Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/24/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising 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 recently signed for a commercial property in May that included renovations with *********************** of Berkshire Hathaway. I was given a proposal listing my price per sq ft as well as CAM percentage. The document included a total listed as monthly rent. I asked my realtor (*****) if this was the complete total of all sums before utilities and she said that it was. I moved forward. Before signing the lease I asked again, is the number represented in this lease the complete total (the terminology had changed to base rent in the lease) and she told me that it was. My last property included the total rent + CAM sum as one number to be paid monthly which is why I asked her to clarify with this lease. I signed and renovations were completed. The day before I was handed keys, I received a letter stating that I owed CAM fees and that my rent total was actually $460 over the total that was discussed with her. CAM was never explained as a separate charge by her when I asked. I emailed her confused and she then finally gave me a total breakdown of expenses, finally mentioning CAM being separate for the first time. I had corresponded with her via text and she referred to my rental amount as simply monthly rent, not base rent or rent minus monthly CAM. She mislead me and gave me incorrect information and if I had known the total scope of my financial responsibility I would not have gone ahead with this property, or would have adjusted my renovations to include space for more income. I also had a colleague sit in on every meeting I had with ***** and she was under the same understanding that CAM was included by the way it was explained by her.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/03/2023

  Please let me start out by saying how shocked and hurt I am by receiving this complaint. **** ******* was informed of all charges for the property at **** ******* **** suite *** Lancaster PA. 
  On our initial meeting on April 10, 2023 10 am I met **** and her associate ***** at said property along with ***** ****** the listing agent with **** **********. ***** let us into the property. **** pretty much took over the meeting, asking questions, she really did impress me because she is such a knowledgeable person and was asking all the right questions. She fell in love with the space pretty much right away. This is what she was looking for. 
  The listing agent explained how things would work getting the space up to her liking. He told us, you have your rent(base rent as they refer to it) + your construction loan and that equals your monthly rent. Your construction loan would be spread out through the years(in this case 5 years)she would be there. 
  All the utilities would need to be put into her name and she pay them herself. 
  The CAM charges(common areas of the property, parking lot grass etc) would be billed to her once a month to cover the maintenance of the common areas of the property. ****s response to this was "I could take on one or two more clients to cover that cost". She really seemed to understand at that time the charges. 
  Throughout the process it was never said Cam charges were added to your monthly base rent, never. Monthly rent was the rent + construction loan. At the end of the 5 year term her rent would be reevaluated and she will then only be paying for base rent. The loan would be paid off. 
  Cam charges are reevaluated at the end of each year, if the Landlord finds the tenants where over charged, they get a credit for the over charge. 
  Attached I have provided a **** ********** page from the packet we both got from ***** and also a Lease Proposal that was provided to both of us so she could see details on paper. 
  If you find you need the actual copy of the lease itself, please let me know and I can get that to you as well. 
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/03/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  ***** gave me the base rent and CAM and then the total of those two sums during our initial meeting for the original property. I do not recall getting a verbal breakdown from him in that meeting that CAM would be a separate charge aside from the amount listed in the lease because we hadn't even discussed renovations or lease terms or anything lease related at that point. And if it was mentioned verbally one time, YOU were my realtor not *****. I asked YOU for clarification when given both the proposal and the lease because it was a month after our initial walkthrough and renovations had been added into the terms and you did not in any way mention charges aside from the number listed in the proposal or lease. The proposal does not list CAM as in addition to and only lists a monthly rent amount, not a base monthly rent amount which is why I asked you for clarification - my last property combined CAM and rent as a total in the lease which is the entire reason I asked that question. Im not a professional, your job was to make me completely aware of the full breakdown and scope of my financial responsibility BEFORE signing and you did not do that when I asked. The term base rent or rent minus monthly CAM was never used in any correspondence with you so any person thats not a professional is going to take that wording and assume that is what their monthly rent total is unless told differently. Bottom line, you did not make me aware of everything I needed to know. Youre right, I am knowledgeable and thats exactly why this isnt something that just went over my head - it was not explained in detail by you. I've worked with *************** before and ***** and **** can definitely vouch for the fact that I am extremely thorough and organized. ***** was under the same understanding I was which means this was not in any way properly addressed by you. It was not ****** job to do that, it was yours as my realtor and you were negligent. You were extremely nice during the whole process but bottom line, you didn't do your job. The point of working with a realtor was to make sure I had someone making sure I was aware of my legal responsiblities for the property and you didn't do that.
  

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

  Business Response

  Date: 10/12/2023

  October 12, 2023 
  
  April 10th 3:25 pm **** wants to proceed with getting the space and understands all that is involved at this time. 
  April 14th 8 am is the time **** choose to go over the plans for her new salon. It was ****, *****, *****, *** and I. We go over the floor plans and also how things work. Once the floor plan is to ****'s liking, we again discuss the construction loan and how that is spread throughout her term of the lease. Here it was again explained to **** and all of us, your rent or base rent + your construction loan will be your monthly rent/base rent. It was never said utilities and cam charges are included in this amount, 
  never. 
  May 8th at 1 pm I meet with **** and ***** at her current salon to go over the proposal. At this time, **** understood the proposal and she signed it right there on the spot! She was given a copy of this proposal prior to our meeting so if she had any questions they should have come up here. She has signed a lease before so this was nothing new to her. **** had no questions at this time at all about the lease, however, she did have questions regarding picking her paint and colors when the job was completed. I had told her I will check with *****. 
  My only regret is that I did not have **** sign anything saying she understands these charges and how this Landlord works. 
  I am including a copy of a portion of the lease along with the other copies showing the utilities and the cam charges are separate from the lease. 
  Thank you