Bellmarc Realty

Review: They still have my money even though I did not rent any apartment anywhere, let alone through them, and now I need to go through small claims court to get it back. In my search for a "no fee" apartment on renthop, I found one listed by bellmarc and was asked to come in to meet. Upon arriving I was asked to "sign in", which is a way for you to (likely unknowingly) sign a 15% fee agreement for signing an apartment through them, after registering with them and before a generic disclosure. I expressed my interest in the no fee apt to [redacted]

and explained I would only be interested in apts that would not incur any fee. [redacted]'s assistant/accomplice [redacted] showed me apts that week neglecting to mention they were all fee apts. Being in the neighborhood of a no fee apt my roommate had viewed and Bellmarc were unaware of, I decided to go see it myself, taking the broker with me assuming no harm could come from it being a no fee apt. I proceed to attempt to rent said apt through bellmarc thinking it would not matter whom the building paid the fee to instead of the renter. [redacted] at bellmarc tells me the building's strict policy is to immediately collect a refundable $2000 toward security or first month rent at their discretion, in addition to an unusually high $300 per person application fee, $250 of which would be refundable if we did not get the apt. I immediately fill out an application, have my roommate do so as well, and give them $2600, $600 of which had to be cash and the other $2000 having to be debited on the spot. They later congratulate me in an email on my new apartment, attaching a lease agreement with a 15% fee which comes to $7500, my $2000 going toward it. I told them I would not be signing the lease and asked for my $2500 to be refunded immediately. After continually failing to sell me on the lease they have since ignored my attempts to recover my money for over a month. The lease agreement that they attempted to hold over my head states you owe no money if you do not rent with Bellmarc, and more importantly was never even seen nor signed by me, likely an error on their receptionist's part. They refused to provide me with any signed documents when requested. The fee agreement is unsigned, the generic disclosure is scribbled, and the registration was for jason schafer which is not even my name. Contacting the building directly confirmed our concerns about Bellmarc's shady dealings by telling us there is no such $2000 deposit and their app fee is only $50 per person for a credit check.... Verifying Bellmarc to be both liars as well as thieves.Desired Settlement: $2,000 deposit returned as well as the over charge of $500 for the application fee, which was only $100 ($50/applicant).

Review: The rental broker from Bellmarc who showed us the rental in [redacted] was informed of us having a dog. The broker assured us that it would not be a problem, and collected $500 cash deposit from us on the spot. $300 of that deposit was for the application processing fees. The rental period was to start on September [redacted], 2015, but the broker delayed his response until the very last day - September [redacted], when the broker refused us for reasons of our dog being too large. I offered to meet the landlord and proposed a higher security deposit, but the broker refused. The broker offered no help in finding an alternate apartmentDesired Settlement: We'd like to receive our $500 deposit back in full and in a timely fashion, not delayed by a week as they suggest.

We'd also like this broker's help in finding an alternative to the apartment that they couldn't secure.