West USA Realty Flagstaff

To Whom It May Concern:

 

 

 

In response to the complaint submitted by [redacted] regarding her deposit refund, we have this to say:

 

A walk through was done at the property on January 31,2014. I,...

[redacted], was conducting the walk through, and had pointed out a few items of cleaning that were not up to par. The tenants said they would take care of them, so no action was taken. (I point this out because it shows that the tenants had the opportunity to fix things not that were not up to par.) Upon completetion of the walk through, I said the only thing I really saw was touch up work on the walls, at which point I pointed to an area and said, "Like these." Mr. [redacted] at this point said, "We honestly expected a paint touch up charge." I explained that I would use the least expensive person to do the work & that would be their only deduction. At no time was price quoted, as there was no way for me to know what the charges would be. This is further evidenced by [redacted] claim that I quoted $40,

and her response was she would be okay with a deduction of $100. Why, if given a quote,

would she claim to be okay with a deduction of almost 3 times that? The tenants never asked for the opportunity to do the work themselves (only stated they expected paint touch up charges), otherwise arrangements could have been made. [redacted] herself stated this in her complaint.

 

It is a tenant's responsibility to leave the home in move in ready condition. If they don't it is our responsibility to restore it to move in ready condition using their deposit. Tenants do not have the right to say how much can come out of their deposit. If they do not leave the home ready for the next tenant, we determine the work needed to do so. There were no charges that taken from these tenants other than the paint touch up which they knew I was sending someone to do. There was no way for us to know what the charges would

be, as West USA was not doing the work, only hiring someone to take care of it. This

particular home had a multitude of colors in it, and at the time we had no idea how much paint would need to be purchased. The attached bill is the only charge that was deducted from the tenants' deposit. They were not "cheated" out of their deposit, as they received

$1520 back, which amounts to 84% of the total deposit.

 

In conclusion I would like to add I value my reputation as a fair & ethical property manager. In the 10+ years that West USA has been managing properties, with the 400+ properties the company manages, there have been maybe 10 disputes over deposits. A few of those did escalate to court. Every single case that went to court was dismissed, as none of the claims were valid. I work hard to ensure that each homeowner and tenant are treated fairly and document each step of the process to validate all costs to either party.

My husband and I rented a townhome in the country club area of [redacted] from West USA Realty. When we received the keys to the house we were very excited to have a place to live in a great area in [redacted] AZ. This excitement soon turned into stress and disgust because the house was filthy. The back yard was very overgrown and needed to be maintained and cleaned up. The house also seemed to be neglected in many ways as there was a lot of damage from previous renters. We made sure to write a very detailed list of the problems and the condition of the house when we move in and then went to work on making the place livable.

As our lease came to an end we made sure everything was in tip top shape and cleaned so that we could get our full deposit back. Knowing that the place was spotless and a hundred times better then when we received the keys, we felt comfortable having the exit walk through. When the real estate agent did the walk through, she was very thorough with her picture taking and making sure to point out anything that was wrong (most, if not all items were pervious damage). She made sure to tell us that they would need to get a cleaning company to come and clean the house professionally despite our notes from the move in check list that stated the house was very dirty when we moved in. So we were billed $105 for cleaning charges. The invoice we received from the cleaning company was vey unprofessional. We were skeptical that this was a real cleaning company, we even [redacted] it and couldn't find a reputable company by the same name. We are guessing that the agent and her convenient handyman husband billed us for cleaning, but we are skeptical if the cleaning ever happened. We were also charged about $50 for other questionable miscellaneous issues she found that her husband's handyman company fixed, these issues were noted in the move in checklist but we were still penalized for them.

We were very grateful to have had a place to live in for the time we stayed in [redacted] but were sad that the end of our experience was so negative. We definitely do not recommend renting from West USA Realty or using them for a management company, specifically Melody as the agent. If you do decide to rent from them/her anticipate feeling like they are willing to make stuff up to keep some of the deposit money. Please note, this is just a small portion of our negative experience with this company/realtor.

Review: We recently moved out of a rental property that West USA Realty managed. We were great tenants and rented the house for two years. We had the house proffesionally cleaned and had our final walk thru with [redacted]. She said the house looked great and that the only thing she needed to do was have her painter come over and touch up a few normal wear and tear paint chips. She pointed to four spots and told my husband and I that it would be around $40, if that. I said great and said I don't care if it is even $100. The next week I got a phone call to come pick up my deposit. When I got there they had taken $280 out for the paint chips. There was no invoice and only a hand written letter that said sorry I had to buy all new paint. I was very frustrated and spoke with the manager [redacted]. She was very short with me and said what is done is done. I asked why wouldn't [redacted] have the decency to call me and tell me how much it would be when it was three times the price I thought it would be. When [redacted] contacted me back she told me that she never quoted me $40 and that she didn't feel like she needed to call me to tell me how much it was going to cost. I told her if I knew it would be that much we would have fixed it ourselves. She then stated well if I had known that we could have made that happen. I am very frustrated with this company and I would not reccomend this agency at all! They are very unprofessioanl and are not willing to work with you! Renters Beware!Desired Settlement: I want my invoice and I want to see everything they touched up. I feel like I was cheated out of my deposit and would like my $180 back. I do not believe it should have cost $280 for paint touch ups.

Business

Response:

To Whom It May Concern: