Darren Ashcroft Property Services

In response to your correspondence regarding the above mentioned complaint, I did deduct $700.00 from the [redacted]'s security deposit to reflect payment for a partial water bill and damages/repairs due to frozen, broken pipes. Please allow me to explain my position. Ms. [redacted] stated they received their...

deposit two months after moving out; this is true. I had no forwarding address because they told me they were staying in temporary housing and to hold it until they had an address.The evening the [redacted]'s were moving out of the house, I stopped to get the keys but they were no where near finished moving. I set the thermostat at 60 degrees and shut off the main water valve in the basement. I told them that I was going out of town for a few days and to just lock the house when they left and leave the keys on the counter.Upon return to the house, I found that the toilets had cracked because the water had frozen and expanded and pipes in the walls had broken in five places. They had disabled the furnace by removing the batteries from the thermostat; the batteries do save the settings and tell the furnace when to come on and off. Without the batteries, the furnace will not function.Fortunately, I had shut off the main water line when I was there the last evening we met so there was no water damage but we did have to cut open walls to fix pipes; it was a mess.I did respond to the JAG lawyer, and the [redacted]'s have never contacted me by telephone. We exchanged two e-mails regarding this problem.The [redacted]'s were excellent tenants and very nice people; for this reason, I charged the bare minimum for repairs. If not the case, I would have kept the entire deposit as the damages far exceeded the amount kept. I believe this was an honest mistake and they just didn't know any better. I have had apartments for 30 years, rented to many military families and made a lot of great friends, and mostly, it has been a positive experience. I do not think it is a fair statement for Ms. [redacted] to state because they are military they will not get a deposit refunded: I have refunded many deposits