Gallavin & Associates, Inc.

About two months ago (customer’s name) came into my office very excited about one of our properties and wanted to apply. He had driven by said property where our maintenance crew was working. One of our maintenance...

crew gave our information to (customer’s name) and said if you’re interested to go into the office and apply. He wanted to know when it would be ready and I told him it would not be ready until a couple weeks after the owner returned to the country because the owner was visiting his dying father. The customer said that his previous lease was ending and he wanted to be in to the new house by October 1st. I told him we would try and have it ready by then but it would be a stretch and to please be patience and work with us because we were dealing with a family emergency. It was never said that it would be ready in 15 days. The customer said that is fine and went on to apply. I asked first for him to take a walk through of the house so he knew what it looked like on the inside before applying. He did not want to do that. He wanted to apply and get in as fast as possible. So, without looking at the state of the house he and his wife and mother applied. I had warned him it was nowhere near ready and it would take longer than normal because the owner was out of town with a family emergency. He said all of that was fine and just wanted to move in ASAP.                 After applying I contacted them a few days later to accept them and set up an appointment to do the lease. I said I needed all 3 of them at the office so that I could go through the lease and explain everything clearly. Customer said that it could only be him. I again countered and said I need everyone who will be on the lease to be at the meeting so that everyone understands the rules and regulations of the lease because it is very important you know what to do in certain situations. He again said sorry but it can only be him and that his wife and mother only spoke Spanish so they wouldn’t understand what I was saying anyway. So I scheduled an appointment to go through the lease.                 During the lease appointment I went through the entire lease and highlighted the most important parts. Most importantly, I made clear that in order to break the lease you must give signed 30-day written notice to vacate on the 1st of the month which would have been November 1st, 2016 of which they did not do. I made clear that he needed to read through the lease, explain it to the other leasee’s and to call with any questions. Also, during this appointment the customer complained that there wasn’t a stove and refrigerator included in the rent and that all the other places he’s rented from included a stove and refrigerator in the rent. I told him it did not come with that and he continued to complain. So, I told him I would contact the owner and see what I could do. After contacting the owner, the owner agreed to include a refrigerator in the rental price but not the stove. Again, the customer complained about having to get his own stove etc. and said he would get his own refrigerator and stove. I gave him information where he could buy second hand appliances because he was complaining about money.                 The day of the move in which was September 30th 2016 I have my maintenance crew there still working on the house. I told the customer that we were still working on the house and that the keys would be ready by the end of the day around 5pm and that it would be better to move in over the weekend, October 1st, 2016, when the lease started. I said that the keys would be in the mailbox by 5pm September 30th 2016. The customer was unhappy with that and said well basically I will have September 30th off and that he will be moving in that day regardless. Also, he didn’t want the keys to be left in the mailbox because he felt it was unsafe. I reassured him that we have operated this way for 30 years and that it would be ok. He continued to be upset by this and by not being able to have the keys before 5pm. So, I told him I would have my maintenance man make a special trip to the office and try to be here by 3pm with the keys (which is the time he said he would come to the office to pick them up despite me telling him 5pm).                 Later on, on September 30th 2016 I got a call from the tenant that he had changed his mind and wanted us to buy the refrigerator and stove and raise the rent because he didn’t want to mess with it. I told him that since it was last minute and we didn’t have the room in the schedule because it was a Friday  and that I could have them installed first thing Monday morning he went on to complain about where he was going to put his food/cook dinner etc. So, again I tried to make accommodations for these new tenants because they were continuously unhappy, complaining, and upset with the situation that was clearly explained before applying. That same day, I had a stove and refrigerator delivered to the property. The refrigerator was installed but the stove needed parts which had to be finished on Monday.                 After the initial move in date the tenant came back to the office the next week with a list of complaints. I assured him that we will continue to work on the house through the next weeks and that more could be done when the owner got back from visiting his dying father in another country. I reiterated that the house needed a lot of work and that we would try and get it done as soon as we possibly could.                 Once the owner got back into town he continued to have maintenance work the house trying to quickly get it ready. The tenants would call every day, multiple times a day, complaining. A little more than half way through October 2016 both the tenant and his wife came into the office unannounced and said they wanted to break the lease and wanted their deposit back. I told them that the owner was on his way to the office and that they could speak to him personally because I didn’t have the authority to do that. Once the owner arrived he tried to tell the tenants that he understands and gave permission to break the lease and in order to break the lease you have to give a signed 30-day written notice to us on November 1st, pay November rent, and then he would write them a check for their deposit or they could vacate by the 1st of November 2016 and the deposit will be forfeited. They argued in broken English and Spanish for a while then left.                 The next day the wife came in with her friend, unannounced, that could speak more English to try and understand what the owner was saying. They could not understand the terms of the lease or what the owner was trying to explain to them so they stormed out, yelling, and physically took out their anger by throwing metal signs on the floor as they left.                 All rules and regulations as per the lease were followed by the landlord as explained to the tenants in full before move in. Additionally, our head of maintenance has a permit to carry his gun legally for safety reasons associated with the job.