address of the property we were leasing, the name of the new tenant, and our forwarding address (which he needed to send us the check with our security deposit).  I did not feel 100% comfortable with it--and now I see it was with good reason--but he insisted.

  The contract with the new tenants started on March 1st.  On March 8th I sent **** the email that he requested.  I never received a direct response to the email.  On March 9th, however, I did receive a text from **** saying that the property manager had told him that they had only paid the deposit and that he was going to check on the first month's (March's) rent.  I never heard a response so on March 14 I sent **** another text to see if he had heard anything about March's rent.  On March 15th he confirmed that they had paid and asked if I had sent him the email he requested.  I confirmed that I had, told him the date I had sent it, and gave him our email address to help him search for it more easily. 
  

  From that moment on, **** stopped communicating with me.  I contacted the property manager to confirm that he had the same email address, and they confirmed it for me.  When I was getting no where with him, I talked to our real estate agent whom we had used to see if she knew what we could do.  She offered to contact the property manager for us.  On June 1st the real estate agent sent me an email to tell me that she had spoken to the property manager and that the property manager had said that she thought that the deposit had been returned.  She was going to call **** immediately to check into it.  From that moment on, the property manager also stopped communicating with me.

  I am going to try to attach screenshots of the text message conversations and emails.  I just saw the 30 minute time limit, though, and am afraid I will run out of time.

  Sincerely,

  ******* ******

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/23/2023

  Good afternoon,

  As a follow-up to my first response, I’ve attached the email that **** requested from me to terminate the contract, and our text message conversation about it.  The conversation also includes him confirming that the new tenants had paid everything (first month’s rent and their security deposit), which was the requirement for us to receive our security deposit back.

  Sincerely,

  ******* ******

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/23/2023

  Good afternoon,

  This last email includes two screenshots of emails between our real estate agent and myself, plus a third screenshot of an email when I try to follow up with the property manager about what the real estate had told me.  I never received a response from the property manager.

  The last two screenshots are of my last two attempts to contact **** and the property management company to try to resolve the situation.  I never received a response from any of them.

  Sincerely,

  ******* ******