Chico College Apartments

Review: This company habitually rips off the students of their rental deposits with ridiculous charges.

Please reconsider your choice of housing in Chico if you are considering renting any property from [redacted]. This review will encapsulates exactly what will happen to you.

Let me share my experience. Last year my son and his roomates were left to themselves to clean and do the repairs prior to move out. The carpeting was a disaster when they moved in and took another years worth of abuse, but they were told by the management "not to worry about the carpet, it is being replaced with laminate flooring. That I believe was a $700 charge against the deposit. The boys perhaps did not clean as thoroughly as one would hope and there was one hole in the wall where the door handle (door not equipped with a door stop) broke thru the drywall. The reconciliation of the deposit was ridiculous. It turned out they were asking for several hundreds of dollars in addition to the deposit. We did not have any personal knowledge of how the apartment was left, only what our children expressed, so we sucked it up and paid! First mistake! Should have his small claims court right then and there!

Fast forward to this year! There was no way in [redacted] we were about to let this happen again. The wife and I along with another set of parents and the 4 boys spent two days on this unit. Every bathroom, every appliance, even the windows were washed. I personally filled every push pin hole in every wall. Vacuumed throughout and all walls washed and floors mopped. I did not have enough light bulbs to replace the couple burned out ones so I was prepared to pay the $5 each! Another rip off!

I have several rental properties so I am well aware of what happens when tenants move out and the costs associated with getting the property back in shape for rental. I was fully expecting to pay a small fee for a blind that was crinkled, carpet cleaning, and a few hours of some touch up cleaning on the floors as we did not have a scrubby enough mop to remove a bit of dirt from the kitchen floor. But this apartment was absolutely in as good of condition as when they moved in. Actually it was better as there were several items that had not been repaired from the previous tenant prior to occupancy.

In fact the upstairs bathroom tile floor was completely delaminated and was just sitting loosly with broken grout all around. They eventually fixed that while the kids were living there, but the water made its way down and went to the low point that it could find which was in the light fixture globe of the downstairs bathroom! We are now being charged $30 for this light globe that was the fault of the management. We are being charged for repainting a wall due to "the repaired paint not matching" This was the paint repair that the management company applied prior to the move in. We did no painting whatsoever! And the biggest rip off of all! 24 hours of cleaning at $30 per hour! That is so ridiculous it is comical!

There are basically two explanations for the cleaning charge. 1) the management company is getting a huge kickback from the cleaning company and they all share in the profit. Friends/relatives perhaps? 2) This management company has no idea how much it costs to clean an apartment, or they have no oversight and do not control a subcontractor that is ripping them off blindly! Either of the options are not good and are inexcusable. 24 HOURS!! Your talking about a fully cleaned empty apartment! If any of my cleaning crews did this job it would be a maximum of 8 hours and even then it would be generous.

So! Fool me once! Shame on you. Fool me twice! Yeah that's not gonna happen. Hello Butte county small claims!

Desired Settlement: adjust the charges on the deposit being witheld

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

This is in response to the complaint to you from [redacted], parent guarantor for [redacted], [redacted] CA XXXXX.

I have included to you the copies of the invoice, check stub, and transaction detail account to Perfect Clean Cleaning Services to show that there is no affiliation between their company and Chico College Apts. We hire independently contractors and they bill as an independent vendor.

We did include in the itemization to tenant the receipt of their bill. The tenants also received prior to move out a move-out packet which included a vendor price list stating that cleaning is as billed by independent vendor.

As a note, CA Civil Code XXXX-XXXX.1 (c) states: "If a deduction is made for materials or supplies, the landlord shall provide a copy of the bill, invoice or receipt. If a particular material or supply item is purchased by the landlord on an ongoing basis, the landlord may document the cost of the item by providing a copy of a bill, invoice, receipt, vendor price list, or other vendor document that reasonably documents the cost of the item used in the repair or cleaning of the unit."

If the past tenant or guarantor feels the need to go to small claims court, Mr. [redacted] will comply with the request.

Thank you.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

We did receive another minor adjustment, nothing close to what is due to us. The photos they provided are excellent in showing exactly what we have been saying all along. the photos are extreme close ups of minor wear and tear items that they are not entitled too. The photo of the dirty oven is nothing new that is how we left it as we figured they would charge to finalize the minor items still remaining. The oven, a couple stubborn spots on the kitchen floor, and the dusting of the ceiling fans that we were not equipped to handle. They reduced the hourly charge for the cleaning but still continue to multiply that hourly rate by 24 HOURS!!! there was a maximum of 6 hours necessary to clean the remaining items if you used people that were working at half speed. Come on.....24 hours thats hilarious.

They also showed us another picture of the mismatched painted wall they continue to charge us for. This wall was painted by their own maintenance people as a repair from the previous tenants while my son was in the apartment. No tenant on our lease applied any paint to any walls. another bogus charge. "unit left far from clean" that's preposterous. 8 persons cleaning for 2 days..... it was nearly spotless, except the couple issues we already admitted were left.

There has been no slander, as everything is true and documented. It is only their continued ridiculous charges that are unfounded and unfair. I have received quotes independently from the two main businesses for both the carpet cleaning and cleaning as they are actually owned by the same individual. this is the same company that they are now admitting that the charges were excessive.

The quotes that I have received from them as a one time customer, were significantly less than what the management company is charging. One would think they would get a better rate since they are using then on 50+ units???? The excessive hourly rate is nothing compared to the excessive number of hours charged (24) to "clean" an already 98% clean apartment. Not sure how this could be a new company or a new revelation as it is owned by the same individual they have been using for carpet cleaning for awhile, and seem to use exclusively for this work.

I will let them respond once more to my requests, but believe that small claims court is really the best solution as they will actually have to pay some penalties. Most people would let this slide as they have already paid them the monies a year ago in the way of a deposit so its not really worth the hassle, but this is my second go around with them and I will not let them off the hook. Money is not the issue, its all about the principle.

We are not the only people, we are just vocal. Check Yelp reviews

Business' Final Response

The owner has again reevaluated this units file and in the last week sent a large package containing pictures of the units condition at the time of our move out walk thru. While the tenants left the unit far from clean we did reassess the cleaning companies charges. It has been noted and agreed that the cleaning charges to us were excessive. With that we have now sent out two refund and significant proof of service/need of service to Mr. [redacted] and the tenants of 812 Nord #13. The accusations he has made towards us on his sons behalf have been unfounded and certainly unfair. We can understand the frustration he has had regarding the cleaning charges but as we have, in good faith, adjusted that to the best of our ability, the slander of our business is unwarranted.

We hope that this matter has been resolved with the most recent refund and pictures of the units condition.