C Dan Joyner Property Management, Inc

Customer Complaints: 1)      Withheld excessive money from deposit for minor repairs. 2)      Wouldn’t allow us access to make minor repairs ourselves. 3)      Agent was rude and dismissive. 4)      I...

tried to call her manager four times without success.   C. Dan Joyner Property Management Inc.’s responses:   1) “Withheld excessive money from deposit for minor repairs.” The customer signed a ‘Move Out Check List Addendum’ on 4/23/15 stating that they would repair “All holes, more than two per wall, must be patched and painted. Paint must match or entire wall must be painted.”  The addendum is attached. There were several walls left unpatched with multiple holes.  There were also several damaged places on the trim that had to be patched and painted.  I think it’s reasonable to expect to be charged for something that you agreed in writing to complete prior to your move out.   The term excessive is mind-bending considering the real favor that the owner of the home did for the tenant.  The tenant broke the lease, sent in a ‘Notice To Vacate’ letter and negotiated with the owner to have the fee reduced to $1,250 from the $2,500 fee the owner could’ve legally withheld.  This agreement is attached.   So in short, from a $2,500 deposit: ·         $1,250 (half of the legal amount) is being kept for the lease-break fee, ·         $375 is being withheld to have multiple damages repaired after the customer moved out, ·         $875 is being returned to the customer.   In my opinion and based off several quotes from over the years from many different vendors, $375 for a third party, licensed and insured vendor to patch and spot paint several fastener holes (about the size of a quarter each), patch and spot paint all damaged and scuffed trim during the busiest part of the year is far more than fair.   Also, just to be clear, the property management company that is accused of withholding an excessive amount gets paid nothing out of this deposit.  The security deposit is disbursed to the owner of the home, the third party vendor and to the customer.   2) “Wouldn’t allow us access to make minor repairs ourselves.” The customers had already moved out and turned in keys to the property.  Once keys are returned to our office and the property is vacated the tenant no longer has a right to re-enter a property that they don’t legally occupy.  At that point, the property management company contacted the owner of the home to see if they would allow the previous tenants to come back in and repair all of the holes, patching, painting, trim work, etc…The owner wanted to have a licensed and insured vendor of their own choosing to repair the damage.  This wasn’t a decision made by the property management company.   3) “Agent was rude and dismissive.” The Agent followed protocol precisely.  This was a scenario where it was made extremely difficult to relay a message or reason with someone in a situation that didn’t have much wiggle room.  The Agent’s bedside manner exemplified patience, tolerance and composure time and time again.   4) “I tried to call her manager four times without success.” The manager that [redacted] is referring to received a voicemail at 4:28 PM on Thursday, June 16th.  The manager was out of the office and when they returned on Monday, June 20th and left the customer a returned voicemail.  At 8:47 AM on the same day the customer returned the voicemail.  Shortly thereafter the manager returned the second phone call and left a voicemail.  On Wednesday, June 22nd the customer and the manager had a very pleasant conversation.  The customer stated they understood. Also that he was glad he had a chance to talk and was “ready to move on from it.”   Phone tag is frustrating on both ends.  This was certainly not a situation where phone calls weren’t being returned to the customer.   The customer also had several conversations with another manager during this timeframe.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint [redacted]  I would to close this complaint and have no further communication with this business.I would like to note for the record that the reason we broke the lease and moved out (after faithfully paying the lease for 12 months and making several repairs and maintaining the rental house at our expense) was that we bought a house. As part of this transaction, C Dan Joyner was the listing firm and was paid a $15,447 commission. We had previously offered to buy the house we were leasing, but never received a response from the property manager.  The attitude and tone of the response letter make it sound like we derelict in our behavior. I feel it is extremely poor form to characterize someone that just paid your firm $15,447 this way over a $375 repair.
Regards,
[redacted]

The response is one-sided because the property management company is defending their side.  The customer signed an addendum to their lease stating they would repair all holes in the walls.  The customer then broke the lease, moved out, was charged for the work to repair their damage and it’s as simple as that.  If they saw all of the holes in the walls and decided not to repair, re-patch and repaint them on their own, I’m not sure how that is anyone else’s fault.   Maybe the property manager was, in fact, slammed that day but you were asking for a service that wasn’t part of any agreement.  The property management company doesn’t do a pre-move out inspection.  There is a move-in and a move-out inspection.  If the customer wanted to have an extra inspection done (So, that the property manager could point out all of the holes in the walls) they should’ve waited for the property manager to have a day that wasn’t “slammed” and then turned in the keys.   The sad part is that the property management company is being labeled as “dismissive” and “rude” because the tenants didn’t hold up their end of the contract.  They signed an agreement stating they would make certain repairs.  They then left the house with holes in the walls and got charged for the repair.    The property management company completely disagrees with their original response being off base.  The property management company only got the owner to agree to charge half of the amount of the lease break fee ($1,250 vs. $2,500) based on the fact that all of the repairs would be made by a third party, licensed and insured vendor.  The owner could have easily denied the property management company’s request to negotiate with the customer and said, ”No, I want my whole lease break fee and bill them for the damage.” In the property management company’s opinion, receiving $875 back from a deposit vs. losing your entire deposit + being billed $375 for the repairs.  Certainly, the customer can understand the relevance.   The remaining balance from the deposit was $875 and mailed to the tenant on 6/23/16.