Acorn + Oak Property Management

I am now going to file a complaint with the Revdex.com as well as the State Attorney General I will be sending them photos of the condition of my home and yard as provided to me by the people who purchased my home and by the City of Durham who threatened to site me because of the mess outside my home Even after I pointed this out to you the tenants did not clean up the yard They picked up the trash perhaps but did nothing to take care of the yard itself It remained overgrown and out of control At my request you sent your guy out to inspect and he reported it was "messy" Certainly an understatement!!!!! I think I'll ask the new owners to take additional photos of the yard so I'll know exactly which plants they killed I made it abundantly clear that the yard was a big concern of mine and that they were responsible for taking care of it which they did not!!!! I have reports from neighbors that weeds in the front yard at times were taller than most people!!!! Where were you guys huh? You just rent out a place and ignore it
Bottom line, you paid MY MONEY to the tenants without advising me that they did NOT hold up their end of the bargain I said I would REIMBURSE THEM IF they did everything they were required to do THEY DID NOT!!!! They did not clean - they just walked away and you used MY MONEY to pay for it This should NEVER have happenedYou should have given me an accounting of everything PRIOR to dispersing ANY money to the tenants!!!! That is why my account ended up shortMy money should have been used to pay MY DEBT FIRST Had you done that we would not be where we are now
Send this to collections, really? Fine, you want to go there we'll go there but I will dispute it with a vengeanceYour poor accounting is to blame so stop trying to bill me for something you should be taking care of since you CHOSE to refund the tenants more than they were due and I am more than happy to explain this to collections, the Revdex.com and the Attorney General
BEWARE OUT OF TOWN OWNERS - They will not ensure your home is well taken care of And, their accounting is horrible!

Acorn + Oak withheld information from us in order to keep our rental deposit.We submitted a 30 day notice to end our lease on March 1, 2014 via [redacted] to Acorn + Oak. We never heard from the company, so we submitted a second request on March 17, 2014 with an additional note regarding our first notice and to have the company please contact us regarding move out. We received an email on March 19 saying they received our notice and sent a move out check list. We were called by [redacted] and told they did not have our first notice but we would move forward with the move out and he would let us know if there were any issues with the dates. We tried to schedule a final walk through for the 30th, but [redacted] was out of the office all week. We turned in our keys on the 30th anyways. The first date for the walk through that fit both of our schedules was April 11, 2014. We did the walk through that day and were told everything looked great. We did not hear from them again until April 28, 2014 when we received our final accounting notice that had $585 worth of unpaid rent deducted from our deposit. We always paid our rent, so we called the company and were told that because they did not receive a notice until March 18, 2014 that they were counting that as the 1st day of our move out notice so we owed rent through April 18. [redacted] told us we would be informed if there was an issue with our move out date, instead he said nothing and took our money. We left our property in better condition than when we moved in, they had our keys and the property was completely vacant, and you better believe they had a for rent sign in the front yard, but conveniently had to charge us rent because they can't keep up with their paperwork. We would have been understanding about the misplaced paperwork and could have pushed our dates back on our new home if they would have been up front and honest with us, but instead they withheld information in order to take our money.Desired SettlementWe would like all of our $975 deposit to be returned to us.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted] OwnerContact Phone: [redacted]Contact Email: [redacted]First, we'd like to say, that we're sorry the party feels offended. It's our business to make our clients and customers happy, and it's unfortunate the former tenant feels cheated, and regrettably this situation has essentially become a 'he said/she said.' A little bit about our leases - Our company inherited the former tenant with a month-to-month lease in place. Our company applies firm-date leases to all our new customers specifically to avoid situations much like this. The only leases we do carry month-to-month are other tenants with inherited leases, which are not common.The terms of the inherited lease state that 30 day written notice must be given when moving out. We understand the former tenant has said they turned notice in on March 1st, but the first written notice we received was on 3/19, postmarked 3/18, with a sticky note saying "this is our 2nd notice." Please understand that we can't go by a letter saying this is our 2nd letter - there's no evidence for us to verify. There is a reason people use certified mail, it is for situations like these. There were multiple times the former tenant could have followed up to confirm the first letter - namely: any day before, during, or after the letter was sent. A phone call, e-mail, stop in the office; "did you get our notice to vacate? No? We sent it yesterday. Consider this a verbal" would have sufficed, and if intent on the letter, they could have resent, or brought into the office the written letter. We contacted the former tenant via phone when their rent was late to let them know it was late, no mention of their letter or intent to vacate. The former tenants physically came into our office on March 10th and dropped off their late rent, no mention of their letter or intent to vacate. As soon as we received the letter on the 19th, the first people we contacted were the former tenants with an e-mail stating:"Hello [redacted],We just received your written notice of your intent to vacate [redacted]. I will be calling you for more information, but please review the attached move-out checklist to help you in the move-out process. I will also need to inspect the property; please let me know when everything is good-to-go so I can come by and do so.Please let me know if you need any other information, and I hope to talk to you soon.Thank you,"We then spoke with the husband (the only person we had ever had contact with), [redacted], via phone. We stated the issue that the first letter was not received and that we would have to consider 3/19 the day notice was given to [redacted], to which he responded, "I'm not sure, my wife should have taken care of that." He then went on to say he would follow up. There was no follow up on their behalf regarding the 1st letter, but we spoke again of a date for the walk-through inspection. It was our understanding that they were verbally notified that the first notice we received was on 3/19, and would be proceeding as such, as the beginning of the 30 day notice. We charged them as such. The former tenants have said we have taken their money, but the money pulled was turned over to the homeowners as rent from the date of our first notification, the remaining $390 security deposit was returned to the tenant - the company's commissions came out to about $45. No money is worth risking our company's reputation over, certainly not $45. With that in mind, we ask that you look at our financial track record with the former tenant. We began managing the property in December 2013. Rent is due on the 1st of the month, late after the 5th with a late fee of $30, and eviction process begins approximately 10 days later. Tenants are responsible for court costs and filing eviction costs. Filing for eviction can cost up to $100+. Eviction puts them out of a home.December rent was paid on 12/19 - $30 late fee was waived, no eviction process was started.January rent was paid on 1/13 - $30 late fee was waived.February rent was paid on 2/24 - $30 late fee was waived, no eviction process was started.March rent was paid on 3/10 - $30 late fee was waived.If financial gain were our motivation, we never would have waived the late fees as we would have made more off the late fees than the $45. If poor customer service were our motivation, we would have filed for eviction, twice, giving them additional costs, and if they failed to pay would have been evicted giving them a permanent stain on their renting integrity.We understand they moved out on 4/1 - but if a tenant is to sign a lease on a set date and not move in for two weeks- he/she would still be responsible for those two weeks. Likewise, if a lease runs till Mid-month and a tenant moves out early, they are responsible till mid-month, too.We'd always been courteous towards our former tenants, and will continue to be. We've told them we're happy to work with them towards a resolution, but the only missing step is the initial letter. We hope the former tenant understands that we have no motivating factors for "taking their money," and that policy states, we must go by first written notice. Though, we would have been ok with any other form of communication, and at the very least, any other form of communication would have got our attention to be expecting the written notice.We'll also be happy to send the former tenant our $45, so we'll have gained nothing but a negative review.