Reviews

Review Details

• Review fromBen M

  Date: 09/14/2023

  1 star
  Unfortunately this is not super uncommon for real estate companies, but they piled up bogus charges for us to deny us most of our security deposit upon moving out. When we asked them to give us an itemized list, they did not comply. They gave a non-specific comma-delimited list of items, but not the corresponding amounts. One of the items on the list was literally the word "fart". You can't make this stuff up. We communicated at length with them for more information and they eventually told us to contact their lawyer, who was completely unreachable. If we hadn't moved hundreds of miles away, we would take them to claims court, but at this point it doesn't feel worth it.
  One piece of the deposit that we didn't get back was for paint. We asked several weeks ahead of time for the color of the paint on the walls so that we could spackle over small holes in the wall from hanging art, then paint over the spackle with the right color. Eventually they told us the color, but it was the wrong color, which led to us painting parts of the walls the wrong color. I understand that they had to repaint, which cost money. But they didn't have to pass that cost along to us when they were the ones who got the paint color wrong and we were just trying to leave the place better than we found it. We get that they have the right to charge us for this, it just doesn't feel like the right thing to do.
  The "general cleaning" charges rang a bit false to us as well. When we moved into that house, it was very dirty and had a lot of junk from the previous tenant. I wonder how much that tenant was charged for cleaning that wasn't even done after they moved out?

  RENEW Real Estate Services Inc

  Date: 09/15/2023

  We sent them the actual receipt from our vendor who did the work on the house after their moveout and they were charged that amount. We are not required to list the cost of each item. The term "fart fan" is common when describing the exhaust fan in a bathroom. In regards to paint, we do not always have paint colors for homes we manage as they are painted by previous owners/outside vendors. One of our managers told them a ~possible~ paint color that it could be but wasn't sure and stated that. It is common knowledge that you can take a paint swatch to any home renovation store and get a paint match. Instead, they left large patches of mismatched paint all over every wall which had to be painted. The cleaning fee is outlined in the lease and they agreed to those terms when they signed it. We did not charge them anything beyond the invoice from our vendor or the cleaning fee and they did receive a portion of their deposit back.

  RENEW Real Estate Services Inc

  Date: 09/15/2023

  We also send out a detailed move-out and cleaning checklist to ensure tenants get their full deposit back. On that checklist it is stated that when you spackle holes on the wall to wipe away any excess spackle so there aren't large white patches all over. This was not done either and another reason the walls needed to be repainted.