American Residential Properties

We have spoken with Mr. [redacted] regarding this situation and he has indicated that he is satisfied with our proposed resolution.

American Residential Properties (ARP) is the most crookedly ran leasing company I have ever seen!!!! My experience with them is a long read, but probably worth it if you are considering renting property through this horrible company. On Jan 7 2014 my wife and I received a Notice to Vacate form that we requested from ARP that we immediately filled out, signed, and faxed it back saying we were in the process of buying a new home, and we indicated that we would be out of the property by the end of Jan 14. When we first moved into the property, it was owned by a different leasing co. called [redacted], and we signed two 6 months leases, performed an inspection, filled out the checklist, and turned it in along with the signed leases. We paid a $1,745.00 deposit, the first month’s rent of the same amount, and a pet deposit of $350.00 for a total deposit of $2,095.00. According to the Pet Agreement that we signed, the pet deposit becomes a part of the security deposit for all purposes. Before we made the move out notification in early Jan 14, we received a letter back on Sep 24. 2013 with ARP’s letterhead informing us that the property and the lease had been turned over to them. Our lease expired Oct 31. 2013, and at this point, we should have been asked if we wanted to go month-to-month or renew our lease. ARP seemed to be unaware of this, so we simply paid our rent as normal because we had decided to purchase our own home. After we told ARP we were moving, they sent us a lease renewal form anyway, but we declined to fill it out saying whether or not we wanted another lease agreement after we noticed that ARP had the new lease start and end dates completely wrong. At this point, we knew we were going to have a major problem because ARP didn’t know what was going on!! We told ARP again we would not be renewing the lease because we were moving, so a rep. told us that someone from the inspections team will contact us to schedule a move out inspection. This never happened, and ARP claimed an inspector came out to the property twice, and the second time was not until we had already moved out according to the date on the move out inspection sheet that their inspector filled out which was forwarded to us at our new address. ARP claim that an inspector came out to the property on or sometime shortly after Jan 31. 2014 but the property was still occupied. We never heard from any move out inspection person who came out to the property, and had we been notified beforehand, we would have gladly accommodated the inspection. We actually experienced delays with our move, so we told ARP, paid the rent for Feb 2014 since we were still there for the entire month of. After failed attempts to contact them, we finally got an e-mail from ARP leasing rep. on Mar 8. 2014 (after we had already vacated the property), and it stated that the notice to vacate by the end of Jan 2014 had been received, and so they were confused by us paying rent for the month of Feb 2014. The email also stated “If we do not hear back from you no later than Monday March 10th, 2014 we will cancel your notice to vacate and will require a New 30 day notice to vacate in writing prior to your vacating your current home, as you will be considered on a month to month status. We promptly responded on Mar 8 saying we had moved out on Feb 28 and we asked that they forward us our deposits. The move out inspection that was done on now unoccupied ARP property was dated Mar 25. 2014, and all of the issues noted were previously identified when we moved into the property. We asked ARP to compare the two inspection sheets, but they obviously didn’t have the one that we filled out prior to moving in because ARP failed to produce the pre-move-in inspection check sheet later on in court. Luckily, we kept a copy and took photos. ARP made up a phony billing statement dated Apr 1. 2014, insisting that we owe them a total of $1,517.55 which includes a balance brought forward, rent for the entire month of Mar 14 (we were not living there!) including late fees, an incomprehensible $550 damage charge for a broken kitchen drawer, plus demand fees and rent for 1-15 Apr 2014!! We refuse to pay ARP because the charges were bogus and they mishandled their entire move out process by not following their own procedures. After we told ARP that we will not pay their bogus rent, fees, and for pre-existing damages, they turned the matter over to a collection agency called National Credit systems, Inc. A person representing the collection agency told us that ARP was adamantly saying that they followed their move out procedures correctly and we are at fault because we failed to contact them to let them know of our intentions, and we breeched the lease agreement; therefore, they insisted that we pay them. We told the collection agency that we will absolutely not pay ARP for the mistakes they made and nor will we pay the ridiculous charges on their “made up” billing statement. The Collection Agency reported this none payment to the three major credit bureaus, which has created a negative impact on our credit reports at the time we were looking to make a major purchase. The collection prevented us from obtaining credit!!!! We attempted to dispute this with the credit bureaus to no avail because the collection agency and ARP believed their claim was correct. We ended up dragging ARP to court and won the judgment, so ARP had to pay us!! But this process took more than a year, and we are still trying to get the collection taken off of our credit reports!! We won the case, but looking at all the time and money we have wasted fighting ARP and the ugly stain that this has put on our credit, we still feel a significant loss. The morale of this story is, DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES!!! THEY ARE A BUNCH OF CLUELESS CROOKS!!!

The timeline below outlines all events associated with this resident as well as the situation described in this complaint. We have been working with this resident with regard to this matter and will provide the resident with a plan of action by the end of this week. 

Lease #1 – Signed with...

[redacted] – 09/01/2013 – 08/31/2014

Renewed Lease – Signed with [redacted] – 09/01/2014 – 02/28/2015

Work Orders

865795 – [redacted] - $1600 Work was never completed for requested Handyman items from [redacted].  At this time we had no contact with the Resident.

866214 – Vivid Services - $150 – 01/23/2014 HVAC Filter/Service.  No other issues reported.

1042654 – The Renovation CO - $275.00 – 08/11/2014 Pipe was replaced under the guest bathroom sink.  No other issues reported. 

1057869 – The Renovation CO - $750.00 – 10/08/2014 Clogged sink in bath, removed shower door, gutters, documented personal belongings with potential damage, removed trash and debris in crawl space, fixed insulation (believed to be cause of moisture), cleaned gutter.  This was the first report of moisture issues in the home, and Vendor suggested that we offer the Resident a new location.  Pictures are loaded in to the spine, but are inconclusive.

10/9/14 – Leasing notified to contact resident to provide options. 

10/15/2014 – Resident called [redacted] and requested that leasing call them to discuss options.

10/16/2014 – [redacted] was notified to call Resident to discuss options that were sent to her for review.

10/16/2014 – [redacted] emailed a list of current available homes to her that were in the same area and price range.

10/17/2014 – [redacted] received an email response stating she was not interested in any of the homes that were provided to her.

10/18/2014 – Resident located property to relocate to.

10/21/2014 – [redacted] returned from being out of the office, and immediately notified Resident to discuss the options that were submitted to her.  She requested reimbursement for hotel stay, and notified us that she had contacted an outside resource to view personal property in the home.  [redacted] confirmed that she should contact him directly to work through this with him, and indicated that he would be a reliable resource to facilitate.  As of this date Resident was still in a hotel, and found a new home that she would be relocating to on 10/25/2014.  The two options that were sent to her from [redacted] did not work, and she stated that she found a property on her own on October 18th.

10/24/2014 – Resident submitted estimate for textile cleaning.

10/24/2014- Senior Management notified of estimates provided by Resident, and given timeline.

10/24/2014 – Senior Management requested time to meet on Monday October 27th to review.

10/27/2014 – Resident contacted [redacted] via email for an update.

10/28/2014 – [redacted] provided an outline of all estimates submitted, indicating that one more receipt was still outstanding.  He indicated that he had been in regular contact with Resident, and emailed all parties involved in review.

10/28/2014- Senior Management approved a reimbursement check for the Resident for $3000 to cover initial moving costs and short term expenses.

10/30/2014 – [redacted] engaged approved Vendor to review property.

10/29/2014 – Resident emailed Senior management to confirm that [redacted] and [redacted] staff had been in regular contact with her, apologizing , and thanking [redacted].

10/31/2014 – Check request completed, and accounting notified of urgent request, and that the check should be scheduled for Saturday delivery via [redacted].

10/31/2014 – Engagement Letter signed by Vendor.

10/31/2014 – Vendor called Resident to schedule review.

10/31/2014 – [redacted] – Timberline – Evaluation work order created and submitted to licensed and insured Vendor

11/02/2014 – Vendor confirmed appointment scheduled with Resident.

11/03/2014 – Tracking information provided to Resident.  Approved reimbursement check scheduled to arrive.  Requested that Resident notify [redacted] immediately upon receipt.

11/03/2014 – Vendor completed review of property, and is scheduled to submit formal documentation to [redacted] immediately.

11/03/2014 – Resident provided confirmation that reimbursement check has been received.

?As the previous applicant is aware, we were in no way obligated to return her earnest deposit. The applicant was unable to perform on a lease and therefore forfeited all rights to the earnest deposit. In an effort to help her and relieve her situation, we agreed to release the earnest deposit. It...

is unfortunate that the applicant has entered a complaint about an earnest deposit that was generously returned to her by American Residential Properties.

 

Conclusion: Earnest deposit generously returned to this person when we were not obligated to do so.

ARP is not capable of effective property management. In the 14 months that I have resided in the home. The company has not returned any phone calls, emails, or mail correspondence.
I have received numerous ominous letters threatening eviction from them and a legal representative. I assumed the first time that there was a simple clerical error in processing my monthly payment. I sent documentation of who in their office signed for it and when the MO was cashed. They did not call to say all was cleared they simply ceased communicating.
Since that time I have tried to set up an online payment portal to no avail, more non payment of rent letters, a renewal lease has arrived, I have changed the names on the lease using their doc, they also increased the rent, and I sent additional cashier checks for the rent. The rent has always been paid on time each and every month. Their email and phone system do not have live people answering or returning messages.
It is a poor business practice that they are utilizing clearing up matters through the Revdex.com instead of their accounting/ leasing department.
My questions are why are you accepting my rent payment?
Why have you not returned my calls, emails, or mail correspondence?

As disclosed in a letter to the husband of Ms. [redacted] dated March 17, 2015, the decision to deny the rental application submitted by Ms. [redacted] and her two co-applicants was based on more than the one incident Ms. [redacted] had disclosed to our leasing agent, Mr. [redacted].

The Resident’s concerns will be immediately addressed, and we will communicate the course of action with the Resident. We will work with the Resident until all items have been addressed to their reasonable satisfaction.

This company is not professional at all, they never send me back the lease contract signed by them, and then changed it after the contract was finished ate their convenience.

They never respond to emails, neither phone calls. And do not return phone calls.

We are first time renters with ARP and will be last time renters with them as well. We have only lived in the home 3 weeks and the microwave and dishwasher were not installed just left on the cabinets and in place with the hoses inside the dishwasher. The vents in the home had Styrofoam and cardboard shoved in them, the toilet was improperly installed and both sides moved, it continuously ran as well. On Thanksgiving night we tried to dish in the sink since they had not returned or 2 work request to hook up our dishwasher and the plumbing in the kitchen was improperly hooked up and water flooded the kitchen. I called the "emergency maintenance" and was told this was not an emergency and we could just shut water off to our home and they would call us back in 5 - 7 days when they returned from the holiday. Our daughters bedroom window was also busted and we are unable to keep her room nor the entire upstairs warm as the heat escapes from the whole in the window the refuse to let us even duct tape to help keep the heat in. I registered our home for trash pick up with the neighborhood disposal company and the prior homeowners have an outstanding balance and now I am stuck dealing with this balance and trying to fight to have it removed. I was never contacted by the company to discuss our issues and had to contact them in which I was on hold for 15 minutes and then hung up on by [redacted] when I asked for the name and number of the supervisor for reimbursement for all our troubles, I called back and was given an email to contact the company. Of course they will not reimburse anything and say we had full function of the home. How is this possible when we can't use our daughters bedroom, the master bath as the water continues to run and wont flush as it is never full and the kitchen had no working plumbing, dishwasher or microwave. I of course missed the "managers" phone call and was not given a direct number to reach her again to contact her about the horrible customer service which she as a manager never addresses or apologized for and how we have had a functioning home. I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy. They do not care about their renters, even though we pay far too much for this home, nor do they care that their homes are not safe with debris shoved in the heat units that could catch fire at anytime. If you are thinking of renting from this company I would keep looking we have lived here less than 3 weeks and have had a fully functioning kitchen for 2 days of that and yet they cant discount the rent for any of the many issues or the high heat and water bill we will have due to their neglect. We were in a bind and had to move quickly at this point being homeless may have been a better option, keep looking you will have nothing but headaches with their home and no customer service!!!!

The worst leasing experience ever!!! They have tons of outrageous fees and horrible maintenance. I am 8 months and I've been without air conditioning for a week. I have put in several maintenance request and the problem had not been resolved. They say it's not an emergency because it's not 100 degrees outside. The house is literally falling apart and they do not care. The customer service is terrible. I have had issues with every department including leasing, maintenance,and payment. They do not care about the tenants!!!!

We have spoken with Mr. [redacted] regarding this situation and he has indicated that he is satisfied with our proposed resolution.

As a courtesy to this resident, ARP will be waiving the additional demand and late fees accrued, which leaves a balance due of $270.80 for the unpaid utilities. The resident has agreed to pay this amount and has now transferred the utilities into her name effective as of 12/5/14....

The resident has indicated that she is satisfied with this outcome.

I have rented a home from American Residential Properties for the past year and I could not be more happy. They have always responded to request in a timely fashion and have went out of their way to accommodate my family. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to rent a place

American Residential Properties has been nothing but a hassle. We had to resign our lease 6 times because they kept putting in the information incorrectly. We moved in to a filthy apartment (mold, dirty, nails on the floor, etc), no functioning water heater, a broken washer, and leaky kitchen sink. They compensated us for not having working water for 3 days and fixed the hot water heater and sink. It has now been 3 weeks and we still have not received a washer and our air conditioner is now broken. They are forcing us to get our air conditioner replaced on Sunday with only 3 days notice. However, this is Labor Day weekend and we have to cancel our plan for going out of town to be here for maintenance to enter the apartment.

American Residential Properties owns thousands of properties across the United States. I would NOT recommend them and I certainly will never rent from them again.

American Residential Properties has the worst accounting dept. I receive threatening letters from them on a regular basis. My money orders have been cashed every month and yet just about every month they send me a new 13 day notice to evict me. Im not sure if the person or persons responsible for posting payments received is overwhelmed with work or not working at all. I have called the accounting department repeatedly and can't get them on the phone. But yet I can guarantee that Amy Wimbish will send me a threatening letter. I am convinced that they are trying to evict all the residents of the Lehigh Acres, FL area due to the fact that I am not the only tenant in the area that has the same complaint. I truly feel at this point that American Residential Properties is racially profiling the residents. It is sad that the hard working residents in the area that do pay their rent on time as required have to deal with such horrible behavior from such a huge company. I would like to know if American Residential Properties is willing to pay me the $100 late fee that is assessed if you don't pay your rent on time for the time and aggravation that I have to go thru every time that they send me one of these letters.

Avoid renting from ARP! I've spent hours on the phone with their polite but incompetent customer service associates, from so called managers to directors. We have filed numerous requests for maintenance and things are still not in working order after a month and a half. Their local maintenance contractors have been giving me every excuse in the book on the days they are to come for repairs. I've heard my car broke down, car leaking oil, emergency roof repair at another residence for two days, hot water heater flooding another home so they had to go for emergency shut-off, and they have just never called when they said they would to schedule the repairs. ARP maintenance has blamed ARP leasing who points the finger at the contractors . Avoid them all! We moved into the ARP rental and there was no running water for a few days. Once the water got turned on we had no hot water to the master bathroom. The first week in the house the outside temperature rose above 80 degrees inside was in the high seventies. The central air didn't work so we had to leave the home for a few hours to cool off our two and three year old children and ourselves. The ceiling fan never worked, lights don't work, no screens on windows, no towel bars our tissue holders in the bathrooms, dead landscaping, water coming in under doors, and the list could go on and on. Currently there is sewage in the back yard along with standing water.

We were sent rude emails stating our rental is "as-is" and items would not be installed that we may purchase and install them if we so desired. No where in our lease does anything state as-is! They sent a disregard notice after that email and we finally got a towel bar in our bathroom after over a month of showering and keeping our towel on the floor. The irony is we purchased them ourselves when we moved in and were told by maintenance they would be provided so we returned them. We'll the did install the cheapest fixtures they could find. The towel bar is probably a good size for an RV or mobile home. Our lease has an addendum that list like thirty or so items we will be charged for when we vacate if damaged or missing. Apparently we will be charged $30 for damaging this $5.00 towel bar that never existed in the first place until after over an hour on the phone and número use maintenance calls waiting over a month.

I could go on and on about these issues and more. Just know that ARP is an investment company buying homes across the country from all the unfortunate Americans that were scammed by the banks and lost their homes. They, and others like them, intend on buying homes at reduced prices for cash and renting them to people without a clue as to how to provide service to the public or maintain their properties. They are just after a profit and I'm pretty sure their profit margins will decrease soon. They will be stuck with all these homes and angry tenants. Should be interesting to watch them fail.

If you need to move out by breaking a lease you better call this company a dozen times to get a response. And once you do receive a response don't let them off the phone until you've figured out everything you need. I called for over 2 weeks to figure out how to move out early, they didn't call until after the first of the month with the process that was needed, and now are charging me the extra days into the next month. Awful service. No follow up until it's too late.

We have reached out to Customer by e-mail to address issues and concerns identified in this complaint.

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.I received notification that this complaint is closed and no it is not resolved. Furthermore the representative from American Residential Properties erroneously stated information in the response to you. The company made commitments multiple times but has failed to fulfill those commitments. A reimbursement for security deposits at a new resident was the only thing provided since the structure owned by American Residential Properties has whole house mold and is uninhabitable at this time. ALL of our personal belongings remain in the home gathering more mold although the company provided statements to myself and vendors that they would cover the cost to clean our textiles and furniture. The company has offered an amount far below what is necessary and although I have statements committing they secured a company who would clean and rid our items of the mold it has never occurred.

The business practices of American Residential Properties are becoming more suspect since they repeatedly make commitments they never intend to honor.

10/17/2014 Received information on two alternate residents due to the mold at current resident. Explained more options were needed since neither suited my families requirements and never received more options or follow up.

10/23/2014 This statement was provided by company and  despite receiving multiple estimates for cleaning as of today, 11/7/2014  personal property has not been cleaned.  We are also going to cover the costs for the cleaning services of your personal belonging provided by [redacted] or whichever company is able to respond the fastest. In addition, we will be waiving all fees/penalties for terminating the lease and I will have all of this outlined on the termination agreement that I will be sending over.

10/25/2014 Moved myself and infant into an alternative resident after never receiving alternatives from American Residential Properties. Received a commitment to reimburse immediately for hotel expenses incurred.

11/6/2014 I received a proposal from American Residential Properties offering to clean a small portion of our personal belongings and stated they are not to be held responsible...." for any health hazard" although this statement is contrary to all Landlord/Tenant laws. Furthermore, the landlord/owner becomes responsible for ALL mold related issues including health.

American Residential Properties has not been honest or forthright in their commitments or promises regarding this situation and are attempting to avoid their responsibilities. Their continual delay to correct the problem has created additional hardships for my families.

Although multiple requests have been made for a copy of the mold assessment on the home completed by a subcontractor of their choice, American Residential Properties has refused to provide.

I am most appalled at the erroneous statements included in their response and the lack of concern for my families well being. There has not been a resolution provided and the company continues to be unresponsive and uncooperative in settling this dispute although multiple Vice Presidents have been engaged.

Regards,

We have spoken with the applicant regarding the situation and he has indicated that he is satisfied with our proposed resolution.